http://aparnas.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/every-rehmanics-dream/ April 26, 2008 Every Rehmaniac's dream….<http://aparnas.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/every-rehmanics-dream/> Filed under: Musings <http://wordpress.com/tag/musings/> — aparnas @ 1:12 am Tags: ARR <http://wordpress.com/tag/arr/>, fun<http://wordpress.com/tag/fun/>, live concert <http://wordpress.com/tag/live-concert/>, Rehman<http://wordpress.com/tag/rehman/>, trance <http://wordpress.com/tag/trance/>
…. is to watch the maestro perform live. And that dream of mine came true last weekend. Oh ya, you can pull that popping eyeballs and raising eye brows back to their places. Na na na na… I watched Rehman sing live.. [image: :)] *Disclaimer/Warning: *What follows is almost day by day chronicle of how it all happpened. And its really long. *Monday, 14 April:* The Times of India newspaper launched their Chennai edition today and as an instant popularity gaining stunt, they are organizing a Rehman concert in the city and giving away free passes too. I heard this announcement on the radio and all i could do was, sigh and console myself saying, *"Namakku adhellam kedaikkadhu… ". *And in due course of the later events of the day, this tiny piece of announcement totally slipped my mind. *Tuesday, 15th April:* I'm hurriedly walking to the railway station. I'm already late. Phone rings. Its Raju. Raju: "Hey, in today's Economic Times there's an ad about an ARR concert this weekend. Me: Yeah, I know. Sigh. Raju: So buy a couple of ET on your way to office. I'll go collect the passes from the TOI office. Me: …… (Speechless for a while) Oh sure. This charges me up and I make a dash to the railway station and grab 2 copies of ET. The shopkeeper gives me a weird look. Train comes. I get myself a nice seat and immediately dig into the paper to find the ad. Ah… There it is. What a pose by Thala. God, I should get the tickets. I reach Velachery in no time, tear the ad from both the papers and off goes Raju to TOI office. A moment after Raju left, Magix called. A fellow Rehmaniac. I excitedly told him about the concert only to get a bulb. He knew about it and even had a pass already. Damn. As a bit of extra info, he told me that the pass was being issued since yesterday itself and I stood a slim chance of getting one. Damn Damn. After about an hour Raju called and told me the he got the passes for the concert on Sunday. I almost screamed aloud. All that stopped me from getting up and dancing on my desk was my TL sitting right next to me. *Saturday 19 April:* I reach home hurriedly and tell my bro about the passes. I hadn't told him about it earlier. Surprise .. [image: :P] He is initially excited and then immediately remembers that the folowing day there's an IPL match between Deccan Chargers and Kolkatta Knight Riders. Some arguement follows and we amicably decide to decide about going or not, later. *Sunday 20 April:* Right from the morning there has been a constant discussion. The topic: "To go or not to go". My bro and I took turns convincing each other. And then finally I put my foot down and said: I'm going. You can come if you want to. He had no choice but to come with me. [image: :P] *Moral*: Emotional blackmail helps big time. [image: ;)] I call Magix at around 4.15 and he's already at the venue!! He says the crowd is building up. Omigosh. We leave immediately and reach the venue at around 5. Despite the pass clearly mentioning that the gates would be thrown open only at 6.00 pm, we maniacs literally gate crashed and entered at around 5.20 itself. There was a HUGE crowd and so it was a mad meelee. Everyone was rushing to catch a good spot. The initial rush died down and people slowly settled themselves in cosy spots. Some restless fans broke into a song among themselves and time hung heavy on all us maniacs. We were all eagerly awaiting the maestro's entry. Every now and then there would be a loud cheer and then we'd realise it was a false alarm. At around 6.50, a TV anchor appeared on stage and did the initial pleasantries. The shout from the audience in response was tremendous and the next instant AR Rehman appeared on the stage with *"Jaage hai der tak hume from Guru"*.. OMG.. What a start.. We all crooned along… He sang *"Ella pugazhum oruvan oruvanukke from ATM" *and that set the tone for the evening. This was followed by numerous other hits performed by various other artists like Naresh Iyer, Karthik, Shanker Mahadevan and so on. The heat was merciless and we were all sweating profusely. ARR came on stage and in a lighter vein said that he'd cool us down and sang *"New York Nagaram"(Jillunu Oru Kaadhal).