One step forward, 6 feet under - The Drastic Failure events 'Burn' and 'Anarchism'

We all have heard that sometimes when you are most prepared for a specific thing, something unexpected happens and turns the whole situation upside down. This blog is about the time when my band Crystal Heads had a very hard time, that too for a long time, but we made it through.

So 2012 had been a great year for us and we became very popular locally that time. Few people even started recognizing us on streets of Dehradun. Our fan following was increasing dramatically and we were super active in participating and winning competitions around the state and few other places. But we were not satisfied with the number of people who came to those competitions and many other things such as the sound, venues, rules and bullshit bothered us a lot. We wanted to do something bigger. That's when one of our very good friend/photographer 'Mayur Goel' became our light to opportunities. He had very good contacts and was involved in various events and shows kind of a thing.  That time co-incidentally he was working with this guy from Delhi who owned a Event Organizing Company and was looking for artists for his debut show in Dehradun. As Mayur was a good friend and had faith on us, he set up the meeting and the deal was finalized at once. The Show was named 'Burn'( I still cant understand why), amateurs we were, confused, we thought we will be the only one playing the show. Feeling proud we spread the news every where, later we came to know that there is going to be a fashion show sort of thing and some Russian dance group was coming too. We got upset because we wanted to be the only act for which people will come. We thought to give up the offer once but later gave a serious thought and found that we will get to play for people of different likes and dislike because of the other acts involved in the show. May be we will make some new fans.
We were ready and started hard practice for the show. Venue booked for the event was 'The Survey Ground ' one of the biggest in Dehradun. Sound booked was expensive as well. Posters of 'Burn' were all over the city, even in the dirtiest corners of I.S.B.T. :D. Hats off to Mayur and team who worked so hard.
One week left , we were all pumped up and practicing hard, tickets sold, posters of the event every where, full on promotion on F.B, 'Bring it on' was what we were shouting for all left days and then, then what ? SHOCK, as always.  We found that it was going to rain that day as per the weather forecast because of which the show might get cancelled. Show getting cancelled might not be a big deal from viewer's side, but for us it was very hard to go through the bad news over and over everyday. To see the sponsors go away after knowing about the weather forecast, to reply to the people who bought tickets only for us, to see other performers backing up, not a good feeling, at all. 'Burn' got cancelled and gave a serious burn on our public image. When this was not enough, we came up with a MIND BLOWING Idea, to do the show in G******fu*k*ng******** University. (Why God Why)

We always had a very good number of fans and supporters in that university, we assured the sponsor that the management will support us in doing the show.The Event organizer was very happy with the support University was showing that time and our hopes were up one more time. They wanted to start everything all over again, even named the event 'ANARCHISM' this time. Russian Dance group was back, fashion event was back too and a dance group of our University called 'Zeal' also joined in. This time we insisted the organizers to keep the ticket price Rs 50 /- as it was our own University. Many friends helped us in selling the tickets. We were totally surprised when we came to know that we sold 1500 tickets. We started practicing more since we knew that 1500 people have paid to see us live for the first time. Man, that feeling....AAAHHHH, and then, you can guess, yes "PROBLEMS".
Few members in the management were unhappy because they were getting nothing of the event, and by nothing I mean $$MONEY$$. We were suppose to get police clearance + security from nearest police station which was in total control of the same management people from the University.

Final Day
That awesome nervousness woke all of us up early that day. We were too worried about things going wrong for such a big show again so after a run through of the set, we called up the organizers to know if everything was OK. That call, that moment was heartbreaking. We were told that the stage has been set up but the University's management has not permitted the sound to be set up yet. Two hours left left for he show to start and no sound set up means a lot problem already. We rushed to talk to the University people since I knew many of them well. The reason they mentioned for doing so was Police Clearance which the organizer could not get since the University people had old time partner ship with that police station, all of us tried, fought, got scolded at, but we could not get it till the end. Also Dalai Lama showed up that day so 90% of the police department was involved in that. Two times people paid for us, two cancellations, our "to be" biggest show thus biggest set back.
All left was 1,20,000/-  worth of sound standing just on the other side of the walls, a lonely Stage waiting for us in the middle of the University ground, clever greedy assholes surrounding us celebrating their so called victory. We five,sitting and watching the daylight fade, felt it was the end.

