CHENNAI: Singer Nikhita Gandhi has said she is "heartbroken" after four students were killed in a stampede during her concert at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) on Saturday (Nov 25, 2023).
Over two months ago, A R Rahman was forced to apologize after his 'Marakuma Nenjam' (Can the Heart Forget) concert in Chennai was called out for mismanagement. Many women took to social media and said they were molested in the melee. Many said that there was massive overcrowding, and scores of people were not able to enter the venue despite reaching hours before the concert started, according to The News Minute.
Now, it is the turn of Nikhita Gandhi. "Heartbroken and devastated by what took place this evening in Kochi. Such an unfortunate incident took place before I could even leave for the venue for the performance. No words are possibly enough to express this profound grief. My prayers go out to the families of the students," she said in a message posted on Instagram, India Today reports.
The CUSAT accident, according to P K Baby, Director of Students Welfare, "transpired when the audience from the backside of the auditorium surged forward, resulting in a stampede. With more than 2000 students present at the venue, there is a likelihood of many sustaining serious injuries."
Over 60 students were injured in the programme which was held as part of the School of Engineering's annual tech fest 'Dhishna' that began on Friday.
The music industry is notoriously commercialized. How music and the industry have changed for the worse. Or was it always like this? Here, one would like to recall what Harmony Holiday wrote in her piece Fear of Music. She says, "...I don’t want to access this hysteria’s sound. I don’t find the collective howl of trapped capitalists endearing or redemptive. I think it’s another tacky affectation of the neo-liberal fantasy of oneness with no substance, their blood-soaked rainbow, their terminal world. I don’t want to hear it."
Rahman said that 'Marakuma Nenjam was a 90 per cent success and 10 per cent loss'.
How do we measure the trauma suffered by young women molested by mobs during the Rahman concert and, in the CUSAT tragedy, the young lives snuffed out due to the callousness of the organisers?