Pondy bites .............

1st September 2007 is a memorable day in my life. The first ever show by my band "PANDEMONIUM". What an awesome day !!!

After an intense jam for over 5 days, we were all set for our journey to JIPMER, Puduchery. Anirudh Menon had given me call earlier that month asking me if I was interested in an audition. I said, " Yeah.. cool ". So, we met up on 20 August in Hudstin's place. Now... I really didn't know what to play. Anirudh starts playing some riffs and soon I joined in. The first song was ready in 15 mins flat !! LOL

On 1st morning, Anirudh Menon a.k.a Appu( guitarist n Vox) came over to my place by 8am. We head for Ayyappan temple next to my home. The agnostic Sid had died sometime back and hence the temple scene. When and why the agnostic streak in me died, I'll save it for some other time :-)

With all the equipment ( guitars and pedals ... no no.. not cycle pedals :-p), we make it Koyembedu Bus Terminus. Meet up with Hudstin a.k.a Hudy ( drummer) and John a.k.a Johnny boy a.k.a Donkey balls :-D. Board the local bus by 9 am and pretty much sleep during the rickety ride in the TNSRTC Bus.

The bus ride was back breaking. For some reason, the bus driver won't cross 60 kph limit. Gah !!! Just what we needed. We finally reach Puducherry (Pondycherry then ) and head straight to JIPMER. Electrifying atmosphere !! We reach the area where the Western Electrics were supposed to happen. We quickly go the registration desk to get registered.

Until this point of time, we had never thought about a band name. The girl at the reception barks. " BAND NAME ?" Appu and Hudy give me blank expressions. They are like, " you better come up with a band name." After precisely 10 seconds of quick flashes in the head, I say "Pandemonium". Hell yeah.. So Pandemonium it was \m/ .We draw chits and we got number 12. Don't know if that meant 12th band on stage coz if someone didn't pick numbers in between, we could technically be the first band on stage !!!

Registration done and we decide to grab a snack and put some drinks. Took us a while to find a place to hang out since most of the shops were closed for some reason. In a while, we got talking about music and women. Two hot topics when guys are drinking.

Tanks filled... now it was time to hit the stage. At this point of time, I must admit, the whole occasion scared me. The platform is one of the most prestigious after IIT Saarang. Lots of bands, who made a name for themselves in the Indian Rock scene, started their journey here on this stage.

The bands start going on stage. Amazing sound on stage and P.A. Finally, it was our turn. I plug my bass into the amp. The light on stage suddenly dimmed and we start our sound check with BLIND ( KoRn). Passive crowd in front of stage didn't affect our enthusiasm. Pandemonium was on stage for some fun.

We play two own comps - Distress Freeway and the other song. Why is it named " The other song"... I don't know. Maybe Mr Menon has an answer.As we finish the second song, the PA had been cut. We get off stage all pumped up. Hudy struggles with his double bass pedals. Everyone is tired and exhausted.

By now, we were broke with just enough money to get back to Madras. The show gets over at about 2 am. All of us are eagerly waiting for the results. Best drummer, best guitarist... yada yada ... then they announce.... Best Bassist... SIDDARTH HARSHA


With all due respect to other musicians present that day, I wasn't really surprised when the results were announced. My job was to keep it simple and tight. That day, there were bass guitarists who slapped, popped, tapped on their bass guitars and jumped on stage like possessed kangaroos. I just did my job and it feels good that the judges understood this fact :-)

We go and collect my prize money and certificates. Rs 500 was the cash prize. This was used to get a copy of the whole show on a DVD which was 300 bucks ( JIPMER are good businessmen for sure !! ) and the rest 200 bucks was used to sponsor food and beverages.

The trip back home was quite hazy since I couldn't sleep. There was a TIME MOCKCAT waiting for me as well.

On the whole, a memorable trip thanks to Appu, Hudy and John ( macha.. you're d DUDE :P )

isi ko kehte hai jugad !!!!

I've done some crazy things in these 23 years on earth... stealing a freezer box( dead bodies are kept in a freezer box) in the middle of the night and converting into a Jacuzzi, chasing street dogs, having snakes as pets, traveling on the roof a car for over 3 hours. However, what I did today ranks first in my list of insane activities.



Waking up at 5 in the morning for a jog is not really my idea of fun. But hey ... I'm at SIMS. You are expected to be tough as a defence kid. After much dwelling, i wake up and assemble along with my batch. A short jog followed a really quick shower, the batch gives a business quiz. I'm ashamed to admit that as a potential corporate manager, my business knowledge is sad.



Class I E assembles in class. Kamath sir gives an intro and goes about describing our business task for the day!!! :-o We had to buddy up go to an unknown part of an new city and get employed for a day !!?? haha.. the best part is not to spend a single rupee during the day. That meant we had to tag along with some passing motorbike or car. The best part was not to tell our potential employers that we are students doing a business activity ?!!


