A R Rahman Live In New Delhi

That was last night and a totally explosive concert. This was Rahman ji's first concert in Delhi.
Sivamani, Hariharan, Chitra, Sadhna Sargam, Blaaze, Kailash Kher, Madhushree, Saumya Rau, Naresh Iyer, Rayhana, Ishrath, Tanvi, Sayonara, Mohd. Aslam, Aslam Khan from Jodhpur, Dr. Narayan. Quite a gang there. 50,000 people in the audience last night, and thankfully it was not too cold.
I sang Tere Bina with Rahman sir. Nothing like singing in front of the live audience. Quite clearly the it is one of the most popular songs and to play a small part in it feels good.
Happened to meet Saumya for the first time. She is one of the voices that I have always liked and now that we also share a song in Bheema it was good knowing her. Very simple, chilled-out girl and surprisingly speaks great tamil :)
The only downside there - the mosquitoes. I guess half a litre of blood would have been sucked out of me.

Its during shows like these that we get together and spend some time talking or generally jamming. And needless to say, the sense of humour that is present my default in almost all musicians, it just flows. Everything from make up to clothes it is equated to music and rhythm. Like for example, someone's eye shadow is slightly off from where it is supposed to be, Hariharan ji comes in and says, "konjam thalli.. 'thaka' thalli irukku, avlo dhan"(roughly translates to off beat). People who know what thaka and thakadhimi will know what I am talking about. But then most of the times humour is lost in translation and I guess in repetition as well.

And then there was Aslam Khan, who sang Rang De Basanti. The pitch of that song is uncomfortably high for most singers and the only one who can comfortably sing in that pitch except Daler Mehndi would be Rahman sir. And of course Rahman sir's songs no one can repeat. Aslam Khan came in after singing that song and says "someday that song is going to kill me". Chitra ji was her usual quiet self and so was Sadhna ji. Madhushree had sprained her leg before the show and she was on a cocktail of antibiotics and painkillers and once she was on stage all was forgotten. Of course when the adrenalin sank, she was in a daze. Naresh was his usual bubbly self with a lot of people going ga-ga about his hairstyle. Mohd Aslam is the stand up comedian, off stage of course, mimicking everyone under the sun.

Its a dreamy, magical world that I usually always want to be in. Sigh!

I am given to believe that this will be telecast in Star World soon. Will be posting the pictures as well. Only this time Rahman anna wasn't too keen on being photographed, so no pictures of him... sorry!