Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Adieu 2009 : Reminiscing the roller-coaster ride of the past year - Last Part

Michael Joseph Jackson.

If you can look past all the bizarre news in the media that had surrounded him the last several years of his life and concentrate just on his music alone, you would see him for the genius that he is. And speaking of the media...just take into account another favourite artist of mine..John Mayer..who so accurately wrote in one his songs “When you trust your television, what you get is what you got, cos when they own the information, they can bend it all they want”. That's telling it like it is.

When you have someone as famous as MJ, you can bet there were people..human parasites to be precise..around him who were more than ready to do anything (literally) to feed off of his popularity, wealth and fame. All they wanted was a piece of him..to sell and make a profit for themselves. No one ever truly knew MJ, the man – what he was truly like inside in his soul. Except maybe his creator.

Needless to say when we heard the news of his death, it was no less than devastating. How could someone, whose videos and songs are etched in our minds for eternity, who’s older than us yes, but younger than our parents, be suddenly gone? We had been contemplating doing a tribute to MJ since the end of 2008, but we never would have wished for such an occurrence, wherein his popularity would suddenly skyrocket just because of his sudden and mysterious death. Suddenly the whole music industry (both here and abroad) was in fervour, and everybody it seemed was doing some sort of tribute or the other to MJ. But we refused to budge when we got the expected calls from different event organizers. We had dreamed of this tribute for so long and we had had such big plans for it. No way were we going to compromise on those visions. We had wanted it to be a proper tribute – with not just MJ’s music but his great showmanship as well, with all the dances and theatrics. And so we waited. We waited till we were ready to put forth such a show.

On October 16, 2009, exactly three months and three weeks after his death, after countless meetings to address all the logistics issues, and all the band practices and dance practices, we staged a show at Le Saigon. Throughout the past months I’d painstakingly picked up the dance moves to “Thriller” and together with like-minded MJ dance enthusiasts, Tasaffy, Rahib, Nasr, Aashna and Sanam, we met 3-4 times a week to master the famous moves. It was SO darn HARD!!! And then one day Buno, a great musician and a great chum, came over to watch practice one day and pointed out that each new ‘step’ of the whole dance sequence started with the bass line! And presto! It ALL became SO easy!!! People, you should ALWAYS pay attention to the bass of every song out there. They carry immense power...I kid you not!

On the day of the show everyone was super tensed, especially yours truly, and misunderstandings and tempers flared...naturally. But thankfully there were more diplomatic people around to soothe and calm everyone’s nerves, so sticky situations got nicely unstuck. Hehe. And the best part – we managed to pick up the moves to “Beat It” as well that very morning. Yes...we were lucky to have such amazing dancers =)

On the music front we had tons of talented peeps as well. A few years ago we’d discovered a voice that truly befitted MJ’s countertenor...Leo. Saif had met Leo at work and had known then and there that he’d be the right choice in singing some of MJ’s earlier compositions (think songs from “Off the Wall”). We also had Jawad (’71) sing one of MJ’s most rocking songs ever, “Give in to Me”. We had the talented Nadeer Ahmed (of Maqsood O Dhaka and Stone Free fame) accompanying us on percussion. And then we had Fahim (SHOCK, Crystal Planet) on his super sexy white guitar, playing Eddie Van Helen’s solo in “Beat It” with more passion than the original artist himself.

Thus armed with all the right ammunition we staged one of the most fun shows ever! Against an amazing backdrop poster designed by Rahul, we belted out one hit song after the other and knew we were getting things right when the whole floor sang along with us. The level of excitement and high-adrenaline factor skyrocketed at the very end of the show...when all the dancers, in their Zombie costumes and make-up, courtesy of the ah-may-zing Sharmin aka Shundori aka Kani, came out and we all started doing the “Thriller” dance.

It was a night beyond all nights. Of all the shows we had done during last year, this was THE show that we know we’d remember till the day we die.

Only someone who loved MJ’s legacy of music as much as we do will understand what I’m trying to say. When we were ALL singing “Heal The World”, I could see each and every face of the audience standing in the front row and there was no denying the happiness everyone was feeling because of HIS tunes, HIS lyrics, HIS music.

And so I’ll just leave you with this thought...that this is what all of us should remember about this man. That his music...made us happy.


