Disclaimer: The incident narrated below is a real life experience. All those who love rock music will understand 'Why this madness?' and others can just read it as a story. It's a brief of the experience I had, so you can read it at your leisure and for those who don't appreciate long reads can simply ignore this one.
It all started when i first discovered @ 'METALLICA's live concert in India' and that day I said to myself "This is it, I've to go to the show. METALLICA in India for the first time!! and who knows, this can be the only METALLICA concert India will witness?" And I made-up my mind to attend the show. I started follow-up my cousins and friends for the tickets and bugged them to book it fast.
The show tickets and flight tickets were all booked in the month of June and I called up my brother who lives in B'lore to tell him about my arrival. He told me that the band along with crew are devising their stay in the hotel my brother works for (Hotel Sheraton, B'lore). "Wow !!" I said to myself, "Looks like a great opportunity to see the band and click few photographs". I was already on cloud 9 and super-excited about everything.
As days passed by, I realized that few of my friends are also coming for the show. We made a plan, all of us were traveling from different corners of the country, and decided to catch-up during the concert.
(Let me tell you all, this is the most expensive and little adventurous trip of my life, you'll soon see how? and what happened?)
The concert was scheduled during Diwali holidays, so I was at my home town Nagpur on vacation. We didn't get the direct flight to B'lore so we booked a connecting flight via Hyderabad. On the day of Laxmipoojan, I was told that our next connecting flight to B'lore is cancelled due to some operational reasons of Kingfisher (and here is the beginning of an adventurous). We requested Kingfisher to confirm us in some other flight to B'lore but they could only adjust us for the evening flight which was scheduled at 6.30 pm (No way! we could not have made it for the concert with that flight. It was indeed a bad option). Then I exploited my affiliations, one of my friend could come to my help and manage to get tickets of the 10.20 am flight of Kingfisher without paying any extra money :P
Everything was set right and all geared-up for the concert. After Diwali, the day finally arrived to catch the fight and fly to B'lore. The journey from Nagpur to Hyderabad was good, enjoyed the early morning flight (every time I take a flight, its always been a great experience when the plane catches up the speed & flies and watching the mesmerizing beauty of the nature from the top), and we reached on time. I am in love with Hyd Airport, I love the architecture, the view and the shops inside (they also have a crossword store). We had good 50 minutes to catch-up the next flight. So, I thought of having a Mac. Veggi and then we walked to the domestic departure gate. To our surprise the counter was closed and we were told that the documentation is done and we cannot board a flight because we were 10 mins late (now this is a major stroke we encountered in our adventurous journey... "what the **** !! we are late" we screamed). We requested the Airline officials to consider our case (this was the same flight which I booked through jack. This entire scene was freaking me out badly). For the next half an our we kept patient and requested them to consider us but they didn't. Finally, they gave us an option to book next flight of Indigo which was scheduled at 11.55am and assured for the refund (now my love for the airport was tardily disappearing). The Indigo fight was costing us 8000 INR each (super expensive). Going back was not an option at all, the only option left is to shell-out the money and take the next flight. Laughing out at our own expense, we finally booked the tickets. Soon the guy (who was helping us with the ticket cancellation and re-booking) in the black suit with the Kingfisher tag on his nameplate arrived to us and said "Sir, aapka ticket toh re-book kiya hua tha. Aapne yeh pehele bataya kyu nahi, hum aapko allow kar sakte the" (where, we had already told this to the other official but they didnot guide us with this idea. We now had this wild feeling of being slaughtered and this guy with his later comment was pouring salt/ pepper/ chili on our wounds) and by the time this was all happening the kingfisher flight was taking-off.
It wasn't only us but one couple was also sharing the same experience (They were the only one's in the Hyd Airport who could understand our situation and viseversa. It was 'Sukh dukh ke sathi' kinda feeling). Meanwhile, I must mention, one my friend was also helping us over phone to get the status of the flights from Hyd to B'lore.
We then sat at the Terminal number 24 waiting for the Indigo flight to arrive. We didn't talk much but preferred to read some good articles in Frontline and Newspaper.
The flight arrived and within 50 mins of our journey we reached the city of perfect weather , the green city of India: B'lore. I felt every step which was put forward while I was stepping down the stairs of the plane and finally on the soil which was going to rock the same night. I was happy to arrive before the showtime (the sad feeling of buying expensive tickets was no more bothering me). The touch of the cool breeze made me feel refreshing. I saw the grey clouds nearing the earth's surface and I thought to myself 'It may rain today'. I was no more bothered of an adventurous trip but excited to see METALLICA performing.
