Music Mania -- a saturday evening special

Both the Arien and myself were looking forward to the weekend -- we had some minimal shopping planned and we wanted to catch a movie. All that changed after the Arien received a call from his brother who lives abroad. I could hear the Arien utter "Yes.. Of course ... Sari... No problem... Yes, yes" and was quite curious. Well, the Arien had decided, all by himself, what we would be doing on Saturday evening. We were going to a musical gala at his nephew's school. We had not been to see him since he joined over 6 months ago and so this was a good opportunity. The program was scheduled to start at 5:30 pm and after picking up the folks who were joining us - it was 4:45 pm when we actually got started. I had almost given up hope on our reaching on time wen the Arien surprised me by reaching the venue (beyond Electronic City - after Elevated Tollway) by 5:45 pm and the program was yet to start. The stage was all decorated and we walked right upto the first row and settled ourselves in th seats meant for the kids :D

The school campus was huge and the number of parked cars informed us that we were the last ones :( The first to come on stage were the Prep 1 kids. The kids were actually lil more than tiny tots. They were 3 rows of kids (15 per row) and of them two would introduce the group and then join the others. Some of them were watching the guy who was playing the casino. Some of them were following what their friends were doing - at a very slow pace. I think we have never laughed so much. I had tears in my eyes. Only a small group was intently following the teacher who had a chair facing the stage and was miming the actions for the song. They sang and mimed for Popeye the Sailor man, Noddy, Sound of Music and kept us entertained. And then the capricon, Arien's nephew, came on stage with his first group (First Standard). The Arien settled down right next to the Stage so he could take good pics.

The capricon seemed so alone that all of us felt very bad. He is such a naughty kid that it is usually very tough to get him to do anything we want and seeing him like this - had us all go awwww. As he did his steps, he kept an eye out for us in the Audience and though the Arien was sitting right in front of him - he did not notice him till the very end. He did his steps very well and luckily for us - for some reason the mike did not work too well for one of the girls who was the star singer and so the teacher wanted a Repeatu of the song. I called the Arien because sometime earlier, we were asked to vacate our seats for the kids and told him to take more snaps. We were seated at the back -- close to the projected image and so we actually had a clearer shot of the stage.
And just wen the second round got over, we noticed that the capricon had seen the Arien because a brilliant smile shone on his face. He also did a quick step for the Arien as if to say "Oh.. I knew I wud come - How is this?" before he was shooed off the stage alongwith all the others, by his teacher.

The program got over around 7. The kids were given some coupons so they could eat something at the stalls. We had also purchased some goodies and so he was at his naughty best. He ran all around and refused to eat. We finally left around 8:10 after visiting his dorm, seeing two of his three room-mates and spending some time with them all. He is the youngest in the group and in the school. As we returned home, everyone had an opinion on the naughty capricon and if this was really what we wanted for him. It was 10 pm when we reached home.