Yanni Atop a Telephone Pole!

Last Sunday, while coming down from DS to Chandigarh, mom played a CD of instrumental Hindi songs. This triggered a memory of an incident that happened years ago and soon both mom and I were laughing uncontrollably and wiping our tears, much to Aloka's surprise. No rewards for guessing- it was to do with Arun, my brother, the famous lecherous linesman.

Many years ago, mom, Arun and I were going somewhere in the car (sorry have forgotten specifics). Arun was talking excitedly about a Yanni concert he and his wife had been to recently. I had read that Yanni had performed in Agra and was not surprised that my socially active sister-in-law and brother had gone to attend it. In fact, I was sort of preening in reflected glory. Yanni! Live!

Arun then put in a CD into the player and said we must listen to the awesome music they had heard there. I was really excited. As the music began to play, I was surprised to hear the good quality of the recording- there was no ambient noise expected from a live show. I asked how he managed to get such a clear recording and he said that the concert organizers had provided a wire with each chair to record the music directly. Amazing what all technology allows us to do- I thought to myself.

The first few notes of the concert didn't sound very coordinated. I asked if this was someone else starting the show and he said that the instruments were being tuned at this time by Yanni's support staff. We heard some more and the music quality continued to be...well....un-Yanni-like. I asked if the opening act was by someone else (you know as typically happens in concerts) and he said yes, some other folks were playing while Yanni was getting ready. 

By now it was a good 10 minutes into the show. The music was still uncoordinated but now added to that was something almost violent. The piano was jerkier than ever and there were strange sounds of other instruments coming in and out erratically. The mixture of high and low notes sounded more like screeches and screams than melody. I am no expert in music, but this didn't sound like anything a master musician would play.

When I asked Arun when Yanni would come in, he said "What's wrong with you, this is Yanni." I was incredulous- that was noise, not music! But why was Arun looking so irritated when I said that? He should know better, after all, he also has a keyboard and plays somewhat...

That's when it struck me...My Gawd it was Arun on the keyboard trying to make us believe he was Yanni! He had once again pulled a stunt on us and we had let it be pulled!

We laughed so hard it hurt- at his genius idiotic ideas and endless energy to see them through, at his poker face glib answers about the tuning and the wires at every chair, and mostly at our gullibility and willingness to believe anything and everything he says despite all that he has already done to us!

Thanks for making us laugh like this Arun twice- once when you played the prank and the second time just remembering it. Yanni couldn't entertain us like you do if he were playing a ten-man band all by himself hanging from a telephone pole!