Middle-aged Poet in a Nehru Jacket

This is funny, at least, I think so. But at least The Times of India took note of my efforts to croon a heavy metal number. Thank you Times. What the reporter wrote was as follows:

"The more spontaneous ones among the audience members took turns on rasping "Ground me/Ground me/Look at the world around me," including a middle-aged poet in a Nehru jacket."

Well this middle-aged poet in a Nehru Jacket happens to be me. And the scene is the songwriting workshop conducted by Jeet Thayil and Suman Sridhar. I tried my hand at heavy metal singing, not that I am a fan of heavy metal bands, but just to try out the genre, but failed miserably to catch the harsh grungy voice required to belt out those passionate lines. Then came this guy with shockingly thick and long hair and the look of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden fame, and, boom, the song came alive with every possibly imaginable human angst, passion, infatuation, bitternesss, whatever....

I must thank The Times of India for calling me a poet when I am beginning to have serious doubts about this epithet. Seen above is a scanned copy of the news item.