These are the official posters which were all over the city

Giving Indu a shock - The Gurukul Kangadi Gig

First of all lets all say this together " Hi Indu, you never did, but rest of your band mates knew about it all the time " :D. So let me take you this wonderful "Indu - the bakra " day. It all started when we got a call from Gurukul Kaangadi Students from Haridwar for the gig that they were organizing in their college. They told us that the prize money is good and around 13 other bands are participating too.Yes it sounded sweet to us and we said yes instantly. We were happy and practicing each day before gig. Three or for days before the gig all of us came to know that the college was a complete boys college and guess who was the one we didn't tell this ? Yes " INDU ".
Indu was in his final year and had a lot of pressure of Projects and presentation, hence he tried to avoid the gigs which gave us less outcome. Going to Haridwar for a gig that is not promising very good money + NOT CO-ED college, was exactly something that Indu would have ignored that time, or what we thought he would have, so we four came up with a plan. Next day we went to Indus place and started telling him tempting lies such as, ' the Girls of Gurukul Kangadi have already started asking about you on face book and we have given your personal contact no. to three girls', next day we will show him some random google girls telling that she is the one who asked for your no. During next two three days we had already pictured Indu's jaw dropped when he comes to know the truth. Best part is that this made Indu practice even harder.

Finally the day came, we took a bus for Haridwar and started another epic journey. Travelling with friends is always fun and with band mates, its even better, especially when every one is indirectly talking about a secret all the time and the one victim cannot understand it at all. Indu tried to keep on laughing along us with a confused look for one and a half hour and that made it even more funny. We reached the college unaware that we were about to get a shock too. The Gurukul Kangadi people came to receive us on the gate and just looking at us instantly they asked, Crystal Heads ?? and we were like ' thats right bro ' then  we gave each other the expression which meant " people have started recognizing us bro, fuck yeah ". Trust me on this one, they were really treating us like some celebrity band and it really felt like they are not taking care of any other band at all like us, it was an awesome feeling until one of them told us that we were the only band who showed up and competition has been cancelled. So that was the reason for being treated like kings, like we are the only band, because, we were the only band. Then came that "this sucks" feeling.

We all were depressed, sad, very sad, because like always we needed the money. We didn't even wanted to play that night but we did instead, I ll get there soon, Over this shit someone still had some hope that at least some girls are going to show up to see us play for sure, Yes, It was Indu. After sitting sad for a while he asked us " Dude why cant I see any Girl around, not even female faculties ? Then we gave him the Bomb that the college is not co-ed and Indu went crazy after that. He kept using abusive words for the college repeatedly and relating everything he saw to explain how the college sucked even more. For example, he said " look at that dog, even thats a dog, not a bitch, he would have lived his entire life alone here, this college sucks". Though we were sad about the gig, but watching Indu was fun. Suddenly Indu stood up and said " See what I am going to do ", he started walking with a very angry look, walked towards the food stall where the dinner was suppose to start after an hour, stared at the guy behind the stall and picked up two Papad giving that guy some real gangster look. God, cant tell you how hard we laughed that moment and his words were " I don't care about anything in this college". 

Little later the organisers came to us and requested us to play, giving us the liberty of "no time limit, we decided to play since we came so far.

Show started with one opening band from the college itself and the moment we started playing, we got such a good crowd participation that we played for next 45 minutes nonstop.This was the time when O M G was born for us. FYI, "Oh my god" is what they were shouting during mistakes. Gig was great we had dinner and decided to leave. Late night after reaching Haridwar bus depot, we came to know that no bus was available till morning, we were on road again, no cheap hotel was ready to take us in as we were asking for one room only for five of us due to shortage of money, after half an hour of search, we got one room for 400 bucks which had one double bed. All five of us slept through the night and came back to doon in the morning, meanwhile in bus we shaved, one of us brushed and few wore uniforms as we had presentation at 9 am in our college.

To this day we are happy that we played that show, got some real good friends and fans, and over all, Indu was happy by the appreciation he and all of us got.

If not before, we felt like kings after the performance.

Hi, Indu

If you read this then now you know that we knew it days before the gig.