My team consisted of Soumya "miss brains" Suresh and Kailash " tough nut" Jadhav. We hitch hike our way to individually and meet up at SNDT college. I changed four bikes.. from a rickety-about-to-break-down CD 100 to a fast and sleek Karizma. Soumya soon got employed at an opticians. Gah !! Not us :-(

Kailash and I walk down Karve Road. We go an ask a grocery store, an optican's shop. If it could work for Soumya..it could work for us. Alas ! that wasn't the case. Next a Bar !! Now this sounded killer . However, the owner told us to buzz off :-( Apparently, I looked like a kid nad kids don't serve alcohol. Later we go to McDonalds. The manager gives a stern look with a flat NNNOOOOOOO !!!!!

Finally, after much persuasion, we convinced a petrol pump owner. Mr Vijay Lodha was our employer. Owner of Kothrud Petrol Circle, he was real sweet and nice to give us an ear. He agreed to employ us for Rs 100/- per head for five hours. Sounds a good deal..ain't it ?!

My work was to direct traffic inside the petrol pump. Kailash was to get the vehicles for PUC check. Over the course of next five hours, I realized how tough is hard labour. I interacted with the people working at petrol pump.Drinking tea in their company was a special highlight. Mr Vijay was sitting in his cabin inside. Every 15 mins he would come out to make a phone call. My other friends have immense respect for this man. The moment he stepped out, these men would stand straight as if a rod was attached to their spine ?!

During these five hours, I made some very interesting observations. This petrol pump had a total of 6 pumps. Four for petrol pumping fuel into cars and four stroke engines and two for petrol mixed with Oil ( 2 T mix) . Now every time a customer drove into the station, he could have two looks. One being " hey.. I'm a regular guy here. That's my lucky petrol pump." This person knew for sure what he wanted i.e either a petrol Or 2T mix. The other customer had a funny countenance. He's thinking "I want 2T mix but where is it ? do they stock 2 t mix petrol." This is where I come into the picture. I had to make a quick call on the type of engine the two wheeler had inside it's body . 4 stroke engines were sent to the petrol section and the 2 stroke were sent to 2T mix section. Now this 2 T mix had two counters.. one for 30 ml of oil and the other for 50 ml of oil. From 12 noon 1 pm, it was buzzing with activity. I had a tough time directing traffic. At times, the petrol section had 3 rows of bikes and scooters.

The other interesting was how bemused the customers looked when greeted by a man in formal clothing with tie et al. Some simply smiled and thanked. The others looked stupefied. Now when do you see a well dressed man directing traffic in a gas station.

Kailash had a tough time. Now he was even filling petrol tanks. Customers yelled at his not-so-fast service. People losing their cool and the dust winds made it an intense situation .After 1 pm, the flow of vehicles was low. After 2 pm, it was back to business Oddly enough, during our entire 5 hours,we just filled tanks fo 6 cars. Now Pune city doesn't have cars huh ??!!!

Talking of Pune city, my friends always told me that Pune city had beautiful woman. Petrol stations are really an amaing place to your eyes :-D. All my hopes were dashed. The young women who came in had their faces covered with a scarf like cloth. The only visible portion was their eyes. Smartly enough, these eyes sported the latest shades for Versace, Gucci and Ray bans. This was a heart breaker for me :-(

Finally, the my watch struck 5. I never sat down during these five hours. No lunch, no water and and not a single break. When I set out this morning for this task, I wondered and laughed at myself . Why was I even doing this task ? How would it help ? What will I gain ? Trust me, it was back breaker and more importantly an eye opener. Working and doing hard labour is TOUGH. I've just realised as to how lucky I was to be born into a middle class family. For these workers, everyday is a fight..a fight for survival. Yet, I noticed all my new friends at the petrol pump laughing, giggling and smiling. Is this a MASK ? Honestly i don't know.

We collected our money from Mr Vijay and thanked him for giving us an opportunity to work at his pump. We shook hands with all our friends and bade goodbye. Met Soumya at our our proposed meeting point. Started asking lifts. This time we were lucky enough to a get a lift in a Honda Civic.. Wohoo.. talk about hard work pays sweet.

The whole class met at kamala nehru park. Kamath sir tells us to write a blog on this experience. Now as I sit and type my first ever blog from a small dingy and clustrophobic cyber cafe, I believe this has to be my craziest day in my life. The whole day revolved around JUGAD. I don't think Jugad has an equivalent word in English.. Coz Jugad is an hindi word and Jugad can happen only in INDIA.

As the famous comedian on the great Indian Laughter challnege says " Isi ko to kehte hai JUGAD"