My First Gig

I thought my first official gig would be this grand, cinematic moment. Weeks of preparation. Perfectly crafted mashups. A crowd ready to lose themselves in my music.

Instead, it was chaos...

Before FLAME University, I had only played at a handful of small house parties. Friends’ birthdays. Last-minute gatherings. The kind where someone says, “Jai, plug in your laptop,” and I shuffle through tracks for a few hours. Those moments were safe. I knew everyone in the room. I could see exactly what made them move.

But this was different.

This was 130 people. Maybe more. People I had never met. People from Chennai, Punjab, Kolkata, Delhi, Kashmir, Rajasthan. People from across oceans, from Kenya. An audience so diverse that I couldn’t even guess their taste in music. A mix of accents, cultures, and expectations standing in front of me, all waiting for the last night of their program to be unforgettable.

I knew maybe 15 people in that crowd. My friends. My support system. The ones who would scream my name even if I accidentally played elevator music.

And then came the twist.

An hour before the event, someone asked me to play. Not tomorrow. Not later that night. In an hour.

I sprinted to my dorm. Grabbed my laptop. My friend and I sat there frantically going through my playlist. Fifteen minutes to prepare a setlist that usually takes me a month. Fifteen minutes to plan an hour of music that had to hit every mood - Bollywood, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri (yes, for the plot), and international. One hour to take them on a journey. To make them jump during the highs and get lost in the lows.

The set started. I could feel the pressure in my chest. Each track was a gamble. With a crowd like this, you don’t “read the room,” you learn it, one song at a time. Slowly, I felt the shift. They were moving. Laughing. Singing. It wasn’t perfect, but it was alive.

And then came the last song. Yellow by Coldplay. The first notes hit, and I saw it. People holding each other, swaying, tears in their eyes. In that moment, the chaos, the rush, the pressure - it all faded.

When it ended, I barely had time to process. Fifty people rushed toward me, lifted me up, shouting my name. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it over the music still playing in my head.

That night taught me something I will never forget. If I had said no because I wasn’t “ready,” I would have missed one of the most electric moments of my life.

So now, I don’t say no. I say yes, even when it terrifies me. Especially when it terrifies me.

Because sometimes, the gigs you least expect end up being the nights you never forget.