http://www.karhaj.in/Qurrah_List_Haj_2010.htm

A house on Fire

Hostel days are always remembered no matter whether they were good or bad and I believe they always feel good because they were bad. It's sheer nostalgia that works here. In my engineering, inspite of being in the same city as college, I preferred staying in Hostel for the pure freedom of the concept. I mean it's a place where none keeps a tab on you and you can memorise all the rules to break them at your convenience. Ours was also one such 'terrific' hostel with people from various places. The worst thing about any hostel is widely believed to be the food as it never tastes good no matter who cooks it and how. The common factor that connects all hostel foods is blandness I guess.

So when Wahid Bhai invited us to his house for dinner the very concept of invitation was applauded. Abid, Amit, Sachin, Shafi and I were to go and Shafi was this 'prodigal fella' who believed in being generous. He brought 2 pepsi bottles(1.5 litre each) to be carried along for the invite. At 930 PM, we were at Wahid Bhai's house. Was it a house? I guess it was one large room partitioned into two. Bhai was working as a Salesman in some Car Showroom and was hence the 'working class' amongst us. He dropped often at our hostel and hence the association with him. There wasnt any door bell at his house and we dint need any as the door was open.
"Arey welcome !!' said a gleaming Wahid with a smile and we all were ushered in.
The moment I stepped in I picked a weird smell, I mean the kind that comes in Soya bean oil. I dont know why some people's houses smell that because it's kinda weird. Anyways, we cozied ourselves on cots and chairs as my mind wandered ' what possibly may be on the Menu??' !!
'Oh Pepsi, why did you people get it.. I mean students' inquired Wahid as Shafi tried being comfortable with that with his Oks.
Wahid probably had never seen high-school. But he was sharp and smart, atleast thats what he thought about himself. He used to give us a lot of 'fundas' about surviving in this mean world, thats what he used to call it. But I liked the way he talked, it had a charisma and a confidence. I mean, he had that ability to sell sand even in the desert.
'I just need another 10 minutes before we begin dinner.. sorry' smiled Wahid Bhai.
I dint like his house, I mean the way it was. If the soya smell had already killed my appetite, the stinginess of the place was invoking my displeasure for him. But he had been a nice host in inviting so I allowed my mind to drift onto something good. Abid was a dapper among us, neat and tidy and combing his hair every minute with his finger-comb, he thought he was different from others. I feel everyone is different from others and I don't understand why some people attach this self-conceived notion. Anyways, Abid also had a very irritating habit, even while speaking Hindi he used to use 'because' as a conjunction. I mean why shud u use it to join two Hindi sentences?? Doesn it stand out. I used to forget his both sentences and get focussed on his 'becuz', the way he said it in British accent. But he was a nice guy and I think I liked him for being a dapper.

The cooker whistle interrupted my ever wandering mind onto Amit. ' I din get the reason for this invitation.. Wahid Bhai.. I mean..' said Amit. Amit was this amazing guy who always questioned. He was sometimes called Socrates. Nobody questioned him as to why he questions this much.
' Err.. Just like that.. U see.. this is the first time I'm calling you guys to my house so I thought we should dine together' replied Wahid. I was really not interested in any of this as my mood was'nt good then. This mood is also hysterical you see, you just cant predict its behaviour graph, what it will be when and the worst part is you need to have a good mood to predict your mood correctly. It's a perfect Catch-22 here.

Then it was chatter that was happening and while some of it was normal and perforce the rest was more of a 'show-off' thing. Abid was all over it with his ' Thats not important !!' riposte for every argument. He was used to that as a budding lawyer. You tend to get caught in such situations when you find people hijacking them with their knowledge and it's like you are redundant. You cant say anything and can't listen to what they say because it's like you just can't digest it,lest assimilation, partly because you won't be sure whether it's true and mainly because it is being said by someone you don't really like. Shafi was that kinda guy, I mean I liked him but he had this habit of punctuating everything. You say Mt. Everest is 8848 metres in height and he will interrupt you ' Naw.. actually itz 8847 !!!'. Now WTF. You can't do anything about such guys. He once told me it cost 73 paise to produce one 300ml pepsi !! Wonder where he gets these super-secrets facts. I always wondered.

