Acrid smoke screens before my eyes. I can feel its nasty tentacles sting me with a burn only a non-smoker knows. I try to breathe but the nicotine laden air chokes the life out of me. I flounder like a fish thats' been cast out on a net only to try to find her way back to the sea.
How in the world did i get into this situation? Oh ! Yes! Now i remember...I was at the 'GlamBam Rock Show' and had somehow gotten separated from my friend Raia at the entrance swept by a sea of wannabe grunge headbangers! Here i was an moment close to an asthma attack, except i had a set of perfectly functioning lungs. I try once again to get through the throng of human heads,shoulders and paws with all the strength my haggard body could muster.
And there it is a patch of blue in this cloudy human storm. I heave myself foward and was literally spat out like a horse ejecting its baby out of its insides(i probably smelled like one too considering my fifteen minute exposure to every type of tobbacco smoke that was ever rolled into a cigarete.
Just when i thought i'd left half-way house to hell i felt an elbow jab my left hip and ! turned eyes blazing ready to attack the owner of that limb. 'Hey! Watch where you jab that thing!" I yell rubbing my sore spot. "Yeah! Whatever!" comes a the deep guttural retort. I look up to see the face of this insolent bum who not just knew how to elbow people but even had an attitude to beat.
He is tall , lanky, wearing a Metallica tee over a pair of worn out Levis ; typical of the crowd that hung out at these shows. A head of unkempt curly hair reaches the bottom of his ears, all around a stubble adorning an angular, sharp featured face. I would've gone as far as to have called him cute if he didn't have this look of disdain like it was I who'd bumped into him on purpose. I guess that kind of arrogance was part of the territory when decent looks fused themselves with grunge. It was a quality female groupies worshipped to the hilt and i definitely was not one of those.
"Take a hike Ike!" I mutter turning away. He grabs my elbow and spins me to face him roughly. Was this guy drunk or just high to have the guts to nearly injure me then this?
"Hey! Let go if my arm!" I exclaim ready with my free fist to hit anywhere i could swing.
" Just like you silly rock god worshipping bimbos! First you bump me on purpose then yell blue murder and show your fist!" he says narrowing his piercing black eyes at me.
"I bumped you on purpose! Hello as you can see, there is like a crowd around us and all i was trying to do was find a place to breathe until you showed up!"
"You have mouth on you lady! Didn't know you groupie chicks actually had any wit!" comes the guffaw.
This was the limit! Strangely I remember that saying from my seventh standard Hindi class which roughly translated into english as 'the thief gets caught and then yells at the watchman'! I would've enlightened this Desi Heathcliff but my Hindi was as bad as it could get. Just as i was thinking of something to say i hear Raia call out from behind me ,"Nats!"(Nats was her short form of my full name Nayantara which she found too long)
I feel the fingers around my arm loosen their grip as she approaches us.
" Raia!Where have you been?" I demand.
"Where have i been madam? I told you to hold on to me tight as we were getting inside! But do you listen to me, naa-aah!" she shakes her blue-streaked bobbed head in a reprimand,"Hey wait! You met Rish already?"she asks pointing to my elbow assailant who starts rolling his eyes at her.
"Whos' Rish?"I shot back not getting it.
"Rish! Stupid, my cousin, the one who plays drums in the rock band 'Karmacion'!" was her answer.
Oh my freaking God! This was the cousin who'd moved to Bombay from Delhi to do his engineering and was apparently a drummer in a local amateur band.
"This is that Rish! Sorry Rai, didn't know bad manners came with the package."I say crossly.
"Yeah i knew my cousin hung out with energy sapping rock band groupies!"
"For the last time! I am not a groupie!"
"What in the world are you two hammering about?"asks the latecomer to the scene.
"Your drummer cousin first elbows me nicely, them acts like he's above it all and then accuses me of being a groupie!"
"Aw come on!" he huffs throwing his hands up in the air.
"Alright! Alright! You two quit it! Rish, honey, don't you have a perfomance to go to or do you plan on drumming on our heads?" intercedes my ditzy friend.
"I was on my way there until miss um...." he starts to say something which probably was another ego-filled smart ass remark when Raia pulls his hand and stops him short," Now go! I'll see you after the show!"
"See ya!" he says and walk away only to melt in with the crowd that'd already pushed its way towards the stage like a huge barriacade.
Raia waves at him then turns to me, "So what do you think?"
"Think of what?"
"My cool Rock God cousin?"
"Cool! Rock God! Come on! You gotta be kidding me? I mean no offense but that boy needs a finishing school in manners!"I fume.
"Ok Miss Motormouth! You need a chill pill! Lets go enjoy the show, then we meet Rish's band backstage. Until then you reserve your comments and lets go rock!"
She drags me by my hand towards a spot that seems right for us to view the stage. I have a feeling this is going to an interesting night.
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