The Phatman of the Opera

As a young boy in Bansdroni, I had many dreams.

Principal among them were to get a job – in a library or a museum – and hopefully to have a girlfriend (yes yes I know, even my dream are boring).

But there were more.

I also dreamt about being a champion football player and about seeing castles and forts.

The thing is I was not from a rich family so never even dreamt of flying or having a personal computer. To my mind those kin of things happened to rich people – a separate species as far as I was concerned. Hell, having a landline BSNL phone and a television (we only had Doordarshan, and then we had the groundbreaking epoch-making launch of DD2/Metro) was the height of luxury.

As a young boy from Bansdroni  I was happy with my books, my football and my friend – as mundane and ordinary as it can get.

And yet there I was, in the Berlin Concert House listening to Rachmaninoff.

I studied (wasn’t a good student by any stretch of imagination, average is the word), played, hung out with friends and somehow along the way kind of got a good grasp on the English language – which proved to be my meal ticket. My grasp of the language coupled with a semi febrile imagination has meant that I am quite good at my job.

The bosses recognize the fact, ergo I am allowed to work from home – something I need due to my semi invalidity.

I work and work and work (even on days I can’t get off the bed due to the pain) and I save money.

Let’s face it where am I going to spend it – I have no girlfriend, I don’t go to pubs or bars or discos, I have no addiction, I don’t like clothes, I download and watch movies and serials on my comp.

Apart from my myriad insurances and medical expenses and the donations for my horse, I really have no other expenditure.

So I save doubloons and with those doubloons, I travel and loiter around historical places.

This boy from Bansdroni had 4 dreams – get a job, have a gf, be a champion footballer and see castles.

Well, he has a job; very briefly – and at an extremely low level – he was a champion footballer and he has travelled all over India looking at castles.

So 3 out of 4 is a pretty good rate.

But the boy from Bansdroni never ever dreamt that he would someday have enough money to travel all the way to Germany and France and look at castles and palaces there.

And yet, there he was, listening to Rachmaninoff at the Berlin Concert House.        

It was beautiful, amazing, marvellous. It was pure ecstasy being taken on a musical journey by the orchestra. I realised the beauty of music and the fact that I don’t like pianos.

Judging by the crowd’s applause, I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed and appreciated the performance. After each piece the applause refused to die down and the conductor had to exit and reappear thrice to take a bow.

Who would have thunk it?

Not only that, but there is the boy from Bansdroni feeding his mother caviar on German porcelain plate

Of course, some things never change. You can put the Phatman in the Opera, but you can’t take the Shockness out of his system. In a house full of suits, ties and formal stuff, there was the Phatman in a mustard yellow Namabali shirt.   Dennis Rodman, eat your heart out.