This is the auspicious day of
Lord Krishna’s Birthday. The public address system of my society had announced
in the early morning that there would be a grand celebration in the children
park to mark this occasion. At about five in the evening, I got a call from the
five year old daughter of my neighbor who had called on the intercom to say, “Uncle,
I am going to be the Radha tonight. I am going to dance on the stage. You must
come to see my dance. Don’t forget to bring auntie and bhaiya along with you.”
We got dressed up for the
occasion and went downstairs to the children park. I could see a sizeable crowd
had already gathered. A stage had been erected by using iron pipes and colorful
clothes. There was a small idol of the Lord Krishna at one corner of the stage.
A cradle had been placed in front of the idol on which a neonate was enjoying
all the attention. A long queue had already formed to have a glimpse of the
Krishna in the idol and Krishna on the cradle.
Many carpets had been laid in
front of the stage to make a large sitting area. Single row of chairs had been
used for cordoning off the sitting area. By the time we reached, all the chairs
had been occupied by people and hence we had to enjoy the function by standing
behind the row of chairs.
Most of the people who have
purchased the flats in this society are around thirty years old. As all of them
are in the stage of ‘baby boomers’ so there is a sizeable population of small
kids in this society. Most of the children were playing on the carpets. Most of
the girls had donned the costume of Radha while some of the boys were in
Krishna’s attire. But most of the boys were wearing the dresses as per the
latest fashion trend. Hit songs were being played on the speakers. While most
of the girls were dancing to those tunes, the boys were mostly engaged in
friendly fights. The mothers of those children were showing the same zeal to
dress for the occasion. They had come in their best outfits; with all the
necessary accessories and jewelry to add the much wanted dash of glamour to the
show.
The members of the RWA arrived
on the stage after some time. One of them took a mike and announced, “On behalf
of the society, I wish all of you a Happy Janmashtami’. There will be dance
performances by children in a short while from now. Parents who are keen for
the dance performance of their children are requested to come to the stage.”
The announcement stirred a
hornet’s nest. Almost all the ladies began showing the restlessness and urgency
as if they were going for the dance competition or for a possible catwalk. Most
of the ladies had left no stone unturned while preparing their daughters in
Radha’s getup. Some of them had also taken so much pain in getting ready for
the show that they could easily give a tough competition to the real Radha. Within
a few moments the stage was full of many Radhas. The stage was also full with
almost equal number of moms of those Radhas. The announcer was at his wit’s end
after seeing the swelling crowd on the stage. He somehow took the mike and
said, “I am emboldened by witnessing the energy and spirit of the members of
this society. But I need to make some rules to avoid overcrowding at the stage.
It would be better if you can register the names of your children with our
colleague. After that, we will call the participants one by one.”
After that, each mummy went on
to register the name of her Radha or Krishna. The announcer then began to call
the children to perform on stage one by one. The children went on to perform
excellent dance numbers. But only two songs appeared to top the popularity
charts in those dance performances. One of the songs was ‘O Radha teri chunri O
Radha tera jhumka’ and another song was ‘Radha kaise na jale’. Everybody was
surprised to see so many ladies coming up with similar opinion on a particular
topic. It was really amazing because it can be impossible to bring two ladies
to agree on a topic.
The moment the dance prorgamme
started, most of the people went near the stage and were standing there in
order to have the best view of the performance. They were least worried about
the inconvenience caused to people who were sitting behind them. The announcer
must have appealed numerous times to them to sit down but his announcements
fell on deaf ears. People were probably thinking of getting a vantage point for
clicking photos and recording videos and that is why they preferred to stand
near the stage.
Other than the nuisance of a
blocked view by people standing near the stage, the programme was going on in
proper order. It was the turn of a new dancer. His mummy was accompanying her
to the stage. The announcer told that the child was going to dance on some
innovative song. Her mother gave a memory stick to the technician so that the
innovative song could be played. But the moment the song started to play there
appeared to be some problem with the speaker. It started producing strange
sounds of Pee! Ponnn! Koooo! Aaargh! The mother of that child promptly snatched
the mike from the announcer’s hand and said, “It appears that there is some
problem with the speaker. Don’t worry. I will take the initiative and will sing
for my daughter’s dance performance.
After that the lady began to
sing. It was an innovative song indeed but was somewhat weird too. Her horrible
singing proved to be another dampener. I am unable to recall it properly but
the song goes something like this:
“O Krishna I have made a
building for you in my heart
O Krishna I have made delicious
food for you
I have taken butter and ghee
and milk to make the dish
O Krishna I love you.”
The use of Hinglish was not the
only problem. The lady was equally horrible on pronunciation and diction. People
were just tolerating her singing in the name of decent behavior at a public forum.
But the lady did not feel a pity on the audience. She went on and on for about
five minutes. Finally, people could get to come out of that round of torture. Once
she finished her singing, the audience gave her a huge round of applause; may
be because of courtesy or to indicate their displeasure.
When the lady was back in her
home, there was mayhem in her house. After reaching her home when she asked her
husband about the video of her performance the husband innocently replied, “Everything
got screwed up. I could not make the video. My phone hanged at the wrong time.”
Hearing that the wife was
fuming with anger, “You don’t want me to become famous.”
The husband said, “No, no, it
is not true. You should appreciate that I could snap the wires of the speaker
at the right time. This helped in getting you a chance on the stage.”
But the lady could not be
pleased by that. She said, “I know that I am a treasure trove of talent. But I
have been trapped within the walls of this house since the day I married you. After
so many years I could get this opportunity to dress in my finest attire and to
showcase my talent to the whole world. But I know that you feel jealous of me.”
The husband says, “You are
talking nonsense. Every morning it is you who goes to the bus stop to drop our
daughter for school bus. You are also a regular at kitty parties at the club. You
are just making an issue out of my failure to record your video.”
The wife said, “When your phone
had hanged then you should have borrowed your neighbor’s phone for a while. You
never know I may become a sensation on the YouTube the way Justin Webber
became.”
The husband said, “Don’t worry,
I will not take any chances on the occasion of Janmashtami celebrations next
year.”
The lady stomped her feet and
went inside her bedroom. After that her poor husband was left waiting for the
clock to strike 12 of the midnight. He was waiting for the Lord Krishna to enact
his incarnation. He was hoping against hope to get something to eat when his
wife would offer some sweet dishes after the birth of the Lord Krishna.
