London: Krishna Das Concert

Zenchai has been listening to Krishna Das (traditional indian kirtan music) since he was in my womb. So it is no wonder that even to this day he claims that Krishna Das is one of his all-time favourite musicians.

Randomly one day a few months ago, while we were still in Piricanga, Brazil, he asked if we could go to a Krishna Das concert. Adoring KD, I said absolutely.

As if by divine timing, the very next day in my email inbox was a notice saying Krishna Das was touring. It was all quite strange as the email wasn’t sent to me by any group that I had or am subscribed to.

I took it as a sign to follow-up on this. I found that KD was in Brazil. How amazing! The perfect opportunity to go see him live. However, we had no travel documents for Kobra at the time so seeing him in Brazil was out the window. But I noticed he was going to be in London in October.

Our future travel plans began to unfold and, as if by magic, we would be in London in time to see the concert. I had my mother-in-law call to book tickets only to find that the booking agency would not sell tickets or admit anyone under the age of 14. I was livid about this obvious ageist rule. So, just to make sure, I had her call again. The same answer was given.

Once in London again, I pulled out the strong horses and began sending emails to the event organizers. I came to find out children WERE allowed to attend and we were given the wrong information. I immediately logged on to the website selling tickets only to find they had sold out.

I was gutted. I wrote back to the organizer that had given me the okay to take kiddies and she offered me an alternative place to purchase tickets. Luckily, I was able to snag two.

The night of the concert arrives. I am giddy with excitement to take Zenchai and Kobra to see and hear KD. We bundle on to the tube and make our way into central London. Upon arrival to the event, we were greeted with a huge queue of people all waiting to enter the hall.

After standing in the long line, we made our into the venue being ushered by many helpful assitants. Our seats were in the balcony section (the cheap seats at £29 each!). The auditorium was bustling and finding decent seats in our section wasn’t easy.

Once we secured three seats (we were meeting a friend and her 18-month old there) we began to bed-down. Zenchai was immediately agitated. The seats were cramped (my knees were banging into the seat in front of me – I can’t imagine what it would have been like for Claude had he come) and his chair kept tilting his light body out of it. So to counter his discontent, he began climbing on and over me into the aisle.

Kobra was seated on my lap. Just days before, she had discovered her inner-pirate and was loudly making her happy sounds. All the while the temperature in the auditorium was rocketing higher and higher.

KD was taking ages to make his way on to the stage. Finally he was introduced and those with children were asked to be mindful of everyone elses experience.

With KD finally on stage, Zenchai was momentarily entranced, but within minutes he was talking over KD, asking all sorts of questions. From the corner of my eyes I could already feel the 'be silent' looks from people around me.

Kobra began snatching every piece of paper within hand distance, biting and chewing it and making a fine paste. It was all over her and me. I could feel the sweat trickle down my back as her enthusiastic pirate chorus grew louder and all the blood rush to the surface of my skin as Zenchai continued to use the seats and me as a climbing frame and death glares started coming our way.

This was all within 15 minutes of arriving. I immediately realized what a mistake I had made. I wasn’t enjoying the experience in any shape or form.

We heard what felt like two songs before Radhanath Swami came on stage and started talking. By this point both kids were all over the place.

I decided to step out in the hall and get some fresh air with them. At that exact moment the friend I had been waiting for stepped out from a different section. We both looked at each other and, without saying a word, had non-verbally agreed this wasn’t going to work.

We waited out in the halls until the Swami had finished his talk and quickly made an exit for home.

I was so disappointed - my fantasy concert didn’t come off as anticipated.

But to add icing to the cake, on the way home from the concert I was verbally insulted by a drunk woman. She was shouting at me saying how I was abusing my child by having him out so late (10pm), that he should be taken into foster care and how disgusting I was.

By that point I could only laugh.

 

Comments

[Bill M]

I feel your pain: I've had analogous, but much less predictable problems taking apparent adults to performances requiring serenity and, if not reverence, at least respect.

If there's a good used CD place nearby, the tickets' price or less would score a lot of KD's CDs--and, as with Z's self-build performance space (the hang concert), you could stage your own home event! (Amazon UK offers used CDs, too.) Next time, eh?

[Jamie]

Thanks, Bill! I do think staging a CD concert where Z-man can build the stage and play the songs he really likes is a much better idea!
Hope you are keeping well! x