Thanx a million for this initiative...we feel we have contributed in some way
to ARR & his dedication thru all these years! It cudnt hv been better...u
translated our emotions & wishes thru this cause. Hats off!!! N finally, thanx
for sharing the wonderful pilgrimage experience..it only reinforces &
multiplies our love,faith,affection & trust 2wards him.
ARR...u r truly worth evertything in this world. We feel blessed...
Long live ARR n his community
swaps
Sunil VG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear Gops,
That was straight from the heart. The one person that deserved to hand over
the cheque and go through this surreal experience was you. Congrats on getting
another opportunity to be in the company of the man who inspires us to be a
better human being. God bless him and his family.
Regards,
Sunil
On 1/7/07, Gopal Srinivasan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dear friends,
When we set out to raise funds for the A.R.Rahman Foundation as a gift for
ARR's birthday, I
had only planned to send him an image of the cheque by email and the physical
cheque only by
courier. But when the contributions soared past anything I had hoped for, I
felt it was only
fair that it be handed over in person. And so, I set out to Chennai on Saturday
morning not
knowing if I would actually be able to meet him. Though by now, we have seen
enough evidence of
his simplicity I imagined being stopped by security guards even before I could
let him know,
all of which was completely unwarranted.
Thanks to the never-say-no graciousness of ARR and Vijay's entreaties, I had
the good fortune
of being your representative at the birthday celebrations of the person whom
many of us deify.
Far from being met with for a few seconds and summarily dismissed, I was
treated with the same
affection, care and love by everyone at his home and studio as were many of the
key
personalities of the industry who made their way to his abode to greet him in
person.
I made my way to his home with some navigational aid from Vijay to only find a
bunch of busy
workers setting up the place in preparation for lunch. When I said that I had
to meet ARR Sir,
I was asked to wait in the first floor of the studio which is the building
right in front of
his home. I made my way there to find many people doing the same, some of them
being Mr.
Srinivasa Krishnan of Global Rhythms, Sridhar Subramaniam of Sony BMG, Naresh
Iyer, executives
from WorldSpace and Saregama and producers from the Tamil industry whom I did
not recognize. I
could see gifts of flowers from a host of people from the industry - Subhash
Ghai, Udit and
Deepa Narayan, Rajkumar Santoshi, Bharat and Kanika, Chinmayee, Radio Mirchi,
Radio City were
some names that I managed to spot amidst the sea of bouquets in the studio.
ARR's right hand
men Noell James, Sivakumar, Swamidorai, Faiz and H. Sridhar were also in
attendance.
We were soon joined by ARR's mother, daughters, son, wife and sisters and
others in the family.
I soon realized that simplicity and humility runs through every brick and body
in his home and
studio. ARR still hadn't turned up and his mother insisted that we must have
lunch and we were
ushered back into his home where ARR joined us. Soon director Shankar and
family, Kathir,
Krishna (of SOK), Praveenkanth made their way in. After lunch we made our back
to the studio,
were ARR took us to a large studio room on the 2nd floor and screened the video
of Pray For Me
Brother. I am still searching for words to describe the multiple exhilarating
emotions that
passed through me as I watched the video. Nothing we have heard so far in the
live performances
truly captures the brilliance of the recorded song. Who else, but ARR, could
have an Indian
classical harmony accompanying a rap segment?
Following this, both ARR and his son Ameen, who also celebrates his birthday on
the same day,
cut the cake jointly. While his son wanted to cut his special 'Spiderman'
shaped cake, ARR
decided his simpler cake was more appropriate :-)
Coming to the crux of my visit, it was the time after the birthday cake was
distributed and
everyone was leisurely seated around the studio that I chose to hand the cheque
over to ARR. I
wish I could say, 'Did we spring a surprise on ARR or what!' But ARR instead
sprang a surprise
on me! He looked visibly moved and said 'I have been telling these folks what
you guys have
been doing.' I went, "Huh?" And his response was, 'I was on the group last
night and saw all
these messages about a collection drive. You guys are increasing my
responsibilities now'. I
quickly assured him that he could count on our support in anything that he
wanted to do. he
then handed the cheque over to his mother and introduced me to the rest of the
people there.
He then asked, 'Don't you want a picture?'. I joked, 'I would like you to say a
few words or
else all the folks would think I made off with the money'. He laughed and
agreed. I told him I
could wait till the studio was a little quieter. He said fine and went on to
have a private
conversation with Shankar and then moved away to supervise some dubbing work
for Guru that was
underway at the studio.
Before he left, I mustered the courage to ask him if there was any way I could
get another look
at Pray For Me Brother, to which his reaction was, 'Of course, why even ask?'
and asked Abdul
from the studio to screen it for me in one of the smaller rooms.
I was waiting around the studio for a while when a Jaya TV crew trudged in for
a sound bite.
Soon thereafter he came down and shot with them. Then he turned to me and
asked, 'Can we shoot
now?' And thus was marked another momentous occasion in the history of this fan
community.
I don't think I can ever thank all of you out there enough for having given me
the privilege of
undergoing this experience. I sincerely hope and pray that each one of us would
find an
opportunity to have a similar experience. I was overwhelmed when so many of you
who I have
never known or met come forward so confidently and generously to transfer what
were no mean
sums of money. All thanks to the magic of this one man whom we love and
respect.
Thanks,
Gopal.
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