* Man o man.. To hear it live almost made me cry. Next up Jaaved Ali appeared and need I say that the audience swayed to *"Saare sehme nazare hai.. soye soye waqt ke dhaare hai.. "(Jodha Akbar)* A little later, Nithyashree took the stage, dressed up in her trademark *pattu podavai.. malli poo.. jimiki… *sat down as if it were December music festival at the Mylapore club and started an *alapanai *(or whatever is the musically correct term for it. ) and went on for about 10 mins. The crowd completely lost patience and almost started to boo her when she broke into *"Kannodu kaanbathellam.. " (Jeans) *quite unexpectedly. The crowd made a U turn and went beserk dancing. Master stroke did u say? U ain't seen nothing yet. A little while lated Shivamani, the percussionist was given 15 minutes to beat the hell out of anything he could lay his hand upon and magically extract beautiful music from it. He started with good old drums, moved to suit case, mineral water bottle and a lot of other unusual instruments. Just when the audience was slighta getting bored, out of nowhere the beats transformed into the opening beats of *"Azeem O shaan shenshah" (Jodha Akbar)*.. moved on to *"Rukumani.. Rukumani"(Roja)* and finished up with *"Veerapandi Kottayile" (Thiruda Thiruda)*… The audience was stunned!!!! That was when Rehman took the stage with *Dil Se Re*.. Need I say anything about the atmosphere? [image: :P] Two hours just flashed past us and it was almost time to leave. The concert would go on for more than an hour but the legs were begging for some rest. Just when we were half heartedly trudging to the exit, Thala came up with "Pray for me Brother"… The Chennai audience did the by-now-extemely-famous-cell-phone-waving * … After this song, the stage lights turned green. We anticipated "*Vande Mataram"* and waited for the orange and white lights to come when Rehman came to the stage with a harmonium and wearing a Kufi.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kufi> Ah.. What followed was indeed a divine experience. Thala sang *"Khawja mere Khwaja"*.. The audience went into a sombre mood and almost into a trance. I looked up to the heavens and thanked God for the evening. After the song was over, the legs no longer pained, the stomach no longer grumbled, the throat no longer ached, the tongue no longer yearned for a sip of water, but the brain and my brother wouldn't let me stay there any longer. Mom would worry was what the told me as they dragged me from the venue. I went home a happy person, despite missing the rest of the concert which included the likes of *"Tere Bina",* and *"Ey hairate" *from Guru, "*Arabi Kadaloram"* from Bombay *"Vande mataram"* etc. The long hours of standing, the dust all around nothing remained. All that echoed in my ears was Rehman's voice. Raju, thanks for the pass bro and ajju thanks for coming along. You made my day. All I'm going to remember about this day till the last day I breathe is the fun we had together. [image: :)] The perfect end to the evening was the phone call to Peppermint and verupethyfying her. [image: :P] Did I tell you we went to Pizza Hut straight from the concert to grab a bite and the waiter there glared at us as if we'd descended from a strange planet?? Never mind. I'll tell you about it later. Adios~~ [image: :)] PS: Thanks for actually reading this far.. [image: :)] PPS: If there are any speelimg/gramatical mistakes/unwarrented tense hopping.. Kindly echoos. * The lights in the concert are dimmed and the audience waves their cellphones with the display light. From the stage, the performers say, it looks like watching a billion stars on the night sky. Its a truly beautiful gesture invented and patented by Chennaites. It began at the Saarang 05 KK concert and continues till date. More on it.. Later.. [image: :)] -- regards, Vithur Whatever God wants to give, no one can deny; Whatever God wants to deny, no one can give. Be happy always
