When it rains music, it pours...

Warning: This is a long, long post. Read it at your own discretion. And the photos were taken from the Rs.499 enclosure, which is of course the farthermost from the stage, which is why this is all I could manage even with my 10X optical zoom. In any case, please excuse me. Check Swaroop's blog for some really good pics! We (Prasanna*, Sangeetha, Karthik** and I) managed to start from Prasanna's home at around 5:30 PM. The rain started when we were midway, lashed relentlessly and seemingly achieved its goal. I was half wet when we reached Palace Grounds, around 6:30 PM. The autodriver must have been one in a million. The madman dropped us some one kilometre away from the entrance. And we got down and jogged the entire mile in the heavy rain. It was actually cool, if you ask me. Considering the fact that we were gonna get drenched in the concert anyway, it didn't matter one bit. :) Sang's friend Deepa was waiting outside the Rs.499 entrance, pretty furious at Prasanna that we were late. (We had two extra tickets and she wanted it.) She was dripping wet and I guess that added on to her anger. (Sang had worn a denim jacket, I had borrowed Prasanna's jerkin and we guys had an umbrella with us. Honestly, beats me how people didn't expect it to rain. Prasanna had been telling me that morning that it starts raining there every single evening and he was very sure that we would have to attend the concert in the rain.) Anyway, Deepa and her friends had been waiting outside in the rain and she was bugged with Prasanna for having shown up late. 'Inga wait panna edam kooda illa, see we're fully drenched', she glared at him. Poor Prasanna. 'Neenga ulla poi irundhalum, nananju dhan irupeenga, so there's no big difference. Maybe we should stop wasting time and go inside', I responded. And she went on to tell him, 'Inga moonu ticket Rs.500 ku tharanga ippo'. Okay, so? I managed to hold my tongue and we went inside, Deepa and her friends waiting for yet another friend. (Ummm... err... slight-a Prasanna va yen thittinanga?) * * * * * * * * Once in the Rs.499 enclosure, we somehow made our way towards the front of that section and I managed to slide inbetween two guys, both of whom were soaked to the bone. And the wind, Oh God, the wind was the killer. We braved it for a long, long time. I could hardly see the stage from where I stood but what struck me was that the people in the Seating section were standing, holding their plastic chairs above their heads for protection against the rain. Sad!! The rain stopped sometime past 7, and soon the compere came on stage and announced that the show would indeed start in an hour. Yeeeee!!!! The guy went on to say smth like ARR wanted the show to go on, and said that it might not go on as per the original plan (groan) but we would have it anyway (yipee!). He also said smth to the effect that 'the chairs are for you guys to sit on'. Don't know what he was thinking, that it was people's hobbies to hold up chairs above their heads? I would have thrown a chair at him in response, if I had one. Hehe. At one point, the compere went on to say smth like '... I have only one question to ask you. Are you guys -'. (Uh-oh. I'm not, but can I please stay for the concert?) It was hilarious. I believe he intended to complete the question with smth else (as we realised quite soon), but at that moment, he stopped abruptly with 'Are you guys'. A few seconds later, he resumed with 'Are you guys ready?' or smth to that effect. And yes, it was after that that the singer, Prasad or whatever his name was, decided to pray to the rain God to stop raining. A prayer to the rain God to stop. Pretty ridiculous, if you ask me. The fact that the drizzle turned into a steady downpour after the guy started singing only made things worse. Well, if that weren't enough, the guy wouldn't stop. Gosh. He just went on and on and on and... (Can someone please request him to come down to Chennai and sing that same prayer song here?) I think that was when Deepa and her friends decided to leave. Apparently, it was too much for them to bear. They had wanted to leave before 7, we had convinced them to stay back for some more time, saying the concert itself was supposed to begin only at 7. But after waiting for a long time, wet, cold and shivering, I don't think she was in a mood to attend the concert, and they left soon after. * * * * * * * * The jerkin that I had taken along did not have a cover for the head. We had an umbrella but Karthik seemed intent on holding it for a pretty girl standing next to him, rather than for us! Terrible!!! Every two minutes, one of us had to beg him, 'Karthik, engalukkum konjam kudai pidiyen, please.' I knew that there would be no shelter or respite from the rain but what I hadn't really expected was the slush. Urrgh. I wonder how we guys managed to dance without tripping and breaking our limbs. (Prasanna and Karthik managed to get us something to eat during this one-hour break. God bless them!) As we waited till 8 o clock, it started drizzling again. No, God, not now. Not now. Sang was totally confident that the programme wouldn't be held. 