Whistle number 17( probably) brought me back from Shafi's Avatar-esque world and I was wondering which bird is so brittle that it is whistling so much in the cooker. I glanced at the wall clock in Wahid Bhai's house and it was a cheap 50 dough thing where you find the maker's name as CLIMAX or TYTAN. The class was maroon coloured with gold plated hands as the second hand was stationary at 4. Now, why do people try to fox us always? I mean.. they can just print it as TIMEX or TITAN and yet no company has time to sue them. Creativity with names.. uh?? Yeah, the time was 10:10 and I saw a little hunger on everyone's face.
'Ok brothers !!' exclaimed Wahid, as if he was settling an argument, 'Les have dinner'.
'Shall we sit here or in kitchen??', the ever inquisitive Amit.
I almost forgot to tell you about Sachin. We use to call him 'spokesperson' because he never spoke. Literally I mean it. I never understood why he never spoke or why he spoke so little. I have been a complete failure here as I have no clue.
Wahid laid a mattress, plastic one. I always believed mattresses were good but since the advent of plastic, the world is really changing. I don't like these plastic mattresses at all. Not a bit. I swear !!!
Wahid and Shafi brought 6 steel plates from the kitchen. The plates were very thin and I pressed one's bottom to bring the 'dung' sound as the base shoots up and Voila !!! It happened. I should'nt have done that anyways but Wahid dint hear it I guess.
When Wahid brought a hot-pan ( Chapatis I guessed), a Kadhai ( I tried guessing but could'nt arrive), Pepsi, and the steaming cooker, all was set for a dinner bash.
Wahid was being a perfect host, trying to do all these minute things with intricate precision. When everyone settled around the food, he opened the cooker to reveal boiled water and everyone there was like ' WTF'.

The peaking hunger had made defunct everyone's grey cells. It was the eyes that were talking, narrowing every second, with confusion and utter haplessness. Whats happening here, I thought.
Wahid Bhai gave us that derisive smile, that mocking bird kinda brooding smile. He said ' Guys, look at the clock', it was 10:20 but still not one clue.
'Guys, its still one and half our for 2nd of this month !!!'
'That means Guys, Its still April Fool !!!!'

The Enigma called A R Rahman

Much has been talked about A R Rahman. For starters, the double Oscar winning music composer, singer, arranger, musician from Incredible India needs no introduction. He is the undisputed king of Bollywood music, a music churning factory. Braced with the thought that awards gauge artist's accomplishments is the maestro's own thought that awards show people's affection, a wise saying which reflects his welcome to them with open arms.