Clockwise from center: Event poster designed by Rahul; Me; Jasper in his white "Smooth Criminal" suit;, Fahim with his sexy guitar, smile & legs; the familiar sequined white glove; Sharmin readying Aashna and the rest of the dance troupe; Jasper moonwalking while the crowd cheers on; Leo on the mike; Emran on keys; Saif with his prized Fender; the Dance troupe striking a pose!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Adieu 2009 : Reminiscing the roller-coaster ride of the past year - Part 5

Ok. I know there’s been a l-o-o-o-o-ng gap between my previous post and this one, but too many things were happening in the real world for me to manage any time for my ‘virtual’ one.
 

Anyways. Let’s get straight to business shall we? :D I DO hope you all had a listen to some serious Led Zep and Miles stuff in the meantime? I had asked rather nicely as I recall.

Right about the time we were busy with our Rajshahi and Khulna tour, we got the offer to perform in our very first “Tribute” show, which always takes place at the Sheraton Winter Garden Ballroom in Dhaka. And oh boy, the genre chosen by the event firm was no joking matter. Classic rock. And to top that, we were given one of the toughest bands ever in the history of classic rock to cover. Yup. Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about none other than *drum roll please* the one, the only... Led Zeppelin!
 

Now comes the sad truth. There are hardly that many die-hard Led Zep fans in Bangladesh. And whatever percentage of peeps there are, they basically know the two most popular Zep songs; “Stairway to Heaven” and “Kashmir”. Outside these two hits, people here have hardly listened to anything else of theirs. And I can vouch for the fact (as would the zillions of Zep fans worldwide), these people had NO idea what they were missing out on. Gems like “When the Levee Breaks” and “Black Dog” and “Immigrant Song” and... Well yes, you get the picture.

Soon after, the gruelling practice sessions for the show started. We took on board three very talented musicians – Jawad (of the band ’71) as a guest vocalist, Sunny (of ReDhun) as a guest guitarist and Imran bhai, harmonica-player extraordinaire. The former can hit high pitches like he was born to do it, and Sunny... well, I likened him to Jimmy Paige. A fitting thing to do trust me :D As for Imran bhai, have a look at this video to see his prowess over the harmonica.

There was a whole lot of ‘other’ drama involved regarding the whole show. During the months of practice we came to find out accidentally, that apparently this other band was covering Zep in the tribute. Without further ado, we of course contacted the event firm and they assured us that no, we were the only band who will be performing Zep that night. But yes, apparently a senior band in Bangladesh’s music industry were apparently very much against us performing at the Tribute and they had recommended the other band. They’re stance (or pitiful/lame ‘excuse’) for disfavouring us? “What can a funk band know about rock? That too classic rock? Ever since their inception they’ve established themselves as a funk band. Led Zep or any other classic stuff is out of their league.”

Well E-X-C-U-S-E us! Though funk is one of our true loves, it doesn’t mean that’s all we know or understand. I may not know THAT much about music but I can proudly say that thanks to my parent’s, sibling’s and extended family’s taste in music, I have pretty much grown up listening to and appreciating pretty much ALL genres of music. And Saif? One of his top two favourite bands from the world of rock and metal is “Rush” and “Megadeth”. He’s also a die hard fan of David Coverdale. He pretty much has their full discography in CD, DVD or mp3 format.

And we could say the same thing about the said band. “What can a POP band know about other genres of music? Ever since their inception 30 years back, they’ve established themselves as a POP band. Any other genre of music is out of their league.” But we won’t. Because we, for one, can see how baseless the whole statement is.

Well needless to say, this whole business made us even more determined than ever to show them (and everyone else who might have doubted us) that we COULD perform Led Zep songs and do it well.

On the night of the show, we got on stage after “Dreek” who had covered “AC/DC”. We knew we needed to give our very best because after us “Miles” was coming on stage to cover “Deep Purple”. We started with “Immigrant Song” and it was a rather shaky start but after that point onwards, each song we performed boosted our confidence further. By the time we started “Kashmir” (sung by Jawad), we were super high on adrenaline and it showed. We had known, from the very first, that it was this one song that would be our ultimate test with the audience. So when at the end of our set, we came down from the stage and had people and well-wishers telling us that “Kashmir” had actually given them goosebumps, we knew that we had given back the best rejoinder to all those people with no vision and no sense of the bigger picture.

Phew! There! I have vented my pent-up feelings about the whole matter quite enough I believe. So how about I end here before I put you all to sleep?

My next post is of course going to be about our first tribute to Michael Jackson. I say ‘first’ because this coming Friday, we are repeating the show for the second time. This time around, everyone’s a bit more relaxed and not dying in tension about every minute detail.

