"PUT THAT VOLUME DOWN RALF! YOU'RE CREATING A MESS!!"
"Aarghh, people in India just can't stand rock music!"
Yeah, BackStreet Boys, Westlife, Steps, Vengaboyz, Ricky Martin, Michael Jackson were what turned up on Ralf's stereo ever since he was a kid, maybe since he was in the 2nd standard. He loved "English music" like anything, well that was the definition he had for all the pop music he had been listening to! He started to have an ear for all this from MTV and Channel V which back then used to play only English songs and no Bollywood music.
Ralf grew up and by the time he reached 8th standard the only additions to his playlist were Bryan Adams and Richard Marx. Yes, he was still stuck to pop music. And then, love happened and his life turned into this total fairy-tale affair and the only thing he liked now was MORE OF POP MUSIC! He found solace in the lyrics of Backstreet Boys and wrote poems stolen from Darius. He was high on love, flying from over the clouds and then...LOVE FAILED!
He was heartbroken, Ralf, and all those pop songs turned into a nightmare for him every time he listened to them now. He needed change! "Am tired of these lovey-dovey songs! I need a freakin' change! Ralf visited his school buddy, MJ. He was this wierdo, with a real long goatie and some real long hear, mind u real long. He advised the heartbroken Ralf, "Dude! Relax! Here take this with you, Scorpions!" "Dude you really think I'm in for some crazy shit like this.I can't listen to all the noisy crap ya'al listen to.seriously.". MJ gave his buddy that trademark wicked look of his and said, "Dude, this sure is some crazy shit!" Ralf was in no mood to argue with MJ, he chose to leave with the CD.
The CD lied there on his table for the third consecutive day when Ralf, finding nothing to calm his shattered and wailing soul (that would cry out loud everynight-"Rosemary...why did you do this to me!!"), took a look at the CD cover and reluctantly put it in his brand-new Philips Mini Hi-Fi's CD changer. First track-"Still loving you", Ralf shut his eyes and got deeply immersed in the lyrics of the song....
"If we'd go again
All the way from the start,
I would try to change
The things that killed our love...."
The moment the track finished, Ralf realized, "Wait a minute, was that a love song?". Yes it was, the lyrics-just what Ralf's mind was going through, but was he sad, or depressed, listening to it, like he was when he was listening to pop songs with similar lyrics? So was the rendition of the song that our loverboy found peace and calm, and not flashbacks of bad memories, listening to it, for the 10th time in a row! "This..is this rock music?? I always thought they were loud and rowdy!" He took a dip into the entire album and was really pleased at the different aspects of life the band touched in the album; not only love, but life, childhood and everything. "Welcome to ROCK music Ralf! I think you two are gonna go a long way!"
Ralf visited MJ the very next morning and thanked him for the value-addition in his life! MJ was so glad he could help the 'loverboy-not-anymore' get over that Rosemary girl! "Told ya Ralf", was what MJ had to say. "Here, now take this, 'Europe'." And thus began Ralf's rock-learning and he soon had his Hi-Fi playing Firehouse, Iron Maiden, Metalica, Guns n' Roses and this and that! Ralf had started to feel good, he had found a means with which he could relate too and yet felt stronger....he felt like never before! Bits and pieces of Ralf's heart had slowly begun to come together....
"PUT THAT VOLUME DOWN RALF! YOU'RE CREATING A MESS!!" said mother. Ralf was listening to a wicked GnR song, one of his favourites, "Aint it fun". "Is this how you study? Listening to loud and annoying music like this? For God's sake you're in high school now! You gotta get into engineering next year and this how you prepare?!!" "Ma one more and I'll be done, promise. See I'm doing math alongside. It's all good, it's allllll good!", smiles Ralf. "Suit yourself" said mother and off she went fuming. "Aarghh, people in India just can't stand rock music!" Well, actually, Ralf had lately been getting a high, his friends were constantly coaxing him to form a band with some of the other guys in his class after that solo performance on Teacher's day which turned him into a rockstar. Chicks from his class were now drooling on him and junior chicks were all ga-ga too! So what does Ralf do? He practices those songs which play on his audio while putting the volume knob up so that his mom wouldn't know what he's been upto, Ralf was really giving it a serious thought.
He didn't know if it would turn out good but he desperately wanted to jam with these fellas of his class who were great at playing many different things- someone a guitar, another drums, et al. Ralf knew he was good enough for a start...yeah, he too wanted to be famous, play gigs all over the world, lotsa money, and the list goes on! And he also had this killer passion for rock music. Ralf and his gang, thus start practising at an empty studio room that was part of Sam's elder brother Rob's recording studio, which was apparently very famed. 10 minutes into their jamming and all of these guys get called to Bob's office. Uh oh..any problem?
Continued..to be..
