When THE WANDERING SOULS invited our GURUji, A R Rahman, to attend the programmes in Pune, this is what he replied to us in his usual "short and meaningful" way...........
"Good luck to the guys Hope they retain the SOUL of the music God Bless !". When the Group met on 8th evening to analyse the 7'th Feb programme as post-briefing meet, to chalk out the action plan for the 10'th Feb sold out programme in Pune, Rahman's words were weighing heavily on everybodys mind. We have to respect GURU's words and have to pull out all stops to make this event a memorable one. And we delivered WE DID IT ! WE DID IT !! WE DID IT !!! We gave a CRACKER of a performance on 10th in Pune !!!! We upheld RAHMAN's trust in us The Balgandharva Auditorium was packed to the capacity at 950PM, 10 minutes before schedule starting time. On dot 10PM, the curtains parted to the booming beat of the "Ooruvan Ooruvan from Muthu" as opening melody. After brief introduction of the RAHMANIA concept and paying homage to the late Naushad sahib and OP Naiyyar, the show started. We gave a small sample of RAHMAN's first composition which he had made at the young age of 7 years and the audience simply got bowled over as NOBODY knew this information. In the first half, we presented, Ghanana Ghanana Lagaan / Roja Janeman Roja Kahin Aag Lage Taal / O Humdum Suniyo re - Saathiya Chup ke se Saathiya / Dil se Dil se Aye Hairathe Guru / O Yuva Yuva Ae Ajnabi Dil se / Bombay theme Bombay Sufi Medley ( Mubaraka / Piya Haji ali / Kehna Hi kya / Satrangi re and many more ) That completed the first half. The sound system had held firm and group was already fired up enough. The audience had already demanded ONCE MORE for 5 songs so we were running short of time. In the second session, we presented following songs, Yun Hi Chala Chal Swades / Roo Ba Roo RDB Tu Hi Re Bombay / Rangeela Re Rangeela Hasti rahe tu Saathiya / Paathshala RDB Tere Bina Guru / Shakalaka Baby Bombay dreams And finally the audience favourite Patriotic Medley consisting of ( Bharat Hum ko Jaan se / Des Mere Meri Jaan hai tu / Aazadi / Yeh jo des hai tera / Maa Tujhe salaam ). It was a tough job to juggle the available time in this session also due to constant ONCE MORE requests. Finally we had to leave aside few of the best compositions including Vellai Pookkal. The audience gave the Wandering Souls a STANDING OVATION !!! Unbelieveable but true, we had visitors from outside Pune. Shirish (Shirish Musician) from Yahoo fan group had come all the way from Hyderabad, in addition to that there were 25 registered Yahoo fan group members who came from Mumbai just to attend the show. Plus some special guests and people, who had worked with Rahman. We had received encouragement via audio messages from Shankar Mahadevan, Saumya Rao, Sadhana Sargam, Blazee, Naresh Iyer and Madhushree. We will always remember their kind gesture. Thank you AR RAHMAN for your apt, and personalized message to the group! We now know how difficult it is to compose and present your songs. You are a genious . Thank you GOPAL SRINIVASAN ! You are a true friend, philosopher and guide to us .. Thank you Vijay Iyer for your encouragement and interaction with Amith Chandhran and for your guidance..... Thank you to the family members of The Wandering Souls, Anmol Bhave and his loyal soldiers ! you guys and gals ( now as my nephews and nieces ) mean much more than friends to me........ Thank you all our well wishers and the great audience of Pune ! You are our support, can't do anything without you The programmes were sponsored by Lokasatta ( media sponsors ) and Bank of Maharashtra who have been always supportive of efforts by Puneites in the field of performing arts. There were many many many fond memories, some tense moments, some unforgettable situations. At the end of the programme, I just remember getting up in a trance and hugging Anmol Bhave in highly emotionally charged atmosphere, we both had tears in our eyes........tears of satisfaction, tears of happiness, tears of achievement. It was wonderful feeling Thank you RAHMAN ! Thank you PUNE ! We will be back shortly.... Best regards Dinesh Vaidya The Wandering Souls, Pune
