The Queer Ink Open-Mic Night

The last time I went for a semi-open mic event, about a year back, I came back disappointed – so much so that I had promised that I would never do it again. But then, three months or so later, I went on to to perform a song on a rooftop party where the choir that I used to sing was performing. I performed ‘Living Your Dream’ and I got a wonderful response. On that day, I had dedicated that song to Sidd Coutto, who was then part of Shor Bazaar.

Tonight, after a whore of a day at work, when I took a train to Bandra station – I was already late – I was not very apprehensive. That must have been because I had performed solo sets a couple of times in the last two weeks. I texted the organizers mentioning that I would be arriving late. To my surprise, and I’m grateful for them, they had put me as the last performer for the event. That made me feel proud!

There was a lot of wonderful talent out there – singers, story writers, poets, comedians – almost everything under the sun, just like different shades of the rainbow! Alisha Batth was there accompanying a friend of hers on the guitar and my friend Georgina Maddox did a couple of wonderful songs. My good friend Deep recited a short story that he had written, and another friend Praful recited a Hindi poem.

Finally, my name was announced. The organizers were kind enough to give me extra time to perform two songs. Despite some sound problems with plugging my guitar on to the mixer, I gave a good performance. I played ‘The Rainbow Song’ and ‘Living Your Dream’ and I was fortunate to get a rousing applause for both the songs, especially ‘Living Your Dream’.

After I wound up, one lady came up to me and told me that she was crying when she was listening ‘Living Your Dream’. That’s such a wonderful thing to hear!  I was so happy after the event that on my way back home in the train, I donated Rs. 100 as charity to educate poor school children in the interior of Maharashtra!

I should do this more often!

Thanks to Shobhana S. Kumar from Queer Ink for this wonderful space for queer artists!