Unlike Jamal Malik, Sid and I never found our third musketeer. But that didn't stop us from having the most incredible evening of our lives. When we were rushing places from nine in the morning, little did we realize that we would reach the concert venue with five hours to spare. That guaranteed one thing though-first row seats in our ticket section\m/
I looked around as we comforted ourselves on our prize seats. Tired of standing and yelling all afternoon the crowd was quiet, the sun was down and the stage was set (literally). It was an abnormal silence - not one of anticipation or awkwardness, or of tiredness or eagerness, not of grief or guilt or embarrasment or amusment. It was a silence I had never sensed before. People knew their expectations and were so sure of what was going to happen in the next few hours that they sat silently wondering why?
This dry stillness was soon broken as a smoke filled stage presented itself in dazzling lights while on a slowly rising platform was a man singing Jaage hai der tak..(Guru). 20,000 dumbfounded people sat in awe as this spectre in white rose above from understage to reveal his might over the rest of the cosmos. And as he delivered his last note the audience broke into a huge wave of uproar to welcome the man of the evening.
What followed next was an exotic musical extravaganza decorated with his own performances (Dil Se, Khwaja, Arziyan, Rehna Tu..) and with those of such mighty stalwarts like Hariharan (Roza, Tu hi re, Bharat humko), Roop Kumar Rathod (Khamosh Raat..), Rashid Ali (Kabhi Kabhi Aditi..), Raja Hassan (Masakali, Delhi 6, Guzarish), Benny Dayal (Kaise Mujhe), Sadhna Sargam (Roza) and the list goes on the on and on.
Another singer from the crew who performed the songs Genda Phool and Ringa Ringa mesmerized the audience as she left them spellbound with her belly dancing skills during her Mayya Mayya performance. Unfortunately I failed to identify her name. That was the the only one of the two times that night that people applauded for something other than Rahman`s excellence. The other one soon followed....
....He started it with Kala Bandar and while people were still bracing themselves he turned it into Azeem-o-Shan. It was not Rahman, it was a DJ(another one whose name i failed to get) spinning magic out of the king`s magical yarn, scale matching every song that has defined this musical genius. As his(the DJ`s) hand played with dexterity or ambidexterity (as my GRE friends would say) all awake souls revisited every song that has elevated their minds in the last few years . From Rubaroo to Humma Humma from Tanha Tanha to Muqabla he went through them all. The concert was nearing its end and it was not blood but adrenalin flowing in my veins. The situation wasn't very different around me.
Such was the level of excitement and revelry that finally in the end when Rahman continuosly sang Azeem-o-Shan, Humma Humma, Jai Ho and Vande Mataram back-to-back, half the audience (10000 people) pissed their pants and the other half lost their voice yelling and begging "ENCORE!! ONCE MORE!!".
Psyched and blown I was left thinking "Is this the best night of my life?". Little did I know what was awaiting me outside the stadium. It was definitely the most incredible evenings ever-but what followed that night made it legendary!! - A night to remember for the rest of my existence.....more on that in the next post!!....keep watching this place....
Monday, June 1, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Little people from Ratanpur...(a Kanpur Flight Lab story)
I slowly opened my eyes and relaxed my tummy muscles. The pilot had put his hand on my right shoulder. "Relax, my boy", he said "Look at your left, look down! What do you see?" I came back to my senses and turned left. Although I could not stop thinking. My whole body had just experienced a free fall from a height of 500ft........
The Piper Chronicles
Day 2 started the same. Basically it started a lot before our group could even wake up. We were scheduled to have an experimental flight at 6:15 in the morning and at 6:05 i was sitting in the toilet waiting for day 1 to disappear. Another group who were scheduled after us were already ready and had reached the hangar. As we rushed in a jeep to the hangar at 6:45, we luckily discovered the the pilot himself was late and was sitting in the same jeep as ours (Weird! we didnt even recognize him:)) So the first journey started! All 5 of us, Varun, Aadil, Satyam, Achyoot and myself, we took our positions inside the Piper Saratoga aircraft and waited for one of the most memorable moments for the rest of our lives.....or so we thought!!
So a lot happened. Satyam read out to the pilot from the pilot's handbook; my camera floated a feet above my hand (during the free fall) and when Achyoot requested the pilot to hand him over the controls the pilot looked at him as if saying, "Dude, I wont give that to my wife!". Although it was not that funny, Aadil coudnt stop laughing. He went on and on like Indro on a bad joke day.
Achyoot concluded this pilot might not be the "sutta" kind of guy (although he found out later he was wrong) and forgot about it as soon as he came back on the ground and saw the ravishing Vandy waving and smiling at him like a female prime minister of a third world country ( Our country needs to experiment with one of those too). Achyoot smiled as he preened his hair. Little did the poor chap know the RIMC was standing right behind him and smiling and waving as well.
