A Fanatic's Minutes Of Paradise

It was to celebrate Times Of India launch of it's Chennai Edition and who else could have made the event big than the 'Mozart Of Madras', A.R.Rahman. The circulation of Times Of India had started on 14th April and there was a free pass for the 'A.R.Rahman Changing Notes Concert-20th April' given for each TOI paper you buy that day. The free passes were meant to be a part of the standing gallery. The concert was held on St. George's Stadium, Poonamale yesterday, the 20th. Me and four of my friends reached the place by 6 pm. The stadium was right opposite to Pachayappa's college and I came to know there was a traffic block right from 5, nearly 40,000 people were present. We gotta stand in one corner of the standing gallery, from where the performing podium was just about visible. One of my friends was gasping and the other saying there might be a stampede. For me it was ' ANYTHING FOR THE MAN'. Someone who had enchanted all of us right from his Roja to his Jodhaa Akhbar. My ardor for ARR music came quite late, approx 4 yrs back when I joined college. Bored and bugged with the mammoth sized Engg books, I started engaging myself with music. The kick off was with R.D.Burman and slowly I moved on to collect almost all filmy songs, old and new; tamil and hindi. My weekends helped me make my computer a real juke box. It was then I began listening to ARR more, I was amazed to see the change he had made in MUSIC, pure innovation, and excellent modulation. The song Chinna Chinna Aasai(Dil Hain Chota Sa) from Roja, a master's first piece and very much a masterpiece. The mix in instruments, first interlude would be guitar whereas the second one would be violin, sheer transition skills. The mix in the flute and guitar, the folk sounds and the use of natural sounds, chime instrument for the bell sound, it was celestial. So many instruments in one song, all that to get that village feel. From then on I have garnered almost all his songs till date. Khamosh raath's silence to the Azzem-O-Shaan Shehensha's beats. It was a wish to see him perform live or to see atleast one of his recording sessions. Standing in a crowd of thousands, for the first time I didn't mind the B.O, the dust. One of my friends frowned at me and I smiled back. You see it was bliss for me. But yaa I wished there could have been an IPL match in Chennai yesterday. Atleast some percentage of the crowd in St. George's Ground would have come down. It was past 6.30, repeated display of the promo of TOI launch flashed on LCD projectors. I asked my friend impatiently, ' Where is my guy??' She was like ' Really Ramya who is he..?' I said who else... my Rahman, they all gave me a dirty look.

By 7pm striking varied colored lights flashed on the stage and there was this roaring by the crowd signaling the arrival of the Maestro. Within few minutes he took stage, dressed in white and black. Ya, I could see him though from far. Making my day and that of other Rahmaniacs. ' Jaage hain dher thak hamein kuch dher sone dho thodi se raat aur hai subah tho hone dho, aadhe adhure khwaab jo pure na ho sake, ek bhaar phir se neend meinwoh khwaab bhone dho... ' he got going with these beautiful verses by Gulzar from Guru. The crowd was singing along. Then came the energy-packed ' Ella Pugazhum Oruvan Oruvanake' and the galore of us joining him in the chorus 'Munnal Munnal vaada'. Next came Shankar with ' Endrendum Punnagai'. Everyone, Shankar, Hariharan, Karthik, Naresh Iyer, Mohammed Aslam, Sivamani, Blaaze, Javed Ali, Karthik, Tanvi, Madhushree, Chinmayi, Nithyashree, Sadhna Sargam and few more singers( I couldn't recognize few faces). I wished Shreya Ghoshal was there. The other songs that made the crowd wind off were Varaha nadhikkarai oram, Vaji vaji, Barso re, Girlfriend, Rubaroo, Enn Solla Pogiraai, Kehne Kho Jashn-E-Bahara hain, Kannodu Kaanbadhellam( Nithyashree started on a classical note,it was my favorite of the few I heard) NewYork Nagaram, Munbe Vaa. By 8.30 we had to make a move, having promised our parents to get home by 9. I missed many numbers, esp Khwaja mere Khwaja, In Lamhon Ke Dhaaman, DilSe, Chayya Chayya, Tere Bina. Heard from friends the coda was simply great. I reached Perambur with my friends in auto and from there in my scooty back home. The concert was exceptional and my evening very special. A day I would remember for years to come. Thanks to TOI.