So till next my next post...Cheers everyone! 


P.S. After the show we all went over to Pizza Hut in Gulshan to celebrate with all things cheesy and beefy :D

Clockwise from top left: dio with the stage backdrop behind him, sharing a joke during the sound check, saif & jawad chatting with the sound guys, saif's 2 mistresses (of many), saif & sunny doing their stuff, the zep gang (partial) at pizza hut for dinner after the show, saif & sunny again, imran bhai on the harmonica


Monday, February 15, 2010

Translations of "Bhashar Gaan" (Songs about our language movement)

21st February Original Lyrics: Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury
Original Composition: Altaf Mahmood

 

Aaaa Aaa Aaa Aaa...Aaa
Aaaa Aaa Aaa Aaa...Aaa

Oh how our brothers died on 21st February
It’s forever in our memory
Countless mother’s tears fell on 21st February
It’s forever in our memory
Our country’s birth was built on 21st February
It’s forever in our memory

Time to rise again..time to rise again and wage with your might
So many children have died in this fight!
How can you, our enemy, think you will win
When you start counting your black book of sins...black book of sins?!?!
No! No!
You will all pay; yes, come what may
21st February! 21st February!

It was a night...a wintry night...the moon was set alight
It was a night ..like any other night
Everywhere the fragrance of flowers filled the air

Suddenly...from the dark.. from the dark they came
To kill and slay, murder and maim
Killing the innocent all in war’s name
They are all ruthless oh they have no shame
They have cornered us in their hatred’s game
They’re not on our side
They will betray us and then hide
They’ve taken our peace; we have to be free!
21st February! 21st February!

Aaaa Aaa Aaa Aaa...Aaa
Aaaa Aaa Aaa Aaa...Aa


***

Salam Salam Endless Salams
Original Lyrics: Fazal-E-Khoda
Original Composition: Md Abdul Zabbar

Salam salam endless salams!
 

Salam salam endless salams!
To your dearest memory
All those of you who’ve given their lives
For our precious liberty

So that we can speak in Bangla
So that we have freedom of rights
You have all fought the hardest fight
You burn in our hearts like a candlelight
For now, for eternity
For those of you who’ve given their lives
For our precious liberty

The blood that’s spilled in this fight,
Everywhere has set alight
A revolution amongst all of us
In sacrifice believe we must
For now, for eternity
For those of you who’ve given their lives
For our precious liberty

All for one and one for all!
The enemy must now fall!
Light the way through the dark
Oh wash away misery’s mask
For now, for eternity
For those of you who’ve given their lives
For our precious liberty

Salam salam endless salams!
To your dearest memory
All those of you who’ve given their lives For our precious liberty.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Adieu 2009 : Reminiscing the roller-coaster ride of the past year - Part 4

Well...I’m guessing a lot of you have been waiting with bated breadth for this post (Naaah! That’s just my big fat ego thinking out loud “I’m so darn clever with my writing!” :D :P)

Hmmm ... I’d mentioned an illicit love affair, didn’t I? Yes.. it was quite a delicious one too. Ok, ok! Enough of me joking around. Basically Laila had put forth an intriguing idea of a murder-mystery musical to Shammu Bhai and we all decided that it would be something really fun to do. So Laila wrote the main script called “Murir Moa”, with GrooveTrap providing the music as the live band. And yes... some of us had to act.. hehe.

Oh! .. What is a murder-mystery musical you ask?

I’m sure the ‘musical’ part is self-explanatory. As for the murder mystery.. it was a comic take on the classic whodunnit mysteries we’re all so familiar with – at least to those who’re into popular detective stories or TV series. Members of the audience who attended the musical basically saw a murder take place (not a real one of course) at the onset of the show. Then they were all provided with clues – that is, the motives for the murder and all sorts of other sordid details on each character’s part started to come glaringly under the spotlight (pun intended!). From the clues the audience were then left to guess the identity of the perpetrator of the crime, before the solution was revealed during the final act. And as is typical, the investigation was carried out by an amateur sleuth.. well an inspector in this case.. played by Laila .. assisted by her bungle-head of a sub-inspector played by her friend Murali, who’s got great comic timing. Oh..and no one could leave the show as everyone in the room was a suspect until proven otherwise. Some of the audience members also had to sit in the interrogation chair mind you!

