The GANGNAM SIGH - A tribute to talent contest 2014
So it all started on Tuesday, 7th of May 2014. I entered the public courtyard, of my school with my hair cut short and a mind constantly pondering on the time period of its growth. On catching sight of me, Ishan uttered an audible giggle, put his arm around me and asked, "Ki bhai, shob thik toh?" Before I could answer back, Yudhajit entered the already dramatic situation and burst out with spontaneous laughter pointing at my hair, and stroking his own a second later. Arnab meanwhile, was either lost in deep thought or trying to eavesdrop on a conversation going on. As my faint memory would permit me to recall, the conversation was about the Economics Unit Test syllabus. Ishan uttered another giggle and whispered to me "Bhai, I gave your name for the Talent contest Dance Competition!" and promptly called out to a busy Sparsh. He pointed at me and said, "Sparsh bhai, he'll dance for our house!" Sparsh, extremely elated picked up his MAX AIR, and shouted "Cool." By that time the bell had rung, and Ishan, leaving me no time for even the faintest negotiation with Sparsh, took leave. I stood there transfixed, perplexed, shocked and confined. Only four words left my mouth. They were, "The competition is tomorrow."
The Courtyard en route to the Assembly hall, where Ishan just started the worst experience of my life.
The first period had not ended, when Sparsh walked into my classroom and scanned all the fifty three faces. I opened my glasses in a desperate attempt to dodge his eyesight. But then, all thanks to my hair, Sparsh came jogging towards me, and took down my name. He asked me for more dancers. I just pointed out random names in my house, leaving Karan, Rachit, and Bikash in a state of utter shock. Madhav promptly got away, by taking advantage of his figure, for the very first time. The rest of the day, all I got to hear was abuses from Karan. It was not that we were not game enough to dance for our house, rekindle the hopes of our house, and keep it in the "Best House 2014," race. We had enough house spirit to do that. Just that, what could a group full of non-dancers(except Craig) put up in a day? Our confidence suffered a serious setback.
Macaulay Culkin portraying our expression.
Nilloban Da trained us along with Craig and Aakash. One very amusing anecdote about the practice after school, was that Nilloban Da -on being asked to teach us some steps-had looked at me and said, "Why don't you teach them some steps! You are a good dancer, I know." Nilloban Da was always the same old cool personality (No wonder Dadlani clicked a selfie with him.). He was perhaps the only person calm at that moment. Sparsh, who had very sportingly at that time promised us a treat for dancing, had nonchalantly, after the dance, stated he was, BROKE. And after coming back from vacations, he will expect me to believe, he went to New York, with an empty pocket. JUST WOW.
We were 7 dancers. I don't remember their names. Sorry about that. But here is an interesting fact. Our music CD was not ready till, 20 minutes before our dance. WANT TO KNOW WHY? Nilloban Da had mixed the CD pretty early, but his IPOD was out of battery, Father would not allow us to play it on phone and there was no way we would be allowed to go out and buy a blank CD. I swear. The whole world was against us, that day. Seriously, the IPOD had no other day, to go out of charge? But,
"Where there is a will, there's a way!"
Green House allowed us to use 7 blessed MB's of their 350 MB free disc. We did not have enough words to thank them. Period.
So here it was, TALENT CONTEST DANCE COMPETITION, 2014. We entered the music room, to practice our final moves which included a chicken dance and a robotic dace. While training, Akash had told us to be ourselves. Then why be a CHICKEN and a ROBOT? Contradictions at their best, I say. While practicing I prayed to God, to spare me from any more excitement, or heart-attacks.
