Rant 38: The wrong 3rd eye

I was recently at a concert in New Delhi at the Connaught place. I was pumped up for two reasons – first, I was going to a fusion concert for the first time and second, I was going alone to a concert for the first time.

But as I went inside, I got a third reason to be happy. On the counter as I scanned my QR Code, I was told my seat in the second last section was upgraded to the second session. I never knew Delhi had some perks for stags too. 😛 I went to the second section and had my place there .

It was 10 minutes to go before the show started and I could already see beer glasses being held high up in the air, people talking to each other, whole groups laughing on some petty jokes cracked by someone. There was a couple who stood together , a family of 5 at a corner table seated comfortably having a gala time enjoying, an old defense couple (from their outfit) waiting for an exquisite classic show to come up. There were people. It was a union of people. Happy people. And then, there was me. A person with a square face not knowing probably where the next dinner will be and busy looking at random whats app status on my phone while the world behind me laughed and enjoyed and danced on the pre-show music.

The waiter came to me and asked for drinks. I do not drink. I politely said No. He gave a look and moved on. There was a fellow on the left side who asked me, ” No drinks? You’re going to miss the essence of the fusion for sure!”
“Well, Why not, Idiot!”, I replied. (in my mind)
I smiled at him showing my right hand as a sign of restraint and self-control. I do not think he got what I said. Anyways, I ignored and began looking towards the dias again where the drum and the other instruments were being tuned. The activity on the stage was getting hastier by every passing moment and that signalled that the show might just start any minute.

Finally the beautiful lady host came on the dias. There was a loud roar and the lady was, well, expecting that. A few camera’s clicked. A few whistles thrown at the dias. I ignored and drank my mojito while she spoke. I barely looked at her twice. The artists came up on the dias. After the introduction, the show began.

It was a real blasting start. The music was loud and crisp. The ambiance was eclectic and the crowd really went berserk. But.

There was something that quizzed me. There seemed to be more camera than eyes. People, almost each of them were looking through their camera’s than their eyes. I really looked stupid and very idiotic. I mean, why would you spend so much for this expensive concert and then come here, have another expensive round of drinking exotic fluids and then doing this idioticity of viewing the concert through pictures and concerts.
Some Class A Sapiens also went to the extent of uploading the pics clicked like some 45 seconds back on instagram and believe me, the whole while she kept checking how many people had liked it.

People were busy taking hoardes of pictures, videos, boomerangs, snapchat selfies and god knows what! The only thing they missed is the concert. I went and sat behind the old defense couple because they were the only people who I felt were sincerely “enjoying” the concert. I do not know what people do with so much of images and videos. I mean I would never spend so much and then take videos which are so much similar to the thousands of other and already uploaded youtube videos. Every cafe and bar has thousands of images online on any social media platform. Why would I just add 32 more images to it! Freaking crazy!

After the 30 minutes spell of the concert, there was a break taken by the band. There was a wierd silence in the area. ears had a beep sound ringing still and there was little sweat on the forehead though I was seated for the whole time. As soon as the show paused, the uncle from the couple asked me, “It was brilliant, their performance, wasn’t it?” I replied, “yes, I had never heard them before, I was actually undermining the show and never thought it would bethis good”.

I turned my head away from the table and saw everyone busy with their phones. clikc-edit-upload. Nearly every other face I saw was dabbed into their screens. All the faces had a rectangular lamina of glow on their faces. It looked pretty horrific. A cafe with dim lights and all these hologram-type faces with a rectangular glow. I just walked around to use the loo, when I saw most people were instagramming. I reckoned how crazy people had actually become about instant-gratification. I want likes- NOW! Checking it every 6-7 seconds. Crazy!

soon the other half begun and it ended pretty soon, in another 20 minutes. And post the event, I bid the old couple goodbye. They insisted on a cup of coffee, but I asked to excuse me. I left. It was a good show. But the way people are behaving, soon they will cease to see anything with either of the two eyes. Instead of creating memories, people tend to create images. Instead of living in the moment, people are planning to live somewhere in the future by taking images and videos, to be viewed later on.

I dont know. Maybe I over-react on these issues. But I see them as big issues. I see them as shift of the way of living in the present to living in the future – and all of us know that future never comes. What we all ought to do now, is simply being postponed to be done at some later stage with a much degraded experience. Only if we could learn how to live in the moment, take a few photographs for savouring the memories that you were here. But pay respect to the fact that there are artists performing and that they owe your attention. Camera’s dont make them happy, cheering lips and happy eyes do!

I make a request to everyone out there, if you think what I believe is worth it, stop using your camera to click every single thing. Some experiences are best seen with eyes only. Save the moments in your heart. Click some, but see mostly through your eyes. You might have a high memory storage, but you will end up with less memories.

And yes, the 3rd eye always symbolizes destruction, so better to keep it away as much as possible.

Always Ranting, Rantzaada.