Me? I played the rich, tragic (black) widow.. Nargis.. of the poor, poor murdered soul.. Chor Khan.. sigh. Incidentally the play was called “Murir Moa” because my soon-to-be-dead hubby was a businessman and he was murdered at the launching party of his latest product of...(you guessed it!) Murir Moa! Anyways.. the so-called illicit love affair was between Nargis and her young lover, Asif.. who was played by Jasper :D

Chotu Khan.. the lead vocalist of the band “Stonefree”.. played.. Chotu Khan.. the younger brother of Chor Khan. It was funny how Chotu bhai ended up playing a character having his own name. Though he’d been quite nervous about his part (“I’m a musician...not an actor”) he ended up giving one of the best performances of that night.

As I was meant to play a rich.. but not a sophisticated.. missus, I had to get the proper look. Kuhu, the famous artist and fashion designer, who is also Laila’s mum, was our Costume Supervisor. She took me to Ban Thai, where she instructed Qamrul (the owner) that I was to be given a garishly 60s look. And so the transformation begun. I could hardly recognize myself in the mirror once he was done. I think that was meant to be the point.

The best part about the whole episode I must say were the rehearsals. Particularly the ones with Jasper. It was so so funny to watch Jasper trying to remember his lines! Though singing comes as naturally to him as breathing.. acting was a whole different ball game for him. It was cute to see how Laila’s voice kept rising in impatience at certain times when she was trying to teach Jasper some tricks on how to memorize his lines.. lol.

Anyways, you’ll all have to undergo the torture of reading just one more post before I start on the MJ tribute. There is NO way I’m going to leave out the experience of doing our very first “Tribute”.. which is a regular musical event held by a major event management firm here. In our case, it was a tribute to classic rock and GrooveTrap went on to perform the songs of not only as legendary a band as Led Zeppelin, but to share the stage with a similarly legendary band of this country... MILES.

So till my next post.. have a listen to some of the more less-famous tracks of these two bands. Yes... I mean other than “Stairway to Heaven” or “Chaad Tara” :P

Cheers!


Snapshots from the show. Credits: Bijoy


Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Adieu 2009 : Reminiscing the roller-coaster ride of the past year - Part 3

My last post had ended with reminiscing over MJ and his leaving us too soon. I miss him... or to be more precise... his presence in this world... Sigh... :(

Anyways...on to more light-hearted stuff...before I start on how bloody-effing-amazing the experience of doing the Tribute to MJ had been... I do want to mention a few other fun times that GT experienced during 2009...

The first one has to do with two shows we had outside Dhaka city. It was a NOKIA event, and as part of the launching strategy for their latest cell phone to hit the Dhaka market, they were arranging all these shows across Bangladesh... Chittagong, Sylhet, Bogura, Rajshahi and Khulna...called the “Nokia Boishakhi Music Mela”. We were asked by the agency which handles Nokia, to open for the main band...Warfaze. Unfortunately due to work and study pressures, we could only accept the dates for the last two cities...:(

Boy it was hectic. But it was so much fun! All road trips are, and if you get paid for something that you love doing...well...all I can say is “Woohooo!”

Because my back was still in its ‘recovery’ mode I went lying down the whole way..lol..taking up the space of two people :P..my feet resting on Saif’s lap...


One of our closest friends..Sabir...accompanied us on these trips...he's kind of like our very own "LIVE" entertainment. He kept trying to pull Jasper's leg ALL the time throughout the trip :D. I recall one time... while we were returning to Dhaka.. Jasper's dad called, asking about our whereabouts...and Sabir on the spot blurted out "Jamurki!" And Jasper actually told his dad "Amra akhon Jamurki'te" (We're in Jamurki)..and then after hanging up, went "What the fudge is Jamurkiii????"

The show at Rajshahi was our first brush with the mass audience outside Dhaka city. And we soon came to realize that forget GrooveTrap... and even Warfaze. This crowd was purely the L.R.B/Ayub Bachchu and Nagar Baul/James crowd...Beyond the Warfaze songs which had gained mass popularity, the audience were not that overly familiar with the band’s full discography.

So it was a lesson well learnt. For Khulna, we went on to include AB’s “Mon Chaile Mon Pabey” and James’ “Sultana Bibiana” in our setlist...a nice lil medley of the two..hehe. Jasper came on stage, bespectacled, wearing his Bermuda shorts,...and went on to shout out to the crowd... “Khulna! Kotha kom! Kaj Beshi!” Afff...such a nice mimic of James he is ..down to the singing! Haha. Needless to say we made the crowd go wild that time.

