Firstly the show or concert as a rule always starts late. Either the organisers are waiting for their chief guests, who have been caught in traffic or have no sense of time, or as it happened at a recent event, the main artiste himself hadn't reached the venue. To be fair to the organisers, the audience also contributes to the late start of the show. People keep sauntering in at their own pace and are still arriving in hordes even one hour after the show is supposed to have started. At one music show, after it had eventually started an hour late, people could be seen creating a scene for not being let in, as the organisers decided to close the gates.   

Rarely do the organisers apologise for the late start and take the audience — at least those who did arrive on time — for granted. At a recent show, one of the honoured guests was seen quietly slipping away after he had waited for over an hour for the show to start.

Worse still are the lackeys of the chief guests, who insist on standing around, blocking other people's view, because they need to be on hand to attend to their bosses' requirements of water/soft drinks/snacks… As for the volunteers, the less said about them the better. They generally hang around in groups, chatting and blocking the view for all those sitting. Sometimes they decide to suddenly scoot across to the other side disrupting your concentration.    

But those who take the cake are the photographers. Till recently, we had to only bear with the professional  ones,  hogging the bay between the first row and the stage. But now we have all the amateur photographers with their digital cameras and their photo cell phones also vying for this precious space. So either you are craning your neck to see over their heads or trying not to get irritated at the constant distractions. 

And that's not all. Felicitations are always held just when the show has got interesting and the artistes are giving off their best. Long winded speeches, lengthy presentation ceremonies disrupt the mellow mood that has set in. So much so, that many in the audience take this opportunity to make their exits. Although in shows where there are numbered seats, this interlude can serve as a coffee break, where there are no reserved seats those wanting to watch the rest of show, have to stay put, for fear of losing their vantage seats. 

Talking about felicitations, the most amusing one yet, was during one show, where friends of the artistes kept climbing on to the stage in between songs, to greet them and hand over bouquets. They were totally oblivious to the impatient and irritable audience. The interruptions to the show stopped only after the main artiste requested his friends to greet him and the others after the show.