The little people from Ratanpur
The second excercise for the day was three rounds of taking off, turning and landing a glider, a plane with no engines.
I am notorious for being a "fattu" (or a guy who is scared of taking any sort of risk, physical mental or experimental). So people had basically assumed what would happen once I go inside the glider and it takes off. I can picture them picturing me screaming, cursing, throwing my limbs around and ultimately opening the latch and jumping out of the glider from 300 ft. Now, that is so contradictory-its weird, and thats why it didnt happen.
This is what happened. I checked my seatbelts waved at my friends and the glider took off. It was kind of nice, rising heights and thinning air when suddenly everything in my stomach just started wobbling, trying to comeout and enjoy the view from that height. It was a free fall just after the cable which pulls the glider detaches. I clinched my fists and shut my eyes. When I opened them......"Look down, what do you see" The pilot was talking to me as if I was a five year old trapped in a tree panda`s body. "Look at that small village . How small it looks. Look at the little people of Ratanpur doing their daily chores. Look how that little woman is unloading water infront of that toy car. Oh wait! Thats not a toy car, thats a giant tractor.... " "I get it", I screamed. "I can see how little these people are looking and I can also see why....It would be really better for both of us if we concentrated on the landing rather than that woman`s tractor."
I kept looking down at the village for the rest of the landing. Everyone was busy with what they were doing except, there was a little 5 year old looking up agape as the glider was turning to land. It was probably nothing new for him, but he looked up with a curiosity that I can never match about a flying object. I looked closely....He looked a little bit like me.
I always had this phobia of heights. Much like everyone else I also fear falling down but in my case I always think its more likely to happen. I am usually reminded of the little people of Ratanpur whenever I feel lonely (not in a weird way:P), and that has been a lot lately. Sometimes I wonder, am I slowly rising above while all the people around me are shrinking in dimension doing their daily chores, bored and thus uninterested in what is going on above them or am I a little fellow from the village looking up at everyone who is floating past. The latter agrees more to my logic.
The Piper Chronicles
Day 2 started the same. Basically it started a lot before our group could even wake up. We were scheduled to have an experimental flight at 6:15 in the morning and at 6:05 i was sitting in the toilet waiting for day 1 to disappear. Another group who were scheduled after us were already ready and had reached the hangar. As we rushed in a jeep to the hangar at 6:45, we luckily discovered the the pilot himself was late and was sitting in the same jeep as ours (Weird! we didnt even recognize him:)) So the first journey started! All 5 of us, Varun, Aadil, Satyam, Achyoot and myself, we took our positions inside the Piper Saratoga aircraft and waited for one of the most memorable moments for the rest of our lives.....or so we thought!!
So a lot happened. Satyam read out to the pilot from the pilot's handbook; my camera floated a feet above my hand (during the free fall) and when Achyoot requested the pilot to hand him over the controls the pilot looked at him as if saying, "Dude, I wont give that to my wife!". Although it was not that funny, Aadil coudnt stop laughing. He went on and on like Indro on a bad joke day.
Achyoot concluded this pilot might not be the "sutta" kind of guy (although he found out later he was wrong) and forgot about it as soon as he came back on the ground and saw the ravishing Vandy waving and smiling at him like a female prime minister of a third world country ( Our country needs to experiment with one of those too). Achyoot smiled as he preened his hair. Little did the poor chap know the RIMC was standing right behind him and smiling and waving as well.
The little people from Ratanpur
The second excercise for the day was three rounds of taking off, turning and landing a glider, a plane with no engines.
I am notorious for being a "fattu" (or a guy who is scared of taking any sort of risk, physical mental or experimental). So people had basically assumed what would happen once I go inside the glider and it takes off. I can picture them picturing me screaming, cursing, throwing my limbs around and ultimately opening the latch and jumping out of the glider from 300 ft. Now, that is so contradictory-its weird, and thats why it didnt happen.
This is what happened. I checked my seatbelts waved at my friends and the glider took off. It was kind of nice, rising heights and thinning air when suddenly everything in my stomach just started wobbling, trying to comeout and enjoy the view from that height. It was a free fall just after the cable which pulls the glider detaches. I clinched my fists and shut my eyes. When I opened them......"Look down, what do you see" The pilot was talking to me as if I was a five year old trapped in a tree panda`s body. "Look at that small village . How small it looks. Look at the little people of Ratanpur doing their daily chores. Look how that little woman is unloading water infront of that toy car. Oh wait! Thats not a toy car, thats a giant tractor.... " "I get it", I screamed. "I can see how little these people are looking and I can also see why....It would be really better for both of us if we concentrated on the landing rather than that woman`s tractor."