With everything in cine world resting highly on publicity and promotion, from music albums to movies to soaps, the name ARR is enough for any to-be released album to generate the necessary 'heat'. I'm bringing forth this after the much awaited 'Blue's music hit the market(or has it, officially?). This was the virtuoso's first release post his stupendous international alludes with Oscars. I heard the songs and barring one, found them to be mediocre. One more thing that ARR is known for is his mammoth fan following and what 'fans'. I was very keen to read the music reviews of Blue's soundtrack and was really surprised to note that it has got rave reviews, albeit with lots of disclaimers:
"Having said that, this is A R Rahman's album and it's a recognised fact that his music takes time to grow, so maybe, the listener will start liking it after several hearings."
What is this? A verily profound fact? Or a veiled excuse?
We know people who make music and also who make good music. We also know people who make symphonies. But can anyone deliberately make music such that the listeners don't like it initially and then like it, every time ? What is it, a computer program? Or is it just that he is a damn lucky guy who gets lucky several times, or every time? However, it isn't luck if you get lucky every time, or is it in his case?
With due respect to Rahman's genius, isn't it possible that you listen to an average song and don't like it, and assume you should like it after several hearings as this music takes time to 'grow' and then are found liking it? I smell a yes here, though remotely and I also don't know much. One more factor that throws weight behind this hypothesis is the fact that the maestro is known for his ruthless experimentation. He's both a master of melody and tweak. He tweaks it to the point that the subtle complications hit you in face, giving you a feel that this is something never heard, never attempted thereby compromising the set pattern. But who cares about the set pattern as far as the product is 'A Product !!!'.
From the very onset of his stellar career he has been on the receiving side when it comes to everything and that includes success and complaints. He is repetitive, his sounds seem similar, he lacks melody etc. However, all these apocryphal mentions were never comprehensively established and thus the enigma in Rahman continued to haunt people with his mellow music and elude the cynosure with his well disguised persona. Once when asked by a scribe as to why he is reticent and meek, he had said 'I feel I'm being stripped when I speak much, it's like I'm getting naked'. This perhaps is one of the aspects that make him click and I say so because the mystery with him remains unexplored.
People always categorise Rahman into the Rahman of the 90s and the Rahman of now and I always feel the former to be the one that has the power and the class that is propelling the latter. ofcourse, times change and with changing times things evolve but the talent has to do what it should since the genius does what it has to. As I think of winding up this terse, I'm sure I have again committed the same old sin of keeping lot of loose ends open. And yeah ! the enigma called Rahman puzzles, perplexes and haunts me much more than before.

Lonavla-Khandala-Lohagadh outing

Right from the time I have come to Pune, I have been hearing about Lohagadh. Every one here just sings poems describing its beauty. Planning something on weekends and then bursting it up has become more of a habit when it comes to people in my office but this time around we were determined as hell to make it. The planning started with girls on-board(as usual) and then after severel rounds of talks they finally declined our offer( again, as usual) of going on bikes. We were bored of pacy and instant one day trips and hence were planning to go for a 2-day sojourn this time. And not just that, everyone was desperate to test the toughness of his newly acquired bike on the topsy-turvy western ghat so everyone wanted to go on a bike. We rounded off the travel list with 9 people on 5 bikes. We left Pune at around 10 AM on Saturday to reach Lohagadh around 12:30. Man, it is quite a place. Located on the foothills of Western Ghat, we have a well sprawled fort atop a mountain. The pre-monsoon showers had draped the entire place with green curtains, punctuating here and there with floral tributes. I say tributes because the place is bombarded by bougainvilla and the likes. You should see how the petals will be scattered on roads, as if in anticipation of the roadies ( ya, we called ourselves Roadies, after the successful show of ruggedness on MTV). Before we could reach the fort, we got a small freshwater body, shallow and aqua blue in colour and everyone stopped there for dastardly photo session. I hate it when people take several photos in the same location. I mean, what the hell !!
Then we went to the fort, remember, its on top of a hill, so we had to trek. The worst part is it is slippery, with cascades gushing down from atop the hill and with amateurs like us trekking, there is every chance of a casualty. We finally reached on top and the effort was worth. You could see a host of civilisation scattered from the top. One thing I hate about India is that you will find people in every nook and corner. As we started our monkeying stints on the top, everything felt like nothing. It was like you are staring at a beautiful wallpaper and suddenly you landed inside it. Man O Man !! It was freshly beautiful.
We then headed to Lonavla, a tourist heaven with everything heavenly costly( Buy a maize at 25 bucks !!! I'll rather have shit instead). The first impression of Lonavla was disgusting as it was Saturday and people were storming in, mostly from Mumbai. We had to stay at a lodge and at an affordable price, so we got a nice and clean stay-house at a very cozy price. We combined all the beds to make a dais and started playing cards. I'm mentioning this because that was the time when we had the highest laughter in, say a month. Man, it was hilarious and out of the world.
We( 3 of us) slept at 4.30 in the morning with promises of getting up at 6 as we had to start early to Khandala. The stay-house had to be vacated before 10 and I got up at 9:40 with dozens of eyes staring me for being late. We then had pathetic break-fast and went to Bhushi dam. I can say it is a decent place but what made us stick to it was the crowd. Babes, babes and babes. The place was crawling with babes. After another miserable photo session, we left for Khandala and reaching there, were disappointed because of the mammoth crowd. OMG. People dont seem to have work on weekend and all they do is throng to Khandala. Can you imagine we could not go to the famous Tiger-point because of the mad rush !!
All we saw was Western Ghats being cut by the Express Highway with some beautiful waterfalls pinned in the backdrop. It is a beautiful visual as the entire scene is aptly populated by passing vehicles on the highway.
We came back to Pune on Sunday evening, rejuvenated, over-joyed and exhausted !!!

