Avataar – The Reincarnation

Our band, Avataar (meaning “a different form” in Hindi), performed for the first time on stage today! It was an awesome experience for me.

The group performed 10 songs in total, with me on the keyboards for 2 and vocals for one. All turned out to be wonderful, thanks to everyone on the team: Prasun, Ananth, Anurag, Rudrajit, Lokesh, Shawn, Jon, Rini, and Amrita. Vocalists, guitarists, keyboard players, and masters of more than one of the above (yes, Lokesh!)

As they say, the proof is in the pudding, the audience appreciated the performance as much as we were happy to have performed at all. Given the extremely short time we had for practice, and our musicians changing almost every alternate day, we were all going “umm, hmm” until the last moment.

And once you’re on stage, nothing matters. Not the audience in front of you, not the sound technician trying to signal something to you, not the odd instrument that’s half a beat out of sync, and least the butterflies in your own stomach. All that matters is the song. Though I probably committed my fair share of mistakes, people were quick to convince me that the audience most definitely did not realize what we had come to observe so closely during our practice sessions.

Oh well, all’s well that ends well, and this is just the beginning. Looking forward to more such performances, waiting for a new Avataar, the reincarnation.

Update: Here’re some photos from the show!