Anyways...the overall trip to Khulna was way better than Rajshahi. We were put up in a fab hotel in Khulna..Hotel Royal International...where other than the nicely furnished rooms, the food was excellent. Best part? A complementary glass of fresh juice (the lemon one is AWESOME) served with the three basic meals of the day :D

As Russel Peters would say.. A Class!

The best ‘gift’ we got out of this show was about four months down the road. We had gained a fan in Khulna who, while on a sojourn to Dhaka, called up our bassist, Adil Bhai, (he’d saved the number back during the tour)...and requested to come to one of our live shows if we were having any.

And so we invited him over to our gig at the Nokia Glitterbug event on August 13th... :) and took a snap together...

Sigh... (this one’s a good sigh... hehe)

Anyways, the second experience I am going to elaborate on in my next post. For now all I’ll say is that it involved an illicit love affair...a murder...and a whole lot of hair-spray!

Cheerio!


Clockwise from bottom left: Sabir, Jasper & Me, On with the show, Saif, the crowd at Khulna, Me lying in the micro, the current GT line-up on a launch 


Sunday, January 03, 2010

Adieu 2009 : Reminiscing the roller-coaster ride of the past year - Part 2

Hello everyone…

On yesterday’s post I’d left you all at the point where I’d been talking about our tribute to ABBA shows at the Dhaka and Chittagong Clubs. Of these, the latter stands out quite starkly in my mind.

It was a Thursday…the 25th of June.

The show was the most fun we’ve had in a while. After all, it’s given that there’ll always be an increased level of excitement when performing in any shows outside Dhaka city, that involves any modicum of travelling. The setting, the crowd…it’s all different…all new. We were even accompanied by a guest performer, Sunny...who's one of my friend, Tooki's, bro-in-law :)..that is Sunny's her hubby, Sham's (who's also my friend) younger sibling. He was playing as our second keyboardist.

Laila had toned down her script a little to avoid any faux-pas with the more conservative Chatgaiyyas (n.b. before this statement makes your hackles rise, my hubby is one and I’m just stating a widely known sentiment here…not making any personal attacks, lol) and I remember that while I’d travelled by plane to Chittagong because of my back pain, the rest of the GT gang, along with a couple of friends, had opted to travel by a microbus. They’d started off early morning on the day of the show and all other variables remaining constant, should have arrived in Chittagong by one in the afternoon…max.

Well if only life was a fairytale. Well it isn’t. And there are no fairy godmothers to help out either.

The micro met with a slight miss-hap along the way…near Kachpur bridge…and was declared, on the spot, unfit for further travel.

And so the gang waited in a ramshackle of a tong’er dokan (i.e. roadside tea-stall) for another micro to come all the way from Dhaka. Needless to say, by the time they arrived at the club, all their energy had fizzled out, Shammu Bhai’s nerves were frayed to the point of non-existence, and we had only a couple of hours in our hands to perform a sound check and then get ready for the main show.

As usual, once the show started the adrenaline rush kicked in. The best part was when we all ganged-up on one of our closest friends, Fahim, to play a small, small part in the script during Laila’s rendition of “Does Your Mother Know?”. He was simply fab on stage…all cocky and sure…until Laila, struck with sudden inspiration and as befitting her character in the play, started unbuttoning his shirt…haha! Then he became all flustered and kept re-fastening his buttons as soon as Laila was working them open…:D It was a classic candid-camera moment.

Once the ABBA tribute had been wrapped up, the crowd and our manager-cum-biggest cheerleader Shammu bhai, started clamoring for a usual GrooveTrap “set list” of songs. And so we made the crowd shake their bootie with a few popular tracks, and as is our trademark, ended the set with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

We then sat down to sample the rather interesting menu...biriyani with red wine. It didn’t matter that Saif and I are teetotalers. We could still sympathize with the rest of the diners, who were thrown into a mild state of confusion over the whole thing. The biriyani was fab though. In fact, everything was fab with the world. The DJ had come on, and high on the feel-good rush at the end of a great gig, we danced till our feet couldn’t take it anymore. Then while I went to bed (the boring girl that I am…well I did have a raging headache!), the whole gang stayed up till nearly 4 AM, playing UNO in one of the bigger rooms.