'Sathyama avanga perform panna poradhilla, konja neram kazhichu vandhu program cancelled nu solla poranga… veetuku polam vanga', was her constant refrain, which Prasanna, Karthik and I totally ignored. Whatever was gonna happen, we wanted to stay on. And she was proved wrong soon enough. The show did start. With 'Fanaah' from 'Yuva'. Awesome. And then Hariharan went on to sing 'Telephone mani pol'... Prabhu has put up the entire list of songs here. After a few songs, we noticed that the entire crowd in the Rs.999 section had jumped over the barrier and made their way towards the Seating section. Standing on the tips of my toes, I couldn't see anyone in the Rs.2499 (or was it Rs.1499?) Seating Section either! An instant later, we followed suit. And soon found ourselves right behind one of the seating sections, pretty close to the stage. Dash it, of all Murphy's laws I've experienced in life, this one is probably the worst – Exactly when you need your digicam, the batteries go down. Absolutely frustrating. Ayyo, zoom panni azhaga fotos eduthirupene. I didn't even have spare batteries. Wanted to kick myself. But please save your breath, don't blame my poor digicam***. Or me. The poor thing somehow got wet in the rain. We had kept it inside Prasanna's waterproof backpack, which I had slung over my shoulders. And I had worn the jerkin on top. And the rainwater still managed to find its way. Thanks, God. None of the buttons in my Cam work now (the mode button doesn't work, not do the direction keys!) and I'm honestly hoping it would be a very minor thing to fix. (I was thankfully able to transfer the pics to my comp.) Maybe servicing would fix it. Please, please pray for it guys. I don't mind how much I ought to pay for it, am just hoping it would ultimately work. *sniff* Anyways, we were there, right next to the seating section. And soon after, some really fantastic song was being played. Inbetween my shouting, screaming, whistling, swaying and dancing, I happened to notice the people in the seating section closeby. The damn guys wouldn't even clap. Daey, enna padama katranga inga, ipdi utkarndhu vedikkai pakreenga? Karmams of India. If I had my way, I'd have thrown all the people in the Seating section out. (Sorry, Ferrari, it's not intended at you, but if you happened to be one of those bovine creatures, well then, I meant you as well). Personally, I have always felt the audience in the standing section is the liveliest. It's sad that they are given the least preference and thrown to the fag end. And thus went on the show. I honestly can't tell you if the crowd went wilder for 'Humma humma' or 'Chaiyya chaiyya'. Hmmm… Or was it wildest for the 'Secret of Success'? Uh-oh, people who didn't attend, no, I'm not trying to rub it in. :) ARR came back after a break to tell us the 2 lessons he had learnt that day. 'One is not to conduct any programmes during Ramzan. And the second is how much you guys love me. Till today, I thought that people just listen to my music and go away. Only today, I realize how much you all actually love me'. Aaah… *sniff* * * * * * * * * Here are a few things I particularly liked about the concert. * There was a piece that Rehman had composed for the UN's campaign against poverty. It was good, but I couldn't make out most of the lyrics. (Anyone knows where I can get the piece from?). * Sivamani's too good, man, I swear. There was a small break for around 10 mins, which was filled in by this guy. The crowd could only gape. (I had earlier attended a fusion show at IIT Saarang while in college and Sivamani had performed with some classical person, I honestly don’t know whom. This guy had worn some weird dress then, seemingly made of metallic rods, and he actually scraped on it and generated music. Gosh!! Incredible guy.) Anyway, he was equally good, if not better, on Saturday, and he went on and on. And had us totally enthralled. Towards the end he had us clapping rhythmically for his music and he obviously kept increasing the pace. Oh, we most definitely can't match you, Sir! :) * I felt the choice of songs were good. There weren't too many slow songs, thankfully, nor did he save the best for the last (unlike his Chennai concert in 2003, when I felt he played a lot of slow songs in the beginning and faster, better ones towards the end). This time, there were good songs throughout. :) * And most of the songs selected were hits in both Hindi and Tamil, and had the entire crowd swaying and singing, each singing the lyrics in their choice of language! :) * Shankar Mahadevan began, 'the next is a slow song from Bombay'. 'Humma humma', said Sang instantly. He went on, 'It was a super flop..'. Confirmed-a 'humma humma' dhan, she added. And yes, they did play the song. Ooohhh... he went on to sing the song in a totally different tune, before playing the actual version. Hehe... it was hilarious. * Rahman dedicated the song 'Chale Chalo' from 'Lagaan' to the crowd for our spirit. :) * Oh, there was another awesome piece. After singing 'Ghanan ghanan', Shankar Mahadevan went on with how Rahman would have composed that song if, in the movie, the song had to end with rain. Ooh man, I found that piece simply brilliant. * The concert began at arnd 8:30 and went on till 12. Prasanna says this is the longest concert he has ever attended in Bangalore. :) * * * * * * * * A few minutes before 12, Sang again began reminding us of the ordeal we had to face to go home. Prasanna refused to leave until 'Vande Mataram' was played. Ultimately, just as ARR began the song 'Aazadi' from 'Bose', it started drizzling. We finally decided to leave, turned half-heartedly and walked a couple of steps when he switched over to 'Vande Mataram'. Veetukavadhu poradhavadhu… We were immediately back in position, screaming our hearts out… heads tilted towards the sky… arms stretched out… welcoming the raindrops that descended on our faces. Perfect finish. As the banner outside the palace grounds said, 'Rahman tujhe salaam'. * * * * * * * * So, well, how was the concert? Perfect. And the experience? One in a million. Anything else I wanna say? Next time, God, just remember it takes a lot more than that to deter us. * * * * * * * * Read more about the concert here, here, here and here. * - Our cocky-boy phobic friend, of course. ** - the rest of the thayir saadhams. *** - they didn't check us for digicams at all. Mazhai la indha check ellam romba thevaya nu feel pannangalo ennavo.