Delhi International Jazz Festival, A Rehab For One & All

Delhi International Jazz Festival was held at Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri, from 28th-30th March.

When the music stops, the crowd begins to make noise. This is both the noise of appreciation as well as anticipation. Appreciation for the liberating avalanche of melodies and anticipation regarding the next jazz wizard who will weave magic and dispense it into this intoxicating night. The crowd has gathered for an experience which their nine to five suffocating lives can't offer. It's a series of musical orgasms what they're aiming for. They are all hungry for Jazz and liberation from this regressive life that is pulling us all down. Life is slow poison after all. Music is the remedy which elongates the struggle and caresses our injured souls for the battle ahead. It is strange how both Jazz and a new life can be served to you on one stage.

Life is about finding a spot and finding yourself...

It is not just a gathering of marijuana fans or booze devotees. Most observers would prefer to skip this part in fact. But why should I? I'll write what happened and not what you wish would have happened. Delhi International Jazz Festival was all about realism. There were no curtains at the Delhi International Jazz Festival. There was no veiling of any sort. I treated it as a rehab. Yes, a rehab. But aren't rehabs supposed to be for social outcasts? Drug addicts and people with a drinking problem? No, rehabs are not just for drug addicts. People addicted with the same, boring, monotonous and fruitless life, also need a rehab. These rehabs help you enunciate life in a positive and somewhat funny manner. Accept it, we all need to laugh on ourselves every once in a while. After all, the joke really is on you mate.

The society that exists is the one we should have a face-off with. This is the trend after all. This is what the people want. We try to conceal and present a rosy picture. It is indeed a rosy picture but not the one we try to present. The social norms can go fu*k themselves. Forgive me for the use of socially unacceptable words but then... that's what I'm aiming for.

When we discuss personalities, penetration is nigh impossible today. It is so hard to reach deep inside a person's mind or heart. Even those who know each other actually pretend to know each other. It would be insanity to accept that some grass can help you reach out. But then, what have you achieved with all the sanity up and until now? Nothing. Stop fooling yourself. Delhi International Jazz Festival was all about being genuine. Anyone with any sort of dubiousness would struggle to survive here at the Delhi International Jazz Festival.

The music at Delhi International Jazz Festival is a beast. It'll either attack you from the front and take you down for a ride or else it'll sneak up from behind and catch you by surprise. The beast embraces everyone. The beast does not differentiate. The beast is your outlet. The beast is your kick for the night. Delhi International Jazz Festival flaunts a beast which none can. The live performances will help you feel a heartbeat you have only heard of. The music will bring out the groove in you. You might even start dancing and not get conscious. Everybody is tripping out here. The atmosphere is filled with herbal rejuvenation to say the least. Life is not about lemons and lemonades here. Life at the Delhi International Jazz Festival is about finding a spot and finding yourself.

Impact of social media, what they won't tell you!

By Rohit Joshi

Social media can be compared to a deafening silence. The libertine use of the oxymoron is aimed at understanding the positive as well as negative aspects of social media on youth. It is very strange that the same activities can have two very different outcomes on us. The two forces run in opposite directions leaving the user carefree and basically clueless. How? Let’s delve into the mechanism.

Are you consuming or are you getting consumed...

The word social cements the positivity that comes with online interactions. Even those who remain on the sidelines in the social sphere tend to come out and surprise us all. The most introverts of people are at times the most active members on Facebook and other social media platforms. Denied an opportunity in the real world, their thoughts explode on the virtual platform. Hence it would seem that social media is really helping the youth by providing them an outlet. But how good and effective is this outlet? After all, nobody is on house arrest and sooner or later we have to face the material world which is very different… at least for some of us. It is not so welcoming.

So you take your social media glory to the real world and find it difficult to fit in. The words you use, the manner in which you present yourself and the ideas you wish to project all step on a banana peel and you slip. Why? In my opinion, it is because the way in which we socialize on social media platforms is actually a veil. We are not really interacting. It might be business, it might be personal… but it is not the truest form of communication.

Our behavior goes through ups and downs and there are some of us who plan to live in the virtual world. They are comfortably numb in their own sphere. This sort of an approach is not feasible in the real world.

The real world demands an above average set of non-verbal communication skills. We do cement our real interests, real thoughts, real ideas and very much genuine observations on social media platforms but we fail to defend or justify the same in the real word. The wind of change finally blows the card castle we created on the internet and we feel targeted.

Social Media is evolving and the process will go on for a long time. There is so much we can juice out in terms of knowledge, exposure and information. But we must not forget that thin line of realism which separates the virtual world from the one where we have to actually survive.

It is hard to say whether social media is a boon or a bane. Mostly because of the approach that youngsters adopt. While most would opt to draw out constructive criticism from others on a social media platform, there are others who take it the wrong way and go deeper into a shell none can penetrate. Most would use social media while others might get consumed by it. As it is with everything new and trending, you can either go all out without thinking or you can draw a balance sheet of your personality and understand what kind of an impact is social media having on you.