None of us…nor the rest of the world, I can say…could have predicted what was coming next…

The following morning we all woke up to the terribly shocking news. Michael Jackson had passed away…apparently of cardiac arrest. It’s eerie how one remembers every single detail of a moment in time when faced with a situation that is simply to horrible to grasp. I can describe that day to a tee. And I kept thinking about how we’d been planning to do a tribute to MJ since the beginning of the year…and not just perform his songs but put forth a full-fledged show with his most famous dance sequences. And we’d performed “Thriller” just the night before! And now some nondescript news presenter on television was claiming that he was gone?!? How was that even possible?

The guys were all a bit stunned by the whole episode I’d say. They couldn’t express their feelings quite as easily and the only way they were able to pay their respects to this iconic entertainer was on the road back home. Saif tuned the micro’s radio to the same frequency as his cell phone’s FM transmitter and then proceeded to play MJ’s full discography saved in his playlist, all the way from Dhaka to Chittagong.

I think that is perhaps the most beautiful aspect of MJ’s legacy.

There are many ways one can mourn the loss of someone in their lives. But if you celebrate the very essence…the core principles…that that person stood for, I believe that it is the best way he or she would like to be held in remembrance.

With MJ…it was his music, his love for entertaining and performing, his immense capacity for imagination…that helped him reach out to millions of people all over the world. And so it is by reveling in his songs…be it by listening to them, performing them or even sharing them with future generations…that we show him true respect.

So today I’d like to leave you all with a few lines from one of my favourite MJ songs...

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could’ve been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and make that change!”


Anti-clockwise from top right: The infamous tong'er dokan, Shammu Bhai & his lovely wife Zarah (we'd just landed at Ctg airport), sound check, Laila & moi, singing ABBA!, the performing troupe! - Photo credits my cell phone & Rahul's cam





Saturday, January 02, 2010

Adieu 2009 : Reminiscing the roller-coaster ride of the past year - Part 1

As part of my very own very-short-but-quite-hard-to-do list of “New Year’s Resolutions”, I’d promised myself that I would start writing again and bring back to life my "inactive" blogs. This account of events from the past year of everything GrooveTrap, is basically my tentative attempts to get back on that track.

Anyways…this is going to be a part-by-part account (not in one whole big chunk) of certain events that kind of stood out from all the rest of the zillion other things that took place. I’ll post something every other day as my poor memory recalls. I just hope it doesn’t bore you all to death. But all in all…it’s good writing practice for moi :D

So...happy reading!


***

Who was it that said that the best things in life never come easy? Well whoever it was, definitely knew what he or she was talking about…

The very first month of the year saw us paying a tribute to the legendary Swedish pop band ABBA. The movie “Mamma Mia!”, with a star-studded cast including the likes of Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, had brought forth a new-found love and admiration for all things ABBA amongst the general public all over the world. Foreseeing the possibilities, Shammu Bhai, aka Farhan Quddus, who's the owner of one of our favorite restaurants "Le Saigon", was quick to recruit GrooveTrap and the very lovely and talented Laila Plamondon to apply the same successful formula to stage a musical based around popular ABBA songs.

Well, right before the day of the show, I totally busted my back…again.

Yes, it would be the third time over a span of 15 years this has happened and yes, I have a teensy-weensy back problem which actually doesn't give me much trouble if I maintain my exercise regime and a few ground rules…and yes…that basically means that I'd been a bad, bad girl…a darn lazy one… :P

Anyways, it was too late to cancel the show of course...all the tickets had been sold and all the basic i's dotted and t's crossed. The so-called cliché “The show must go on” was in fact I realized that day, no cliché after all. It was an undeniable, irrevocable, indisputable...fact.

And so with three pain-killer injections on my…uh…tush…I belted out the likes of "Dancing Queen" and "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)", when in fact I was in no position to dance or let alone do anything else with a man!

But I’m very happy to say, the night was a resounding success. Laila, who had written this amazingly witty script, saved the day with her flamboyant performance. She truly is a versatile actress. And Saif…thank god…kept a level head, even though he was worried sick about me. His positive vibe rubbed off on the rest of the GT gang and everyone put forth a great show that night. So much so that six months down the road, we did a repeat performance of the show at Dhaka Club, followed by another at Chittagong Club…brought on by popular demand.

Any interesting tidbits from those shows? I’ll save that for the next post I think. Till then here's wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

I'll leave you guys with something to ponder on - it’s good to keep in mind that there will always be “ups and downs” in one’s life. The “ups” are there to give us the highs and the “downs” are there to help us appreciate the “ups” more and teach us the VERY important lesson that…shit happens! :D

Cheers!