I kept looking down at the village for the rest of the landing. Everyone was busy with what they were doing except, there was a little 5 year old looking up agape as the glider was turning to land. It was probably nothing new for him, but he looked up with a curiosity that I can never match about a flying object. I looked closely....He looked a little bit like me.
I always had this phobia of heights. Much like everyone else I also fear falling down but in my case I always think its more likely to happen. I am usually reminded of the little people of Ratanpur whenever I feel lonely (not in a weird way:P), and that has been a lot lately. Sometimes I wonder, am I slowly rising above while all the people around me are shrinking in dimension doing their daily chores, bored and thus uninterested in what is going on above them or am I a little fellow from the village looking up at everyone who is floating past. The latter agrees more to my logic.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
She smiled at me on the subway.....
remember that James blunt song ?
"My life is brilliant.My love is pure.I saw an angel.Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway....."
I happened to me, only this time Subway was a fast food restaurant in Bandra.What I am about to disclose here is entirely true and lines of fiction are defined well enough for sane minds to cross over. It was a sunny afternoon and after an hour and half of wandering among the belittling wilderness of unsuspicious faces floating past me, (sometimes into me, like I never existed) my hunger had started to grow on my nerves and my body was already threatening to hollow me under the skin if i did not feed it for another two minutes.
Then I saw it. Every organ in my body yelled - Subway!
Within minutes I was holding in my hand a parmesan oregano treat wrapped over tomatoes, cucumbers, salad and paneer overflowing with mustard and mayo. I looked at it and remembered how i asked the guy three times to put more of it. There was no time to lose. I opened my mouth like a python about to swallow a new-born horse. Every thing was set- I was waiting for this moment all day long, nothing could stop me now. My teeth almost dug into the bread when my body froze still. I felt like my soul jerked out of this world and back into it in that one little moment.
I lifted my head and turned right. There she was. Across the tables on the other side of the room she was staring at me, like she knew me, today, yesterday, forever. Her round black eyes were fixed at something beyond this world failing to realize when I had started to look into them as well. Time had slowed and my senses enhanced. I could see her so close upon me, I could hear her heartbeats, feel the warmth of her breath on my face as her shoulders moved up and down. The smell from her skin continued to engulf me more and more into its vivacious depths. Into the deepest of this stunned musing I suddenly saw a muscle on her face move, triggering electric signals to a forest of nerves around and rendering most complicated human emotion - a smile. Her lips parted. I turned down to look at the mayo and then back to her. I was sure, I couldnt decide.
A few minutes later she stood up and left the place leaving her last bit of fragrance the task to wake me up from my reverie.
She was an angel, a ghost or just an illusion of a hungry mind. I dont know who she is, but I am sure even she doesn`t.
"My life is brilliant.My love is pure.I saw an angel.Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway....."
I happened to me, only this time Subway was a fast food restaurant in Bandra.What I am about to disclose here is entirely true and lines of fiction are defined well enough for sane minds to cross over. It was a sunny afternoon and after an hour and half of wandering among the belittling wilderness of unsuspicious faces floating past me, (sometimes into me, like I never existed) my hunger had started to grow on my nerves and my body was already threatening to hollow me under the skin if i did not feed it for another two minutes.
Then I saw it. Every organ in my body yelled - Subway!
Within minutes I was holding in my hand a parmesan oregano treat wrapped over tomatoes, cucumbers, salad and paneer overflowing with mustard and mayo. I looked at it and remembered how i asked the guy three times to put more of it. There was no time to lose. I opened my mouth like a python about to swallow a new-born horse. Every thing was set- I was waiting for this moment all day long, nothing could stop me now. My teeth almost dug into the bread when my body froze still. I felt like my soul jerked out of this world and back into it in that one little moment.
I lifted my head and turned right. There she was. Across the tables on the other side of the room she was staring at me, like she knew me, today, yesterday, forever. Her round black eyes were fixed at something beyond this world failing to realize when I had started to look into them as well. Time had slowed and my senses enhanced. I could see her so close upon me, I could hear her heartbeats, feel the warmth of her breath on my face as her shoulders moved up and down. The smell from her skin continued to engulf me more and more into its vivacious depths. Into the deepest of this stunned musing I suddenly saw a muscle on her face move, triggering electric signals to a forest of nerves around and rendering most complicated human emotion - a smile. Her lips parted. I turned down to look at the mayo and then back to her. I was sure, I couldnt decide.
A few minutes later she stood up and left the place leaving her last bit of fragrance the task to wake me up from my reverie.
She was an angel, a ghost or just an illusion of a hungry mind. I dont know who she is, but I am sure even she doesn`t.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)