After the end of
Carnival we begin a period of Lent where weddings and celebrations are muted
for a period of 46 days, giving all of us musicians a well deserved break to
relax, reflect and reboot before the next 2 months of celebrations. Well, most
of us at least. The ones with regular contracts in hotels and restaurants have
to toil through this period as well but is it really work when you enjoy it so
much?
So what do we do?
Normally, people of other professions would like to distance themselves from
their daily jobs when on a break. Doctors don’t go randomly visiting hospitals
on holidays nor do lawyers sit in on other court hearings, but musicians
strangely go around finding more music. We look out for performances, attend
each other’s shows and when there’s nothing to be found, we get together and
have a jam session, which is a random bunch of musicians getting together and
playing music; it has nothing to do with jam. We also take this valuable time
out to go for picnics, overnights, etc with our families and other band members
where we carry along some musical instruments and… you guessed it… jam.
We also take time
out to reflect on the season gone by and analyse what went wrong and what we
did right; what we can do to better ourselves and our performances for the
coming season. As this review process gets going, I find myself looking back at
the season past and I have noticed a few things that have defined my season so
far.
Timing: Gone are
the days when music was played till the wee hours of the morning. With our
growing population and busier world with new laws to govern us, there is cap on
how long on our celebrations may go on. While different places interpret and
enforce the law differently, the bottom line is that if we start our functions
on time, we get a lot more time to enjoy ourselves and it’s better than having
to deal with the authorities and ruining our functions. So people… please
start on time.
Tourism: Despite
what the government may tell you, there is sharp decline in foreign tourists
visiting Goa this year and we are fast getting to be a domestic tourist
destination. Our infrastructure is not equipped to handle the influx of
vehicles during tourist season and we musicians aren’t able to handle their
Honey Singh song requests. One of these problems needs to be upgraded.
Artificial Snow
spray cans: WHY??? Why would anyone have these cans at their wedding
receptions? If it was up to me, I would ban them from all functions and have
security at the gate just to make sure someone didn’t sneak some in. To make
things worse, these cans are handed over to the naughtiest kids at the wedding.
The result? A bridal couple gets a dose straight in the face followed by a good
overall spray which gets mixed with the confetti, forming blobs on them that
makes them look like they just walked out of a washing machine without a rinse.
This process is repeated with the rest of the bridal party.
Traditional Goan
Music: With every season that goes by, the amount of Goan traditional music
played and performed at our functions decreases. It’s time to revive this
segment before it disappears entirely.
Addiction: As
musicians we are all addicted to music. Being a musician is not just a job,
it’s a way of life. Hi Everyone… My name is Ashly. I am an addict and music
is my drug. Now it’s time to go find myself a Jam.
