It is truly a tragic story. I'm so sorry to hear what you guys have went through that evening.
--- On Sun, 5/31/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [arr] A tragic story of ARR fans at Pune Concert To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, May 31, 2009, 3:42 PM Hi all, At 3.03 in the morning, I definitely need someone to listen to my story - at the soonest before it burries me anymore with all the disappointment. All through since my teenage when Roja came up – until today when the world salutes the maestro for his contribution to Indian and world music, my liking for ARR has only grown out of proportion. Day in and day out, just like you all, I don’t remember a day when I gave ARR music a skip and now, it has become a part of life , just like brushing, bathing and breathing. Being a die hard fan of ARR since past 15 years or so, I am also a part of this group for about 9-10 years now (earlier active through email IDs ashok100020, ashokemail2003) . Guess, by now you are convinced of my crave of ARRs music despite the fact that many people call me crazy for ARR A month ago, when I got to know that ARR is in Pune for a concert, I had no second thoughts about the concert, even though Mumbai Pune are not really that close. It takes about 3..5 hours to travel to Pune. I am basically from Mumbai suburbs and kept waiting for any ARR concert. I managed to spread the word through every friend I had known so that nobody misses what they deserve to see – for all of them who have been thriving this liking for his music all these years.. Finally, two of my friends and me agreed to attend the ARR Pune concert. Now, we checked the website, as all passes were available only in outlets in Pune. We decided at once that we will reach Pune earlier on the day of the concert and buy the passes from one of the outlets mentioned. We checked the website again after a few days, still living and counting down to our day of excitement. The website now said that passes can be bought online via Credit/Debit card payment and will be home delivered – again, only within limits of Pune and vicinity. I requested my friend who in turn requested his friend in Pune to provide her address to us so that we can book the passes and get it delivered at her Pune address since the website said they deliver only in Pune. Story goes fine here – the passes get delivered next day. We receive a call that she has received the passes. The first things that I would do until 31st was look at the calendar each morning, and count the number of days to 31st. Fortunately, the girl who received the passes was also one of big ARR fans, like all of us in this group. She bought a pass for herself and her brother too. I slipped in my Digicam, my friend packed his Binocs and 12 mp cam and the third friend did not carry anything. Everything is hunky dory and we headed to Pune. We reached Pune concert venue before time through. Balewadi stadium, for everybody’s info is not really in proper city limits. It takes quite a bit of time, and sorry, but good money for the rickshaw to reach the stadium. But I wouldn’t blame anyone for it – probably that was the best place that the organizers thought of arranging the concert for our dear ARR, And frankly, nothing really mattered for us to watch ARR concert at any cost. Serpentine line and amazing huge crowd already waited there, vouching for the fact that arr fans are omnipresent. . Initially, there was only one queue. But as clock started ticking faster to 6 O clock, they opened one more line on the left side of main entrance. There was a separate entry gate for VVIPs of course. My friend’s friend met us at planned place to hand over the passes. Sheer joy and anxiety ran through my nerves – yes! I am here. Wasting no further time, we went ahead in one of the queues, the shorter one practically. Our turn came for the first check and yes, WE WERE STOPPED – no camera’s allowed in there. Well, no problems, we will not take the cameras, then where do we keep it? “Keep it in our vehicle, we are not allowing anyone to carry cam in there – no binoculars too..” said the security guy “Listen, we have come thru public transport and not in our own vehicle and have no place to keep our stuff i.e. cam and Binocs. Can you provide us a locker or something that can we take it back after the concert please?” “No, there are no lockers – keep your stuff anywhere, but you cannot go in with this stuff” As we tried to convince the sec staff, he had no answer and took us to his senior, actually an inspector or so. We explained him the case and he had no solution. We even told him we have come all the way from 3 corners of Mumbai only to attend ARR concert that we have been waiting for a month now. He rudely replied that people come from Mumbai with laptops, cameras etc. We can’t help. You can’t go in – and pulled us out of the queue. Now, as a