We took a cab to Hotel Sheraton (hoping to get a glimpse of METALLICA) but sadly the band cancelled their stay in the hotel. I was told that we can see the BIFFY CLYRO and the METALLICA crew, but rather I choose to see the hotel and have 5-star lunch (and this way, all my dreams of clicking a photograph with the band went in vain). It was already 2.30pm when we reached hotel and our R-buddies (Rock Buddies, who came directly from Mumbai) arrived hotel at 4pm and we started for the Palace Garden. We parked our cars paying 100 bucks parking charges for each car ('loot lo' or 'loot gaye' was kinda theme of the day.. as everyone trying to fetch as much money as they can). I was trying to contact the other group who were already inside the ground and we were almost 2.5 Kms away from the place.
As we started walking towards the main entrance and all we saw was the guys/girls all excited for the Rock-show. The roadside walkways were all flooded with the people wearing black. The people traveling in private/public vehicles were all looking surprised/ wondering what is happening? We enjoyed our walk to the main entrance and waited for rest of the gang to join us. As we stood near the main entrance, we noticed it wasn't only Indians but people from all over the world, of almost all age group (ranging from 14 to 55 years) were present for the concert, almost everyone looked like they are drunk, guys/girls enjoying the smoke, people with the weirdest hair cut, full of tattoos, groups posing for the photograph with the METALLICA banner, few people were asking for the extra tickets (as if we were selling the black tickets), and police- directing the crowd & the traffic. Overall it looked like a International festival of Rockers.
As our gang arrived we stepped inside the main gate thinking that we are almost there (not really !! we were still a kilometer away from the place of concert), wondering where to go? There were multiple queues and no one had any idea of what is it for? and where does it lead to? We came outta it and started walking towards the ground, and then we realized that the queue was all bull***t. People were just standing in a queue which was leading nowhere.
As we were nearing the place we saw multiple security checks (thanks to what happened in Gurgaon). Cigarettes, Alcohol, lighters, match box, cameras were not allowed for the concert but the great Indian (almost everyone) managed to bring it all inside. And finally we were there in front of the lavish stage, beautiful light system, huge loudspeakers.. Yes! we were there. Soon I found my friends who were already present in the gathering (finding them in the crowd of 30000 was a miracle itself). We were all 'ON' for the show which was lead by BIFFY CLYRO (Scottish band: kids in front of METALLICA). We hardly liked any song and were eagerly waiting for METALLICA to start. It rained and we were all standing wet to see our beloved band performing live. While the BIFFY CLYRO stopped at 6.30 pm, we thought that METALLICA will start the show at 7pm. Sadly it began at 8pm and meanwhile we felt being tortured standing there with no food, tired and there were also slogans going like 'safety first' (where, everyone was calling it Safety F**ks). They were moving people asking them to father away from the stage and which was causing a chaos and each of us were so frustrated, we couldn't wait any longer for the band.
And then the guitar strings were played and we heard the drums, the lights were turned on and, we saw guitarist Kirk Hammett, drummer Lars Ulrich, lead vocalist Jamesh Hetfeild and bassist Robert Trujillo on the stage & on the big screen... yes it was METALLICA performing LIVE in front of us. There was a roaring sound, screaming, all hands went up showing the rock sign, everyone was overwhelmed (the feeling we had in concert can not be expressed in words, but only to experience). They played all hit songs- One, Master, Fade to black, Nothing else matters,fuel, sad but true, cyanide and many more and ended with seek & destroy left us all spellbound throughout. It was kind of frenzy swept the Palace Grounds as heavy metal band METALLICA gave its first-ever live performance in India. The whole crowd was singing along with the band, one of the best followed by the crowd were 'Sad but true' and 'Nothing else matters'.
We, the fans, never stopped shouting/screaming except to hear James talking to us asking "DO YOU FEEL IT PEOPLE? How does it feel to be alive?... ", "Do you feel it the way we feel it?", "Are you there?", "I heard that you like heavy. Do you like heavy?" (and they played 'Sad but true')... and their final promise to us of coming back to India again and play in B'lore, made us all feel glad.
As the show was declared closed and we started walking towards the main road, we were thrilled with the electrifying performance & indeed overwhelmed with the lifetime experience of seeing METALLICA live. We are ALIVE !!
