A volly of follies

I will remember last Tuesday for a long time. Two reasons; two firsts of my life: 1) witnessing an air-show live and 2) listening to the worst ever commentary so far.

I loved the air-show. Though I was later enlightened on my ignorance (seems that the show was not as good as that in previous years), I enjoyed the entire process of getting ready early, being transported to the venue... the works.

The venue wore a festive look with thousands of eager-looking school kids milling around and women and children in their Sunday bests. My eyes took in a lot of eye candies .... gangs of handsome men in uniform; my heart sang with the adrenaline-pumping songs playing in the background.

The commentary of the event began with usual greetings; without any hints whatsoever towards the impending disaster called anchoring. As the fighter planes taxied away and began with their air combat maneuvers, the commentary got intense. The person deviated grossly from the script (if there were any) and started gibbering away to fill in the gaps between maneuvers. I need to give one example to make you understand the predicament of listeners... "Nagpur people are such good sentries because they eat santras (oranges)" followed by giggles; primarily because no one else thought that funny.

Another one: "We have more than six people maintaining one flying beauty. So friends, who said only Draupadi of Mahabharata had five husbands?"

Of course, my friends and I agreed on the commentator's fortitude in making a casual comment on an epic character sitting among thousands of people in a city that houses RSS headquarters.

The commentary went on for over an hour. So while my eyes feasted on colours, men and beautiful machines; my ears ached for a respite. So friends, next time when you are planning to spoil someone's show in the guise of trying to be helpful, let me know...!