matter of fact, our cams 2 together costed about 40000 bucks – leave alone the binocs..I had no clue if I could risk it with the cops out there ; nope. But ARR fever was higher , so we tried to persuade the cops if they could keep it for the time of the concert and we can collect it later. NOPES…they cared the least. We needed someone or someplace to take care of our Binocs and cam for about the time of the concert. Now our blood pressure went up – thinking of what to do. We tried calling the friends’ friend who gave us the ticket – as she had come in her car with her brother and friends. She said she was too inside to come out – and the car keys are with her brother. She tried calling her brother who may find a way out. In the next 25 minutes we called her more than times, only to be dismayed that her brothers’ number is not reachable. Balewadi was about more than 40 mins away from the hotel where we checked in – close to Pune station. A journey back to hotel and back to concert would be impracticable - for it would be too late –and expensive too… We called every Pune number possible – for the limited number of friends we have in Pune – at least 4 numbers. Nothing seemed to work –either they were out of city or were located too far to come to the concert gate and collect our cams and Binocs, so that we could go in. Now, there was only one solution – practical, but meant a lot to each of us. That one of us three decides to stay out keeping all the stuff of cam and Binocs and the other two can walk in. We are good friends of course, so started offering ourselves to be the one who wou8ld miss the concert, so nothing really got decided. We agreed that if we go, we all go, or else nobody goes in. At the same time, we could see a few people hovering around us to see if we are not going in , can they get the passes. There were two guys who asked us if we will be interested in selling out the passes to them. We had 3 passes, but even after 7 O clock, we had some hopes that we could go in . NOPES. Nothing really worked. In the end, where the sun set on our left, my heart sank with a feeling that I could only see the cake, but couldn’t have it. Having tried hard enough, we reached the entry, but are denied access, just bcos we got our personal cam and have no provision to keep it anywhere else? My heart froze – all my life where I dreamt of attending his concert, if it happened, it happened this way? We sold out the tickets to two guys who were waiting for our decision. One month’s long journey came to a tragic end. IN about 5 minutes, another guy who could make out from our faces that something terrible happened to us, asked if he could get a pass if we are not getting in . Yes, we had one pass left (out of 3, two were sold to those two guys already). We gave it to him – he was ecstatic, and took no time to enter the gate. Now it’s difficult to leave the place, when u know your dream shattered in last one hour. You'd at least like to listen all that is possible . We followed to the main road and on the left turn, got closer to the stadium boundary where we could very clearly listen all the songs. There must be odd souls there for 'free' listening. Again, the hawaldars in all their sheer wisdom shove everyone out. (even hit a man with lathi) Probably, nobody deserved it. A few points to ponder upon: 1. What worse can ever happen to ARR fans to travel all the way from Mumbai to Pune and be denied entry on ground of cam not allowed – did the show organizers ever care to think where are those guys going to manage to keep the stuff which is again expensive? 2. Did not the show organizers think for second if putting a note in the website itself that no cam or Binocs will be allowed during the concert - I am sure they were aware of this stuff long before and no last minute announcement is made in such decisions. The shrieking voice of the lady in her vernacular language is still piercing my ears – she repeatedly kept announcing that cam and Binocs are not allowed 3. Could they not arrange for a few lockers for those unfortunate souls who came with cams or Binocs? I am sure this was no small concert and such things are well planned I have no clue whether ARR is aware of how his fans are treated outside the concert – esp. those who are victims of stupid last minute rules that were not made visible on website or any other media. All my efforts to reach and make it to the concert flashed before me many times. We were 3 dejected souls yesterday evening and I kept blaming the show organizers for their unprofessionalism. But, I will still remain a big ARR fan. Will definitely attend the concert next time without Cam and Binocs, even if the organizers don’t care to be careful enough on their side. Just hope this tragedy does not happen with anyone else! Jai Ho ARR Ashok Explore and discover exciting holidays and getaways with Yahoo! India Travel Click here!
