JOIN USShowing his lighter side, Rahul Gandhi today recalled his "shortlived singing career" during school days, drawing smiles all around at an event here.
The reviews, however, were not too kind after he nervously belted out a song surrounded by his seniors during one of his initial days in high school and he never tried public singing again, the Congress Vice President said.
"That's not music, that's just noise" was the response of one of the students in the audience, Gandhi recalled while speaking at a function where noted singer Shubha Mudgal was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award for 2014-15 on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister.
Narrating the incident, 46-year-old Gandhi said the ordeal started when the entire class was one day called into the common room.
"There surrounded by seniors we were asked one by one to stand on a stool and sing a song. Any song.
"I can still remember the dread I felt as I stood up on that stool. I didn't know how to sing so I stood there quietly for a moment until someone shouted 'Arre sing something yaar'."
"I can't even tell you what I felt as I quickly belted out a song, the first song I could think of. I finished and as I hurriedly jumped off the stool someone shouted: 'That's not music that's just noise'," Gandhi said amid peals of laughter.
He said that was the the first and hopefully the last time he sang in public. "It has been 34 years now since I jumped off that stool - and I still can't sing."