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The Open Mic night

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Last week, on March 22nd, an Open Mic and Poetry Slam event: Kairos was held at Lady Shri Ram College on the theme: Change is The Only Constant. This was the very first time that an event like this was hosted by Dhyana Society.
The event lasted for about two hours and saw an audience of  35 people, with over 15 heartwarming performances. It was hosted by Sharmishtha Samal, a Third Year Philosophy student who connects to the art of poetry on many levels and therefore sought out to create an intimate experience for everyone in the room at the event.
It coincided with the DUTA strikes when most of the colleges were empty, and yet, saw a shockingly pleasant turnup of over 40 people and a wide range of performances ranging from satirical numbers on the despicable glitches in the political and educational systems that exist in current times, to heartwarming poetry on love’s all-embracing healing capabilities, to instances on anxiety and depression’s painful grip, melancholic and nostalgic prose on feeling the hollow left by a loved one,  poetry on the painful graphs of life which are omnipresent withing every happy situation, to even some Urdu Poetry.
Featured Poet aka Avnika Gupta stirred up the audience with her dynamic pieces on the Transience of Social Media which spoke about this generation of people with short attention spans. This piece was followed by a vulnerable poem narrating her take on love. She defines her experience at Kairos as one with a diverse range of skill, style, and form on one stage. She feels that the event created a safe space for the performers to be able to share the vulnerable sides of themselves through their art form. She identifies as a little girl trying to remind the world to move to the beat of its heart even when it sounds like the scariest and stupid thing to do. And Kairos upheld these underlying principles wonderfully, allowing one to speak, learn, change, and contribute. For what’s art, if not the courage to be stupid, irrational, and misunderstood?
Performers from a wide number of colleges like Vivekananda Institute for Professional Studies, Delhi Technological Institute, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Ramjas College, Maharaja Agrasen College, JIMS Vasant Kunj, Galgotias Universty, Bhaskaraharya College of Applied Science among others were seen at the event.

The Doppler Effect is one band whose chords resonate with the sound of the youth. With their inception on 21st October 2010, the band members, Ashwin Nayar on lead guitar, Akshay Johar on bass guitar, Sherry Mathews on lead vocals and Suyash Gabriel on drums, initially came together to pour some new life into classic rock, with a pinch of their own elements. Adding some funk, hard and progressive rock to familiar tunes, this band rose to meteoric heights at quite an early stage.

After a whirlwind of a first week, they were called to perform at various occasions such as the MUN (Model United Nations) at BITS Pilani and for DU college fests such as Woodstock- SRCC and at Harmony- St. Stephen’s college in early 2011. They were also spotted at The Gig Week, Delhi’s first live music appreciation summit where talented bands took to the stage and performed for an enthusiastic audience.

The Doppler Effect was one such band, receiving tremendous appreciation for their well-deserved work. “They don’t play the usual clichéd music. It sounds more on the lines of new age funk, with a rock music base. That’s what makes the band stand apart from the rest,” says Nolina Mishra, a student of LSR College who worked with the organisers of The Gig Week and got an opportunity to hear their performance. Apart from this, The Doppler Effect was runners up and had a special mention for best performance at The Open Mic night held at The Living Room Cafe, Hauz Khas Village. Owing to their stupendous rise to fame, the band has received prizes at various competitions. Accolades such as best band, best bassist, and best drummer at MDI have been given to this talented group. The band also came first at the CHANNEL [V] Launchpad Prelims held in Delhi, making it to the finals and finally playing at Goa. Their most recent success story has been at Emergence 2012, held at Lemp Brew Pub and Kitchen in Gurgaon, where they defeated The Incredible Mindfunk and Grammy Winning Effort and bagged a staggering Rs. One Lakh for their brilliant performance.

“The finals were nerve wracking, but there was an optimistic vibe which we all shared. We were energetic on stage and managed to convey the up-beat energy not only to the audience and audience but to each other as well” said an ecstatic Syuyash Gabriel, drummer – TDE. Talking about their future plans bassist Akshay Johar said “We are currently recording our single ‘Believe’ which should be up online very soon. The album will be worked on during the course of the next few months.”

Parth Sharma
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Vishakha Darbha
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