Never imagined it would be that insane, never fathomed it to be this amazing. I usually refrain myself from using these words, but if ever there was a time to use them, it is in recounting the Bangalore experience.

28th- Reached Bangalore, traveled 40kms for the Electronic city, reached Sahara’s place. Passed a couple of hours, waiting for the night to shine, real bright. Had almost 5 bottles of beer and then the breezer made me pass out. Strange, but don’t judge, had spent 40 freaking hours in the train to reach the city!

29th- Woke up, after around four hours, wobbly headed, got in a bus, went down to Brigade Road. Met school friends, relived the fabled childhood in those four wonderful hours we spent together.
Went down to Jimmy’s to meet the DA crowd. And when we got up, the bill on the table was Rs 10,000, and on counting, we had like 57 liters of beer among us (around) nine guys. Now, if that’s not having a blast, nothing is!

30th- The day we thought would never come. Metallica. I had been getting goosebumps for the last six months about this day, and it had finally, finally arrived. Okay, there was a controversy and Delhi couldn’t happen, but never there was a doubt that Bangalore wouldn’t happen. And we were correct,weren’t we!

30,000 fans at the Palace Ground. M.G road full of metalheads buying T-Shirts of their favorite bands, bumping into a known face almost everywhere. Everyone with a freaking big grin on his face! The Gods of metal were there, and so were we!

We missed the opening by Guillotine(Delhi based band), but when Biffy Clyro played, we knew that the evening had just started. My playlist has a new addition, this band from Scotland played some real good music. Do check out their song “Many of Horror”, it was the only one I had heard before, but watching them perform it live was a different thing altogether! The setlist of Biffy Clyro- “http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/biffy-clyro/2011/bangalore-palace-ground-bangalore-india-4bd1a7d2.html”

Then an agonizing 45 minutes wait, we pushed through the crowd, ingenious way, a zigzag mazy train, and we were near the second barricade. We waited for the security personals to go elsewhere, and then jumped inside for the first barricade. And that was the time Metallica was just about to enter the stage, and BAM, Creeping Death blasted off at the stage, followed by ‘For whom the bell tolls’. I was near insanity when it finished, but Fuel pushed me off the cliff. Describing the phenomenon is hard, when you have seen the videos of international concerts, blasts of fire erupting on the stage and Hethfield cries for “gmme fuel gmme fire gmme what I desire”. It was unreal.

Fade to black, One, Welcome Home, Sad but True, Master Of Puppets followed among others, and Nothing Else Matters made me cry. It was surreal, 30,000 odd crowd singing the same song, at the same pace. A second after destruction followed in the mosh with ‘Enter Sandman’.
Hethfield then played around with the crowd a little, with Metallica going off the stage, saying they’ll wrap the show. No one believed that the show was over, and they returned, with a cover, Battery and Seek and Destroy.

What followed too, will remain etched. Everyone came to the side of the stage we were around and said the goodbyes. And YES! I GOT A GUITAR PIC SIGNED BY KIRK HAMMETT HIMSELF! I threw myself on the ground, covering it, and took it, admired it, and am going to keep it in a glass cover.
Thank you Metallica, I traveled 80 hours to watch you perform, and you did. It was beyond words. We have grown up listening to you, and watching you guys perform live was beyond beyond. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

Shiv Sir’s Challenge to try making this old topic as interesting as possible.

A tree without leaves. It can be seen as a symbol.
A symbol of age,
of battle,
of withering,
of getting worn-out.
A symbol of change.
A symbol of infertility.

Does it make a ‘gushing’ sound when the winds blow by?

Does it have a voice different from the tree with leaves?

Does it have a literal stereotyped meaning?

Does the smell of its ripening-with-age wood have a different effect on a person? Does it smell of a nostalgia of something completely different? Does it smell of isolation?

Does it feel different in touch when we feel it with our eyes open or the eye closed? If it does – (it can, for, when you touch the bark of a tree knowing it’s barren, the feelings would be different than if it’s full of leaves).
Then if our eyes define what we feel, is vision the stronger of the two senses? If we believe that our vision define our thoughts which the other senses refine, is vision the stronger of all the senses?

Finally, what is the utility of a tree without leaves? Is it better off as a commodity for wood? It does not shade, it does not allow for the cool breeze, et al.
Or, can it be stretched as far as the symbol of hope. Like what we did in LOTR.

Our life, at this point of time, is like paper soaked in water. We have to wait, for the dust to settle. We have to wait, for the dryness to begin. We have to keep waiting. Till the last drops have evaporated. Till the dangers of getting torn apart are lifted. Till the spirit becomes a little harder. Till we are stronger than the thin gullible part we used to be.

We all commit errors. But in the society we live in today, making amends of our mistakes isn’t allowed without repercussions. The game of throne is the game of thorns. To achieve the fabled finale, of whatever you wish to achieve, you have to tread through disappointments, for, a perfect story may have a faulty ending, if not a not so perfect beginning.

I stand on another shore, at the pinnacle of winning a battle in exchange of losing another. The path to the other side is full of pathos of our guilty conscience. The key lies in a hunger to engage in another battle.
So my friend. It’s all a cliche-ed game, let’s just play to enjoy the journey. For we fall to fight again.

-Daaku.