Yanni's Concert

As luck would have it, we - my parents and I - managed to book tickets for the Yanni concert, which took place yesterday, good buy indeed :D
The concert took place in Burj Park, in the 'shadow' of the Burj Khalifa and in full view of the fountains.

We got to the venue at 7:15 pm, to be greeted by an enormous queue. Not to mention a whole lot of people who tried to cut in line. The management of the queue, for me, was a big let down. The volunteers seemed to have disappeared elsewhere...this left the management of the lines to a few people who quite literally "Had enough" of the line cutters.
The gates eventually opened at 8 pm, and by 8:45, we were in. Decided to go get seats up front...in the Bronze section of course.

Personally, the Bronze section seemed better than the Gold and Silver sections but paled in comparison to the Platinum section - right in front of the stage.
We were all set with refreshments, waiting in anticipation for the show to begin.

At 10 pm, when the show was slated to begin, I noticed that musicians had begun to place themselves with their instruments.
Typing of which, there was a wide array of instruments: Pianos, a personalised drum kit, other percussion instruments, violins, a trombone, a french horn, a harp, cellos, a keyboard and a base guitar. The musicians themselves were diverse in culture - from Russia, to Cuba and Paraguay.
Yanni then appeared on stage and started off with a composition from his album - Live at the Acropolis. Second best selling album - of all time.
For all of you who aren't familiar with him: Yanni is a Greek musician, real name Yiannis Hrysomallis. A self-taught pianist. "Talented" would be putting it mildly.

Lighthearted, humorous but at the same time passionate about his work, everything showed in his performance. He also got the crowd participating in the songs, by clapping along or cheering for him to come back and perform again.

Amongst the songs performed were: Acroyali, Santorini, Keys to Imagination, One Man's Dream, Felitsa and Nightingale.

The fellow musicians themselves were some of the most talented individuals I have seen. The drummer - Charlie Adams - was energetic, lively and a comedian at heart, taunting the audience when we couldn't keep up with his drumming :P

Then was Alexander Zhiroff, on the cello. Very deep music indeed.

Victor Espinola was on the Harp. I've always associated harps with the more 'angelic' side of things. He blew all that away with an energetic and downright amazing performance.

Then of course, were the violinists, crown jewels of the performance. Armen Movsessian and Ann Marie Simpson. Armen showed pure mastership of the violin, even engaging Ann Marie in a duet-turned-to-duel on stage. Both of them just bought that depth into each composition.

And last but not least [Forgive the hackneyed phrase] was Yanni, who kept jumping around to the music and switching between pianos.

All in all, it was a memorable performance, one that I won't be forgetting for a long time.
Yanni closed the performance with "One Man's Dream", preceded by a short word on his belief in the human spirit. With words of encouragement, to follow dreams and be what you wish to be.

He also mentioned what a loud and receptive audience we had been, hinting that he'd be back next year.

Yanni, Dubai awaits you with open arms :)

Bangalore

The sound of firecrackers can be quite deafening :P

Yes folks, I'm in Bangalore at the moment. Getting here was an arduous feat in itself.
I had to bend over backwards to skip two papers.
Yes, SKIP. You read that right.

Now why would an 11th grader skip her papers?
Was she mad? Crazy? Inconsiderate of the risks involved?
The answer is yes - to the first two.
My wonderful south indian heritage makes weddings a top priority.
And all the uncles, aunties and etc. will unanimously agree on that point.
Hence it was decided that I would skip my chemistry and informatics papers in order to attend my uncle's wedding.
Not like that would affect my average.
Oh, no way.

So here I am, smack in the middle of Diwali - Festival of lights.
A wonderful wedding behind me. Complete with the customs and rituals - not to mention a few shenanigans along the way :D

The sky is alive with crackers, fireworks and thunderstorms.
No harm in nature celebrating the beautiful occasion with us :)
Seems like team India also brought it home for the festival.

See you on the other side,
There's a lot of food that needs 'hogging' :P

Damn

Well, as anyone and everyone might've guessed...I've had no time to update the blog...mostly due to to my procrastination.

Never do today what you can do more than a year later right? :P

Rest assured that I have been writing quite actively.
Unfortunately, most of my recent (and by recent I mean dating to last year) writings have been quite personal, meant for individuals.
Nothing on general events as such...

An update though:
Earlier this year, I participated in a short story writing competition and won 2nd place.
The story is set to be published in the Vision, the school magazine.
Once out, I will definitely post it on the blog irrespective of the circumstances.

Will be posting weekly from now on.
Seriously.

And yes, Science in the 11th year?
Killer.