Panshet trek


It was an exhilarating experience and a much needed break from the normal chores. Panshet is called 'Pune's switzerland' and it is. Mountainous range with draped greenery and cut-throat waterways. The accompanying river emulates an Amazon thanks to the recent downpour that makes its water muddy. Panshet is around 40 kms from Swargate, Pune and is well connected by tar. After wandering in the mountainous trek for around 2 hours, we finally pit-stopped at a desi dhaba and had desi chicken. Finally, we started to Splendour City which happens at 12 km down the fork before the Sinhagad crux. It is a resort with 4 ft swimming pool, snooker, karaoke juke-box and a cafeteria. I personally did not like the food as it was a bland. having said that, a lunch and a snack coupled with all the recreation facilities is every penny worth the 450 bucks.
We dived and peddled in the pool for an hour, had lunch, played snooker, sang songs in Karaoke and darted a dart board. It was real fun and a perfect team outing.
More than anyone else, I'm desperate for the next one !!

Jai Ho Concert, Pune

After the double whammy at Oscars, brand Rahman has suddendly swelled to magnanimous proportions. The man, known for his humbleness and reticency, never misses to score a point when it comes to charity. His series of concerts coined 'Jai Ho' are another gigantic step towards the same. After the hugely successful first concert post his Oscars at Kochi, Rahman announced that he shall follow it up with a concert at Pune the proceeds of which shall go to mangeshkar Foundation and Alandi Dehu Vikas Kendra. It was enough for me to start feeling butterflies in my stomach since I'm currently redundant at Pune. The date was 31st May and the venue Balewadi Athletic Stadium. The venue was a shrewd choice considering Rahman's mammoth following as it is a vast expanse. I planned that I will witness the extravaganza with as many friends as possible and finally the list of concert goers read: Aslam, Prabha, Pooja, Kshama and Varsha, all colleagues from the firm I work for. Finally, the much awaited day( D-day for many) arrived and Aslam and I started early( 3 pm to be precise as I did not wanted to be late.. as Im usually late for everything) and we got a call from 'the girls' that they are still busy with their make-ups( girls.. you see). We( boys) reached by bus with a coupla connecting flights( lol) and girls preferred Auto( again.. girls you see !! ). We thought we can save a coupla moolah for smoke roles and Aslam ensured he bought a pack. Finally, entry time and I was desperate trying to contact our girls who inspite of having the luxury of Autorickshaw, werent at the entry queue. I never imagined the turn-out would be such a whopping. Forget the inside, the outside itself was like a massive concert with people nudging and pushing each other( Incredible India !!). Then there were frequently irritating security checks where people with sweaty hands and killer eyes frisk you like you are a public property. Aslam was caught with a cigarette pack and it got confiscated. No protests coz there were no arrests. All this turmoil ended when we finally found ourself fresh breath of air inside the open theatre with the crowd swelling every moment. And lo !! Finally, the girls arrived. It was 6.15 and the environment was already getting tuned.