So it all started on Tuesday, 7th of May 2014. I entered the public courtyard, of my school with my hair cut short and a mind constantly pondering on the time period of its growth. On catching sight of me, Ishan uttered an audible giggle, put his arm around me and asked, "Ki bhai, shob thik toh?" Before I could answer back, Yudhajit entered the already dramatic situation and burst out with spontaneous laughter pointing at my hair, and stroking his own a second later. Arnab meanwhile, was either lost in deep thought or trying to eavesdrop on a conversation going on. As my faint memory would permit me to recall, the conversation was about the Economics Unit Test syllabus. Ishan uttered another giggle and whispered to me "Bhai, I gave your name for the Talent contest Dance Competition!" and promptly called out to a busy Sparsh. He pointed at me and said, "Sparsh bhai, he'll dance for our house!" Sparsh, extremely elated picked up his MAX AIR, and shouted "Cool." By that time the bell had rung, and Ishan, leaving me no time for even the faintest negotiation with Sparsh, took leave. I stood there transfixed, perplexed, shocked and confined. Only four words left my mouth. They were, "The competition is tomorrow."
The Courtyard en route to the Assembly hall, where Ishan just started the worst experience of my life.
The first period had not ended, when Sparsh walked into my classroom and scanned all the fifty three faces. I opened my glasses in a desperate attempt to dodge his eyesight. But then, all thanks to my hair, Sparsh came jogging towards me, and took down my name. He asked me for more dancers. I just pointed out random names in my house, leaving Karan, Rachit, and Bikash in a state of utter shock. Madhav promptly got away, by taking advantage of his figure, for the very first time. The rest of the day, all I got to hear was abuses from Karan. It was not that we were not game enough to dance for our house, rekindle the hopes of our house, and keep it in the "Best House 2014," race. We had enough house spirit to do that. Just that, what could a group full of non-dancers(except Craig) put up in a day? Our confidence suffered a serious setback.
Macaulay Culkin portraying our expression.Nilloban Da trained us along with Craig and Aakash. One very amusing anecdote about the practice after school, was that Nilloban Da -on being asked to teach us some steps-had looked at me and said, "Why don't you teach them some steps! You are a good dancer, I know." Nilloban Da was always the same old cool personality (No wonder Dadlani clicked a selfie with him.). He was perhaps the only person calm at that moment. Sparsh, who had very sportingly at that time promised us a treat for dancing, had nonchalantly, after the dance, stated he was, BROKE. And after coming back from vacations, he will expect me to believe, he went to New York, with an empty pocket. JUST WOW.
We were 7 dancers. I don't remember their names. Sorry about that. But here is an interesting fact. Our music CD was not ready till, 20 minutes before our dance. WANT TO KNOW WHY? Nilloban Da had mixed the CD pretty early, but his IPOD was out of battery, Father would not allow us to play it on phone and there was no way we would be allowed to go out and buy a blank CD. I swear. The whole world was against us, that day. Seriously, the IPOD had no other day, to go out of charge? But,
"Where there is a will, there's a way!"
Green House allowed us to use 7 blessed MB's of their 350 MB free disc. We did not have enough words to thank them. Period.
So here it was, TALENT CONTEST DANCE COMPETITION, 2014. We entered the music room, to practice our final moves which included a chicken dance and a robotic dace. While training, Akash had told us to be ourselves. Then why be a CHICKEN and a ROBOT? Contradictions at their best, I say. While practicing I prayed to God, to spare me from any more excitement, or heart-attacks.
No sooner did my wish
reach God, the Green house dancers came rushing in and grinned. 'Your house
goes FIRST' they shouted in unison. That was the EVILEST GRIN (or GREEN is it?)
I have ever known in my life. The biggest heart-attack of all had revealed
itself. We had not even, had a COMPLETE practice for 10 minutes, and there, the
doom was knocking on our door. My entire body shook. The tongue numb, and the
fingers bereft of any movement. I somehow dragged myself for the sequence not knowing what awaited me.
What happened then is just too embarrassing. I did not even know what happened. 5 deadliest minutes, of my life were over in a flash. I did not know if it was bad or good. But I am sure, that the audience enjoyed regardless of whether it was a success or not. And inadvertently I had learnt a lesson.
" The greatest talent of a performer lies in his audience. Regardless of what happens, if the audience applauded you on your success, you were successful. If you made them laugh enough at the comedy of your failure, success is then just a 'word.' "
- James Bacardi
Well, that took long to sink in, right? Don't worry. It still is just another quote for me. And, the reason is unknown. Maybe because my friends had so many excuses to troll me now, that I refused to let it sink in.
