A R Rehman, Live in Concert ..

I have never been to a live show before.I have never been to New York before.Last Saturday, I was in New York , screaming away to glory at THE A R Rehman show.The man ROCKS! just plain and simple, he ROCKS !
The Indian community turned out in full strength, everyone , from the ABCDs to the mami's were there,I found myself looking wistfully at the Kanjevarams and the pretty salwar kameezes and was mentally kicking myself for wearing the usual jeans and tee to an Indian gathering.Of course, as expected, the biggest turnout was the spectacled creatures with brandnames screaming new money from all over, people discussing "I hear SAP pays xxx now" (if you havent guessed it yet, I am guessing you belong to the elite group of people who dont belong to the Software Industry).
Looking at so many Indians(if I can call them that) made me feel like I was in India, had me fooled , for all of a few minutes.Sigh*
We stay so far away from the 'comforts of home', the stuff we grew up with around us all seems a milion light years away(not a few thousand miles like it actually is). We know that this is a 'foreign country'.We are but outsiders,here for a short while (unless you are aspiring to settle here), What happens to "When in Rome,be a Roman" ? I spend most of my time trying to search for everything Indian.There is an indescribable pleasure in just finding a desi face(even if I am at the Indian store :D).There's probably something terribly wrong in the way human beings are made, yup, you thought right, I am hiding the fact that something is terribly wrong with me by trying to palm it off over all human-kind :D Knowingly, we make a decision to come here, far away from all that we hold dear. We watch a new culture, imbibe so many things from it , knowingly or unknowingly. We learn as much as we can while holding on to all that we have in us when we reached here. We change. We begin to think, to compare, to question, to prefer one aspect of a culture over the other, not liking either enough to say this is the best and end up becoming a bit of both.We slowly become part of the misfits that arent Indian enough to be Indians and arent American enough to be American.A cross-over happens, choices are made that put you into no-man's zone. But you arent alone there, you have all the other software guys for company ;)
Well, let me leave that for another day and get back to why I originally started this.
A R Rehman
A crowded stadium. The stage set up for the maestro.Darkness descends,the stage lights up. People walk in.Music starts.Excitement, anticipation and energy building up 360 degrees.The crowd literally waiting with bated breath for the magic to begin.And he walks in. It was like all the strain that was building up broke loose, and the house erupted in one giant scream of energy.
He played quite a few of his 'famous' numbers showing once again why he is the best. The nicest of singers, the soulful Hariharan, Sukhwinder Singh with the modulations(is that the word) that his voice made, the Rajasthani folk singer, Sadhana Sargam and my all time favourite - CHITRA, pure voice, childlike smile and the face of an angel . I couldnt believe there were so many people, so many music greats. There was a nice medley of the slow romantic numbers and the fast beats dance numbers.Then, there was the jugal-bandi style of the Monsoon song, all the singers lined up and sang in succession of each other, each egging on the other to outdo himself.They built up the mood to a crescendo. (for the first time I understood, what people used to talk about when they said Tansen could make it rain when he sang the Megh Raag). I almost believed that these people might have been able to achieve that feat! Then there were the music solos, Sivamani ! He rules, amazing pice that he played. Had people spell bound into silence.All in all, there were so many events, that I cant probably describe it all.
People dancing, tapping their feet away, swaying to the music. It was a sight to be seen and an experience to have been felt.The maximum applause for his older numbers like Dil Se or Humma humma, of course there was a huge-unending demand for songs from Sivaji.He actually managed to appease the whole crowd, with the punjabi numbers,the tamil songs and telugu, the instrumental, the world music, the 'hot' numbers, the 'religious' song.. the whole works. Really makes you wonder, how one man managed to create so much magic.
Well, kudos to him.As for me, it is one of the most memorable evenings that I have ever had.Definitely not going to miss any concert from now on. Dont miss it either if you get a chance.
Dil toh aakhir dil hai na.. Meethi si mushkil hai na ....