Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The New Gen Hippies

I was screaming to the delight of the people gathered around to watch us. It seemed to resemble the opening of Zepplin's immigrant song.The crowd swaying and shaking their heads ,sometimes head banging with more vigour than us.Some high on weed ,some high on Music. But everybody seemed happy and was enjoying the evening.
We wore our hair long and had unshaven faces, some with real long beards and so was the crowd.I seemed possessed by the lizard king himself and we as a band seemed to radiate the energy passed onto us by all those rock gods.

I sang out loud..
"Woke up in the morning...got my self a beer...
..........Let it roll baby roll.... Let it roll Baby roll...
Let it roll............................... All night Long "

and the crowd would sing along "baby roll" and "all night long".

I seemed to be giving too much of an animated performance on stage as was the entire band.
We were performing as part of our community fest.One of the spokesperson spoke about our commitment towards free spirit and free living and how Our community is gaining in strength across all states. He read out messages from groups who couldn't attend this gathering.These were from Goa, Kolkota, Cochin, Mumbai and other parts of the country where our community had strong presence. He went on to speak about how God had given us something of his own.....the power to create. Instead we were creating orthodoxy. We created Bombs and created fear, led people into blind faiths.... and he went on and on

Let me give you an idea about our community.We opposed political and social orthodoxy, We opposed this pseudo secularism and religious fanaticism. We stood for peace, love and personal freedom.We wanted to enjoy the beauty of the universe and the beauty of being.People had laughed at us for trying to be different.We laughed at them for being all the same. We had our own individuality but stood united for our cause.The papers had been carrying out articles n news about this 'new gen hippies'.That's what they have been calling us.

We had carried out marches and gatherings in many parts of the country and had received huge support from various corners, surprising many..from those who rule the country to the slave clones.We had already petitioned for a Below poverty line and differently abled people census and wanted reservations to be allottted only to them.We wanted reservations in the name of religion and caste to be abolished.We do not want any forms/papers from Govt,Institutions or organizations asking people to fill in their Religion or caste.We have planned for more reforms to be sent for legal and government approval.And we were here to celebrate our progress and bands like us were the voice of the community.We believed music to be the great healer that God had sent us.We were adding new dimensions to Sufism and the Bhakti movement.Our mission was to reach out to the million faces and rock them all,blow their minds off,make them understand what real freedom is.

The crowd wanted more music and we launched our own hard hitting version of keep on Rockin' in a free world.This crowd of straight young men and women sang loud and clear "Keep on rockin' in a free world". I felt these words would echo far and wide. I felt the winds blow by and wished it would carry these words to all my countrymen.

"Keep on rocking in a free world"

It was 2 30 AM. I seemed to be sweating a bit and couldn't handle the mosquito bites.I could hear noises ..trams trying to out speed the other....
Ah... I woke up.. It was just a dream......another one of those dreams.Chennai is still hot, the AC had stopped working and two of my dear roomies Aju and Dr.Love just cant stop snoring.

I was telling Nayana a few days back about how I wanted to go back to the 60's and 70's . Dr. Love was telling me, how he also wanted to go back in time. These talks and my fantasies had resulted in a dream. A dream called 'New Age Hippies'

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* I felt happy to have witnessed a great game of Tennis a few days back. Federer Vs Roddick at the Wimbledon Final.
* I lost someone, someone who had a terrible childhood but made sure to give a lot of thrill and excitement to my childhood through his music.
Your songs were addictive and those moves were infectious. Will miss you Mike..