Here is a  pic

The Chase to save 1.5 lakh worth instruments - Amrapali Gig

If you have read my previous blog about the F.D.D.I Noida gig, then you must be knowing that what we already went through, and one day after the Noida gig we were suppose to leave for Amrapali Institute of technology Gig. We reached Doon in the morning, every one was tired so decided to rest at Akash Rana's (Nikhil's Cousin) place. Our drummer was suppose to go back to his home that time only, but out of laziness he kept lying on the bed whole day. His parents called him a thousand times and he kept on telling that he is leaving in 5 minutes. His parents were calling him since 7 or 8 am in the morning and since he was with us till evening, they got fired. Suddenly Sanata( Shubham/drummer) was shouting on his cell phone. After a while, he asked me talk to his elder sister to give some explanation and I swear, she shouted on me like hell Only thing I said was "didi, I can understand but.. ". It sucks to get scolded from a stranger elderly person, specially when they are relation with your band mates. Sanata's whole family was angry with him and cancelled his further gigs, now we were suppose to go to them and request them to allow him to continue the shows. We went and wasted two hours just hearing lectures about Sanata's great works, Sanata got frustrated in the end and decided to leave with us in the night only. We were walking towards our bikes and Sanata was along too. The one mistake we did that time was to stand there for a while and gossip about what happened inside Sanatas house, that was time when his angry dad came out of the gate, his face and ears went red, he was so angry that he was stammering little bit and we watched him coming toward us with our hearts in our mouths. In seconds I realized that he was coming straight toward me since every one else was on the the further side, he said - You are the one who is always taking my innocent son outside, I have not given you the permission  and you are still taking my son forcefully, I can get you arrested". That time I really felt likr " F**K everything, keep your son with you I am out of this", so I was. Next day after a long confused discussion we left for Amrapali with out Sanata, if you are thinking we did not had a drummer, you are wrong. Very few people know that Nikhil has saved our asses many times when we had no drummer, He always worked excellent as a back up drummer.We took the night train and reached Amrapali.

As we reached nearest railway station to Amrapali, we got off the train and hired two auto rickshaws each had three of us and our instruments. It was a long way from there to Amrapali Institute, almost half an hour if I am not wrong. Lonesome morning roads with a few dogs and cows here and there, almost nil traffic. Enjoying all this we reached the Institute and were happy to be there on time, gave the auto drivers their fare and were talking to the organizers who came to the gate to receive us. Suddenly we realized that we forgot to take our instruments out from one of the Auto rickshaw. Reaching a venue on time and realizing that you have lost your instruments on the way, makes you feel your self a super idiotic looser, and we fully felt it because we were seeing the auto rickshaw going 100 - 200 meters away, we were standing in front of the gate like forever losers waiting for some thing to stop the Auto rickshaw. There was not a single vehicle on the road which could have given us some hope and dogs and cows were of no use. Then, out of no where came our superman. This was a skinny guy riding a skinny bike with shades and jacket on. He stopped on our request and decided to help us catch the Auto rickshaw who was going away unaware that our instruments worth more than one and a half lakh were lying inside his Auto. I sat on superman's bike with him and the chase began, he was driving kickass, not slowing down even on the speed brakers, well that was  the fastest we could have been :D, evn after driving for several minutes we didn't see any auto rickshaw and  superman started to looked like he was regretting helping us. He started slowing down a bit, to stop that from happening I offered him money and he speeded up happily. Soon we saw the Auto rickshaw and stopped him. Nikhils guitar and processor and Jonathan's Synth were in the Auto Rickshaw thanks to Superman, we got it all back. Superman refused to take the money and said he was happy he could help. The gig went well, we won, got some some cash and some beauty parlour coupons :D
Here is the picture of the moment :

Jonathan in the train :

Winners

The Most Dramatic Gig Ever - F.D.D.I Noida.

I would like to make it clear that the things you are about to read are absolutely true and I am not  making any thing up even.
F.D.D.I Noida till now has been the most dramatic gig in our entire carrier.2012 ended up on a good note for Crystal Heads as far as gigs won and shows done is considered, but early months of 2013, we were jobless, bored, eating each others head, dying to do shows. We got to know about this gig at F.D.D.I Noida through my Childhood friend Neelesh who was a student there. Since I was in Delhi that time, I went to his college and filled up the registration form. We had everything clear, we had almost 20 days from when we filled up the registration form till the performance. We were continuously checking for our examination dates just to be sure that they don't clash with this gig. Everything was looking fine and since this was going to be our first gig in NCR, we didn't want to take any chances and were totally looking forward to prove the true music spirit of Dehradun  in NCR. With all that, we had a gig in Garhi cant., Dehradun next day which was among the most awaited ones and then another gig at Amrapali after one day, so we started practicing hard for all three gigs. Fingers crossed, we were hoping that nothing stops us from doing these gigs .
Ten days before the FDDI show, I got a call from Nikhil ( Guitars/Tech, C.H )

