It’s June 2050. The last concert that I attended in June 2049 was so horrible that I stopped attending all the concerts; but hope hardly dies. Just one more, I thought.
My self-driving car got me at the venue. Thanks to these self driving cars, parking is no more a problem. There were ten other people in the audience. The organizer were confident that some ten thousand people would watch the concert live on Facebook.
I was quite excited to attend the concert after almost a full year and thought of greeting the artist in the green room. The vocalist was sipping a smoothy specially made for vocalists, to keep the voice warm.
I could see two large fibre made towers with strings passing on them, kept in a corner.
“What’s this? I asked curiously”
“Uncle, this is called a Tanpura; you seem to be a novice”
“It’s made out of fibre?” I was thrown aback.
“Yes.. You no more are allowed to cut trees. Also, no one grows those big, old fashioned pumpkins. This is shock proof and IP 67 enclosure.”
He lifted the Tanpura and hit the wall with it and poured a glass of water on it.
“You see, nothing happens!”
I couldn’t dare ask him how it sounds. I was going to experience it in few minutes.
“The Tabla accompanist is late by 20 minutes, but we had done some sittings together via Skype, so that won’t be an issue.”
I simply thought of sitting in the auditorium in a corner and left the green room.
“Wait for a minute uncle.” He stopped me. He took out some leaflets from a bag.
“This is my brochure and other details. In case you want to learn or someone you know wants to learn… I am there on Fb, Twitter, Skype everywhere. Do like my page.”
“Sure” I left hurriedly.
The concert started with an introduction of the artist. I came to know that he got training from California Gharana for six months, Gwalior, Jaipur, Kirana for two months each and not to forget, had done a 15 hours crash course in Patiala.
The concert lasted for 25 minutes. The artist performed Alap in Puriya, Bandish in somewhat Puriya Dhnashree with alap and tanas in Marava . He wanted to make most of the time he had.
The concert was concluded with a half hour long speech by the sponsors followed by 10 minutes vote of thanks by the artist.
At the exit, everyone was handed with the kit which I already got in the green room. A lady dressed in minimal costumes handed it over to me.
“I already got a copy” I told her humbly.
“Do learn form him. He is really goood, crossed a million Facebook followers last night and has a 10,000 square feet large teaching facility!” she said.
“My pleasure” I said!
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