First up was this death metal band called ‘Highway69’. These guys blew the stage away. The non-metal listeners in the audience got scared away though. That was a bit of a setback for us. Why? Because we weren’t exactly metal. We weren’t metal at all. We were an Indian fusion band dressed in traditional Indian clothing. In front of these metal heads, we looked like kids with pacifiers in our mouths.

Their performance was fever-inducing. I say that cause I immediately started burning up a fever after them. Anxiety? The cold? Who knows? Cause we were the last slot (out of 10 bands),I ran back to the dorm we were bunking in and popped an aspirin. While I was on my way back to the auditorium, whom do I run into? My crush who’d literally run away from me a few hours ago after she inadvertently got to know that I liked her.

I spoke to her. Tried to make her feel less embarrassed. Still quite feverish by the way. I told her about the band which just played and how they scared some of the audience away. The auditorium was only filled with the remaining metal heads now. She nodded and said goodbye cause she had to meet her friends. It was around 3am now so it was a bit odd but we went our separate ways.

I reached the auditorium and saw my band sitting nervously. Our band leader was pacing in the aisles and was glad to see me back. I also saw that there was hardly anyone left in the audience and felt a bit demotivated.

We had 2 more bands to go before we went on. We were calming our nerves when suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my crush. She came to watch us. I was pretty glad to see her until she gestured and told me to look behind. She somehow managed to get the entire contingent of our college in the audience. Almost like on cue, they cheered when I looked back. The battle was now on.

To be continued…