NIkhil : Bro we are in a big trouble, Akash is having two very important exams, dates of which are exactly clashing with the Noida Gig

 and I started picking broken pieces of my heart, but this time Nikhil was determined to do what we planned, more than any of us. He came up with an idea to call Akash Via flight from Dehradun to Delhi. The gig was suppose to start around 6 - 7 pm and Akash's exam was getting over at around 1 pm, + the cash at FDDI was good and if we won, it was enough to cover up all our travelling expenses. So the idea was possible to implement. We checked the flight timings and got one seat booked in the 3:30 pm flight which was earliest after Akash's exam. For rest of us we booked early morning train tickets. Now as per our plan We were suppose to reach the venue at around 1 pm and Akash at around 5 pm as it was a 40 mints flight and then one and a half hour in metro. Next day, we were suppose to take early morning bus from Anand Vihar, New Delh, so that we can reach on time for the Dehradun Gig and then one day later leave for Amrapali.

2:30 pm, we reached the venue at FDDI Noida with all instruments and things, got passes for ourselves and Akash too, all formalities done, got rooms to rest and freshen up, heard stories from my friend Neelesh about his ongoing war with his warden whose name was also Neelesh, ha ha he he everything and chilling.
Phone Rings :

Akash : Hello yaar, trouble, flight is delayed by 20 minutes

 and this time every one else was picking up the broken pieces of there hearts along with me.
All of us started praying, God not this, what if Akash cannot make it on time ? What if we have to play without him ? We started working on the backup plan. Nikhil started practising the solos and he did that continuously for 2 hours, Jonathan started making new patches on his keyboard to cover up the rhythm parts when Nikhil will be playing the solos. 4 pm, the venue managers started coming in to do the sound setup and we get another call from Akash that the flight is delayed 20 minutes more. 5 pm people started coming in and Akash's flight has not left from the airport yet, over that, Akash's cell phone's battery was dying which worried us more. At 5 :10 his flight left and now we were praying to get his call about landing in Delhi as soon as possible. The gig started, some how we convinced the managers to give us the last slot so that we could buy some time for Akash. Around 6:30 we get a call from Akash that he has landed and at the same time we informed him that the first band was on stage. Akash needed at least one and a half hour to reach Noida City center from Dwarka sec. 21 and 15 mints additional on both sides. He takes a cab to reach Dwarka sector 21 metro station and the cab driver lost his way. It took him half an hour to reach the metro station only and here second band was done with there sound check and ready to play. That moment we were not able to think about any thing. All of us were silently waiting, even Jonathan was not P j ing. Third band performs, then fourth than 5th. 2 bands to go then it was us. We were sitting on stairs on third floor watching the whole gig silently with Akash, still one hour away.

After the performance of second last band, we got a call from Akash  that he need 20 minutes to reach the venue. My friend Neelesh and Sanil made a plan to pick him from the third last station on there bike, they left and we were on stage for the sound check. We decided to waste time on the sound check so that Akash can reach before the performance starts. We wasted 20 minutes, Nikhil plugged in Akash's guitar and processor unit, and every one acted as if there was some technical fault for which the sound engineer was responsible. Just take a guess what can be worse, it started raining. Now we had no option left we have to take the stage otherwise we would be out of competition without even playing. We slowly walked toward our positions on stage, everybody plugged in there respective instruments, I turned on my mic told everyone that our guitarist has not reached yet and we were still hoping that he comes in the middle of the song at least, like Arjun Ram Pal did in the movie 'Rock On'. We played ' The last Mirage ', everyone of us was literally feeling the rain that night. Everybody came near to the stage and head banged with us, but we were playing with an aggression that comes because of sadness. As we finished the song, it started raining heavily and doing second song became impossible. Everybody ran away back from where they came and exactly when we packed up our instruments and reached the nearest shed, we saw Akash coming along with Neelesh and Sanil. That was an emotional moment and we just looked at each others faces with  most naturally saddest possible expressions, ever. We told Akash that we lost it just by few minutes. Then out of no where came the organizers and informed us that they have decided to conduct the finale next day and we are in it. " YEAHHHHHH  M**T***R FU***RS, NOW WE'LL SHOW WHAT WE ARE " were our exact words and we were full of anger. We were not going to miss this chance now. We had no money at all to afford return bus tickets + the finale was on the next day, so it became clear that we were going to miss the Dehradun gig, so we planned to work hard for this one atleast. We decided to sleep early and wake up fresh for practicing, as if that was going to happen. We went to Neelesh's room to sleep and just when we thought that the bad day was over we realized that Neelsh was not in the room. He comes from outside with a angry and sad look on his face at the same time and told us that his warden has not approved for us to stay in the hostel. Middle of the night and you are thrown out of a hostel thats not even yours, in a place you have never been before but always heard in News for its high crime rate, not a good feeling at all. Thankfully, few friends of Neelesh came up with a plan which was to sleep in a 1 BHK flat which was left open in there building. It was middle of the night and around nine guys wearing black and soaked were walking like thieves with local mattresses folded up on our shoulders, that too in the pathetic galees of Noida with super skinny dogs barking at us from distance, thats good enough to scare the hell out of your own self, forget the neighbourhood. Despite everything that has happened, we finally found a place to sleep. Did  the show next day and conquered FDDI's band war with a victory. Got cash in prize which gave us the hopes of going back in a good A/c bus back to Dehradun. Now when we talk about this gig, we don't talk at all, we still hate those 5 hours of nervous breakdowns performing without a band member :D