That day, I could not even face people. My friends just laughed and found every possible way to troll me. They probably mistook me for MAD BRIAN. They thought too high of themselves. Accept it people! You all are not RUSSEL PETERS! Well, Ishan is close I suppose. He even went on to shout in a public bus, saying "Tui Ladies seat ae boshe ja re! Tor darae Gangnam chara ar kicchu hobe na!" Yes, and how could i possibly forget Subhyan! He went on to take assurance from Ishan and Yudhajit that they would like his post about my dance. Thankfully, that post never appeared. I praise the lord, for it.
The whole day I was extremely low. My fingers even trembled while logging into my facebook account. But then, I realized that I had given everyone a good time. For some of us, maybe this is the last Talent Contest. Maybe this is one of the last mass bunking and class skipping experience that we've had for 10 long years. 10 long years of companionship. 10 long years of unparalleled happiness which had gone through in a flash. Maybe this year will pass before I reckon and ICSE will have come and gone. And then, some of us. Maybe just some of us, will not wear that tie again. Maybe this was the last Talent Contest for some of us. I had definitely given them a memory to cherish forever. A memory of a BOSCONIAN. For not all of us are famous or hotshots. But that, one name binds us together. One game shall keep our memories alive forever. And, I was truly happy that I had done something which will make the momentary GANGNAM SIGH remembered, regardless of which tie you wear.
As, entered school the next day. 50 eyes looked at me, and instantaneously Ishan and the group shouted in unison, 'Ayyy GANGNAM!'
SIGH.
(Soumyadeep Saha is now writing on his website. You can read his latest post on overcoming public speaking nervousness here.)
What happened then is just too embarrassing. I did not even know what happened. 5 deadliest minutes, of my life were over in a flash. I did not know if it was bad or good. But I am sure, that the audience enjoyed regardless of whether it was a success or not. And inadvertently I had learnt a lesson.
" The greatest talent of a performer lies in his audience. Regardless of what happens, if the audience applauded you on your success, you were successful. If you made them laugh enough at the comedy of your failure, success is then just a 'word.' "
- James Bacardi
Well, that took long to sink in, right? Don't worry. It still is just another quote for me. And, the reason is unknown. Maybe because my friends had so many excuses to troll me now, that I refused to let it sink in.
That day, I could not even face people. My friends just laughed and found every possible way to troll me. They probably mistook me for MAD BRIAN. They thought too high of themselves. Accept it people! You all are not RUSSEL PETERS! Well, Ishan is close I suppose. He even went on to shout in a public bus, saying "Tui Ladies seat ae boshe ja re! Tor darae Gangnam chara ar kicchu hobe na!" Yes, and how could i possibly forget Subhyan! He went on to take assurance from Ishan and Yudhajit that they would like his post about my dance. Thankfully, that post never appeared. I praise the lord, for it.
The whole day I was extremely low. My fingers even trembled while logging into my facebook account. But then, I realized that I had given everyone a good time. For some of us, maybe this is the last Talent Contest. Maybe this is one of the last mass bunking and class skipping experience that we've had for 10 long years. 10 long years of companionship. 10 long years of unparalleled happiness which had gone through in a flash. Maybe this year will pass before I reckon and ICSE will have come and gone. And then, some of us. Maybe just some of us, will not wear that tie again. Maybe this was the last Talent Contest for some of us. I had definitely given them a memory to cherish forever. A memory of a BOSCONIAN. For not all of us are famous or hotshots. But that, one name binds us together. One game shall keep our memories alive forever. And, I was truly happy that I had done something which will make the momentary GANGNAM SIGH remembered, regardless of which tie you wear.
As, entered school the next day. 50 eyes looked at me, and instantaneously Ishan and the group shouted in unison, 'Ayyy GANGNAM!'
SIGH.
(Soumyadeep Saha is now writing on his website. You can read his latest post on overcoming public speaking nervousness here.)
