The occasion was Kairali Belapur’s Christmas celebrations and
friend Henry wanted me to sing a song. So I dug out an old Christmas song I had
written and composed, changed a few lyrics, and sang. The change in lyrics was
because when I actually stood and sang there appeared to be some tunelessness,
some mis-match in the harmonies.
It's tough... standing and strumming. My right hand is a blur! |
Then there was the situation, the stage fright to be thought
about. My son said, “Papa, don’t make an ass of yourself, one mistake and they
will laugh at you for ages.” He is my biggest critic. Son, Papa can handle all
that, I am, sort of, well, used to all that. Son didn’t come for the performance,
so as not to be ridiculed by friends. Wifey was supportive. But then, can I do
it? What will those Malayalis whom I meet everyday think? They don’t even know
I write, write poetry, sing!
So I had a lot of butterflies in my stomach as I sat through
the program. There was a lot of Karaoke singing, which is acceptable these
days, I guess. Then my turn came and I went on stage, after some backstage
shenanigans. One of the singers, a pretty young lady was so overcome she
refused to sing despite a lot of coaxing by her mother. Then – for the first
time in my life – I sang standing up strumming my guitar. Hitherto, I had only
sat and played the guitar. Must say standing up, playing the instrument, and
singing is tough. You have to concentrate on so many different things. But, I
managed fine without nervousness, well, not much.
Midway through the performance I felt my strumming becoming
unsteady. Haven’t I rehearsed this for three days? Panic. Overcome by singing
the choral part twice, no, thrice. Then it was time to say “Thank you, God
bless,” and go off stage. Wifey says applause was deafening. A woman sitting
beside her wanted to know how I do it. As if wifey knows how I do it. Hehe.
Takes hundreds of hours of practice, lady. I am self-taught, so, it’s all the
more harder. All those lonely hours you would be watching television serials, I
am strummin, and singin! Nothing in life is easy, really, nothing.
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