Here are a few pics,

  

                                                             pic 1 - The early morning Train

                                 
                                   
                                                2.Finale Morning with comeback of Akash

                                        

                                                        3. Returning in the good A.C bus
                                 

                                   
                                                The Survivors :D with Neelesh in Centre,
                                                 Sanata missing for confidential reasons.

When Jonathan Paul tricked us all.

Time when Indu (Indresh Pathak) got placed in Accenture, we were mentally preparing ourselves to carry on and come up with plans for a new drummer. We had hope that there must be a few good drummers in Graphic Era university, so we started posting on facebook and all to let our situation in everyones knowledge. Our bands posters on the walls was something we always wanted to see but the sad part was, we had to paste them ourselves. So " Drummer Needed " poster sort of things were all over the college walls. Our contact was mentioned on it, soon we started getting calls and entries. Now we needed a place to conduct the auditions, that is the time when we first met Pranay Kapoor, yes sounds celebrity. He had his own house which was under construction that time but good enough for us to take the Auditions. We called up the guys who were in for auditions one by one. Few were good, more were pathetic, some lost in there own thoughts while we were waiting for them to play, some wanted us, to be better, up to their imaginary insane level some, looked to professional in everything except drumming, some played only on hindi songs, all over we were very disappointed as till many days we didn't find the guy we needed.
Morning time, we get a call
" Hello Crystal Heads ???, I am Jonathan Paul, can I come for the drummers audition thing going on ??
He was the last to call and we have never heard of him before, so we called him up.
We had no Idea that he was not only into music but a Keyboard genius, guitar genius too and was already playing keyboards for a kickass band of Dehradun called Rudranath. Though he was not good with drums but still better than most of the people who gave auditions more over we had no other option left and were convinced that we can work upon him, we didn't tell him anything and went to drop him to his house because it was next to KFC :D.
I don't understand what screamo animal comes out from inside when we are riding bikes together, and i think its the same with all most everyone, so we were shouting like anything and the new guy Jonathan was sitting silent behind one of us trying to be funny with his PJ's (ha ha ha sorry Johny). We thought he was a very decent calm guy who thinks he can play drums, later we saw him playing with Rudranath many time, turns out he was not what we have thought. After a few days we became good friends and he told us that he came for the auditions just to see how good we were. That very moment we were jaw dropped.
Now he is one of our favourite pal to hang around with, did many shows together as Crystal Heads and The Evangelion Project.

Few Pics with Jonathan
                    

When lying is the only Option - Sharanpur gig story.

This gig started with a fraud, Yes that's right a fraud, but we were not aware of that until we went to Saharanpur. One of my friend called me up and said that there is a college called SEIT (Shobhit university) in Saharanpur who were in need of a band for the closing ceremony of their annual fest. We said yes as we were in serious need of money for recording and other expenses for band. So four of us excluding Akash (he had exams) started our journey in the local roadways bus since its the only service available to travel to Saharanpur. Hot, humid, and bidi people were in a good number and we were stuck in Sharanpur's traffic twice or thrice. We called up the SEIT people to get further directions from the Saharanpur bus stand and got a shock instead. The college was located 20kms away from Saharanpur in a place called Gangoh, which meant we had to take another local bus to there, which meant bidi people and strange bad smells all over again. We had no choice took the bus and got off at Gangoh, we were hoping that someone would be there to pick us up but no, no one. We called them again and they, in a very humble way suggested us to take rickshaw, mentioning the fair which was 20 Rs. Now imagine four guys dressed up to look like a professional band, to get the deal, sitting on a Rickshaw, going through a complete village area. Every single person was starring at us. Any way we reached the college and met the director of the college which was a lady. First thing she said, "You will have to play continuously for three hours, all Hindi songs " and at that very moment, we were convinced that we can't do this show. We took a chance and tried to explain it to her that we were not a Hindi band, showed her a few Videos and somehow succeeded. The Deal was fixed with good money and advance too. We were checking out the venue and sound requirement when all of a sudden she said " Actually some one from millennium university has referred you, that is the reason we called you up, You gave a great show at millennium university they said." And our jaws dropped. I looked at my friend who set us up for the gig and he was giving me guilty smiles non stop. We had to keep it covered since everything was already finalized. We left from there that day and reached Doon. Evening time, advance payment in our hands, so as our band law states, we had to party.
                                  

