Canned Korn

Metalheads in Mumbai were extremely disappointed when Korn, a Grammy award-winning, American Nu metal band’s concert scheduled for September 7 was cancelled citing security issues as the main reason. Even though the organisers promised to refund all ticket holders, several of them voiced their frustration on social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, claiming the main reason behind the cancellation was because enough tickets were not sold.

 This rumour broke loose after an employee from Bookmyshow.com, the website selling the tickets, commented on a post that was put up on a Facebook page saying only around 348 tickets were sold in Mumbai for the concert that was to be held in the MMRDA grounds. Mooz entertainment, however, maintained that the reason was the “safety of those attending Korn’s concert after a thorough inspection of the site by engineers.”

 A single Korn ticket’s starting price was Rs 2,000 for the early bird ticket and went up to a whopping Rs 20,000 which was one of the main reasons why the response for Korn’s concert among the metalhead community in Mumbai was lukewarm.

 Most mainstream international rock and metal bands touring India have always performed in Bangalore which is now known as the heavy metal concert hub in India because of which metalheads in Mumbai are forced to travel all the way to Bangalore to watch their favourite international bands live. Inadequate infrastructure and bureaucratic constraints have been cited as one of the main factors why international bands skip Mumbai on the rare occasions they tour India.

 However, this is not the first time a concert has been cancelled in India. Metallica was set to perform in Delhi last year and that concert was called off in the last minute because of security concerns.

Smokers’ Corner

Teenagers in Mumbai’s suburb, Chembur who want to have a peaceful puff have found an ideal spot in a corner of a dark alley where they can escape from the prying eyes of neighbours and nosy Parkers.

 Ironically, this safe haven for these smokers is right in between a nursing home and a housing society where most of the residents are senior citizens. These adolescents tend to come in groups of three to four smokers who stand in small clusters behind parked cars after 6.30 pm while residents returning from work or their evening walks choose to turn a blind eye towards them.

 These teenagers who have been frequenting this spot for the past eight months are seen leaning against the small entrance to the hospital with a cigarette in their hands which they discretely hide behind their thighs or back when a passerby gives them curious looks.

 Other popular smoking spots in the eastern suburbs are outside cafes which are frequented by people of all age groups. However, to avoid being caught smoking by an acquaintance or even worse a nosy neighbour who’ll be sure to report their smoking habits to their parents, these teenagers are forced to look for shady corners of their locality to smoke in peace.

Good old sports

Some senior citizens who attended the ‘Celebrating Age’ expo at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai on Saturday turned out to be extremely good sports when they agreed to dance to the latest Bollywood item numbers during a small dance performance at the event meant for active retirement.

 It all started with two overweight women above the age of 40 who were scheduled to dance to ‘Chikni Chameli’ in the afternoon. While the youngsters looked amused, senior citizens watched the performers with bland expressions as they struggled to gyrate their hips like Katrina Kaif in the hit music video from the movie Agneepath.

 Once they were done with their performance, the host encouraged the audience to join the ‘dancers’ while ‘Munni Badnam Hui’ blasted in the background. That was when a man above the age of 60 rushed to the dais and started dancing to the hit item song with such grace and fluidity that the audience couldn’t help but smile and applaud his enthusiasm.

 The senior citizen continued gyrating his hips and enjoying himself while other elderly men from the audience joined in and danced like men in their twenties. After witnessing that sight of several senior citizens jiving to ‘Munni badnaam hui’, one would agree that the Celebrating Age expo had more or less achieved its goal in active retirement for those 5-10 minutes!

  Shaking a leg!

‘Booty’ Parlours

With a surge in the number of spas and salons spurting across the city, one is spoiled for choice when looking for a grooming or pampering session over the weekend.Be it a haircut, a facial or an anti hairfall treatment that claims to ‘boost’ your scalp for those luscious locks, there is no scarcity of such facilities in Mumbai.

However, while these beauty parlours and spas claim to help you in becoming a goodlooking, groomed individual most people end up walking out of these plush beauty centres feeling all the more insecure and unhappy about their appearance.

These salons’ employees have sharpened their tactics of boosting their business which merely involves pointing out a particular client’s flaws time and again and suggesting a treatment that will remedy that ‘flaw’. For instance, “ Madam, aapke baal kaafi dry aur freezy hain. Aap yeh hair treatment try kijiye..iske baad toh aapke baal ekdum soft aur shiny ho jayenge.” (Ma’am, your hair is extremely dry and frizzy. Why don’t you try this specific treatment that will make your hair soft and shiny?)

Those poor customers will soon realize the cost for that fancy hair treatment that assures them luscious locks runs up to Rs.6000 – Rs.7000 (120 $ – 130 $) atleast. Some who are affected by those taunts passed on their physical appearance tend to go in for such unnecessary treatments and after going through that entire process they are informed by their beautician  that they will have to shell out additional money for some shampoos and hair conditioners now that they’ve gone in for that hair treatment.

This has become such an effective business strategy for these spas and salons, wherein the employees attack the self esteem of gullible clients and bully them into going for other treatments that promise better skin and hair. A person walking in for a basic haircut is constantly reminded to go in for a facial since the beautician notices how ‘uneven’ his/her skin tone is.