Acoustic (mis)adventure

I was approached to do a book review at the Bangalore book festival by a start up company. They do online publishing; authors publish themselves with the help of the company. New and raring to go. Concept is great; we have so many aspiring authors with no platform to launch them. This company will realise the dreams of many an amateur author.

Coming to the event, it was the launch of the company name and some select books at the Bangalore Book Festival. They (the directors) soon realised that verbal acquiescence is no guarantee that your request will be carried out. The Festival organisers had promised them a place to launch their company and their books. But on that day, feigned ignorance!! So, this found one of the directors running from pillar to post looking for a place to set up the books and paraphernalia. Finally, the aisle which led from the entrance to the inside was given, 2 rusty tables were set up, and torn (serious, not jesting!), so called, white piece of cloth was spread over the tables. A cordless mic was handed over to our people and we were on the roll!

The chief guest is quite famous in the blogging circles, and blogs on IT related issues. The event was delayed by just half an hour, not bad by our IST (Indian standard time!)

The books were duly released, and then I had to take over. Well till now I have not mentioned the fiasco that was the acoustic system. It absolutely refused to convey any sound to the audience present. It took on the job of throwing our voice outside the tent, of the book festival arena. This was due to the fact that the mic was connected to speakers placed outside, so this ensured that people who were sitting just 2 feet away could hear …nothing, but staccato words, static, see some arm flailing, and sheepish grins. In spite of knowing that our audience could hear next to nothing, all of us continued with our charade.

Unfortunately I had to inflict myself on the audience for the longest period, as I was not only to tell a story, but also was reviewing 4 books. God help me!! I desperately tried to get some responses from my audience, who were obviously clueless at times, wondering why I was pausing in between and staring at them expectantly. (Those were the points where I was trying to pose questions to my audience and interact with them!). Hilarious in retrospect. I gave up after some time, did a rush job on the review and closed up the discussion.

I need to equip myself with a personal acoustic system; otherwise I will continue to face such noisome problems!

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