Next day we started practicing for the show, we were strictly instructed to play as per  the interest of SEIT students which was not at all what we actually play. Two days after practice, we were extremely bored and decided to cancel the gig instead of the fact we have already taken advance payment and spent it too. When we called them up for the same thing, they told us not to do so since they have already pasted posters by our names all over Saharanpur. It took us a good time to take the decision and since we are not bad people, we decided to get back on what we started and do it.

Booked a cab, invited Arijit da from Ashwamegh to join in, went there, literally rocked SEIT, few old people who were sitting as chief guests got pissed off and stopped us from playing after we have played for 1 hour 30 mints. It was a payed show anyway, we got our payment along with some gifts. SEIT people promised to invite us again if the old pissed off people allow, rushed back to Dehradun in the night, no stinky buses, only us singing shouting and screaming, had food and other good things at some dhaba, closed the chapter with an awesome party at Opal and lifetime memories.

Here are few pics 

The Cheapness, Me and Indresh Pathak :

God cant stop laughing while writing this, every time me and Indu ( Indresh Pathak ) see each other we laugh  so much while talking about this, that neither of us is actually able to speak about this weird cheap thing we did back in those days.
It starts like this, I was in my first year of graduation and Indu was in his second year, we had met only a few times since the first band war auditions where we actually met for the first time. We were really amateurs in planning jam sessions and thought everything haves a Jugaad. It was seven of us in the band that time, 4 vocalists, 2 guitarists  and one Indresh Pathak :D, we decided to have a jam session in the college itself since it was not possible for hostlers to get out of campus any time anywhere. Soon we realized that we need proper instruments and Amps to have a proper jam, we arranged it some how but drums were not available anywhere easily,which meant we had three options, 1. Buy it on our own which no one wanted to do since we were not even good friends 2. Make the college buy it, forget it the college still don't have even a flute and last one 3. RAISE FUNDS AND GET IT ON RENT. The third one is what we chose and the hillarious game was about to begin. No band member was ready to do it so me and Indu had to do it on our own. The plan was to go in every section every classroom of first year and ask them for funds, hitting there nerve of unity for"B-TECH". Second year students are always the people who don't give a shit to anything related to the college since they have suffered one year already, so no point going to them. So we started and the speaker for the first and last time was Indu,
INDU(Shouting) - Hi everyone we are a band called Crystal heads, we represent B.tech and you know what, we don't have drums. So i want everyone to contribute money as the drums will help the B.tech people to win. I am not forcing anyone if you want to be part of this great move of unity, do contribute.

As soon people heard that they have a choice to not to pay too, everyone shouted back " we don't want to be part of it", Indu lost his mind and had an argument with a couple of them. Result - Fail, I some how gathered Indu back and we tried a different approach. I was the speaker this time and we focused more on giving an idea that it is compulsory to contribute. Everything from there went well, we wrote down roll nos. and amount people were paying just to make it look more formal, sometimes we just acted as if we were writing,and the money started coming in.Everyone contributed 10 to 20 to 50 Rs. It took us whole day. In the evening we found an empty classroom and started counting the money. We needed around 2000 to 3000 bucks to get the drums on rent for at least two days and our collection was fairly more than that, I looked at Indu, Indu looked at me and we were laughing rolling on the floor. We got the drums and the Sabian symbols (a good brand for symbols ) too.We did it the next year too. Sorry 1st year students, we didn't had a choice that time. We won the Grafest three times everyone was happy and everyone forgot, but Me  and Indu..ha ha ha...Never.
Here's a rare pic of Indu with that drum kit, practicing one day before performance in the Civil lab.
Post your comments and let me know if what we did was write or wrong.