I have no idea how the next one and half hour passed by as everyone was desperate as to how and when the maestro, also known as The Mozart of Asia will arrive. The eagerness transformed into frustration and suddenly, an aircraft in an airport in Vimannagar could not find a strip to land and it was told to circum-ambulate Pune. It flew, made  a 45 degree left cut exactly above Balewadi Stadium and everyone down there felt rahman would para-jump onto the stage, as the 20,000 odd crowd raised its hands towards the plane, yelling Rahman Rahman Rahman !!

The plane proceeded away from the stadium and the obvious was understood as the crowd's euphoria died down. Then came the moment, with Ali G coming on stage, in his typical Jamaican accent yelling " Hey you peepul, aa yoo rready?? Wen Aay say Jay.. yo say Ho.. wen Aay say jay.. Yo say ho.." and the crowd madly followed as if he was their mentor. Next, he asked, how desperate are you for Rahman? to which the crowd showed their desperation by breaking all decibel records. Man O Man !! Pune is mad about Rahman. Fo sho. Ali G took his cell phone and played a recorded message by Rahman and the crowd went tossing. Then the lights were turned off and the speakers on, with the crescendo of the master's sensational tune hitting the ears, it was a feeling, an experience, a sense that is seldom felt as the Maestro made his appearance on stage amidst a deafening noise. The assembly went berserk and so did the speakers with Jaage Hain.. from Guru, an anthem of sorts.

After this, song after song, hit after hit, beat after beat, it was music music and music. After all, a man who has redefined contemporary music and created new sounds was here to enthrall everyone. The concert was characteristically devided into 6 segments:

Rahman with his hair-raising adrenaline pumping chartbusters.

Rahman, Hariharan, Roopkumar Rathod and Rashid Ali in a jugalbandi with the maestro on a piano.

A techno, mindblowing DJ remix of Rahman's popular songs.

Felicitaion of Rahman by Lata Mangeshkar, Dr. Karad, Suresh Kalmadi.

Devotional piece where Rahman and Raja Hassan sang qawwalis.

And finally, patriotic punch where he rounded off the event with Jai ho and Vandemataram.

It was an audio-visual treat for all rahmaniacs with splendid laser stuff and spot-on choreography. Ofcourse, I would like to add that some artistes were dearly missed including udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh, Alka Yagnik, SPB and kavita krishnamoorthy however, all said and done, it was once in a life time experience.

Roja to Rang De Basanti- An Eternal Journey

Beautiful snow capped mountains and a bed of crimson roses. A pair feeling lost in the mesmerizing beauty that is surrounding them, matched equally with a magical music that is played in sync with these scenes and the arrival of a Virtuoso is heralded. That's how the entire world felt when they first saw the song ' Yeh Haseen vaadiyaan' from the film ROJA and the question every one started asking was ' Who is the music composer?? Who?? '

This is A R RAHMAN's debut for you, with an album that eventually got itself in to the TOP 10 albums of 'all-time' by TIME magazine. What ensued after ROJA was what every one had expected. He delivered and delivered and delivered until the masses said " HE IS A GENIUS!!”There was this unique style in his composition that stood out from the rest. It was a beautiful method, an enigmatic process, master planning and the perseverant quest for something new and different! An attempt to come up with something the entire world had not heard and experienced before.

He followed ROJA with Thiruda Thiruda where he showed he could tweak. He showed earthly melody is not the only thing where he excels but he can also improvise. Even the low budget movies like Chhalia and Tu Hi Mera Dil had those moments of attention where the listener was forced to stand up and question about the new beat or about the enchanting arrangement. Perhaps 'The Maestro' felt it was time to set some commercial records and can anyone do that in a better way than he did it with BOMBAY? The album sold a whopping 5 million copies and the genius of RAHMAN became un-challengeable.

His much-awaited Bollywood arrival happened with director Ram Gopal Varma in Rangeela and before even the music could be released the teasers had already grabbed the nation's headlines (with Urmila contributing slightly). RGV said he could not sleep the whole night after RAHMAN handed him the compositions. RGV had pressure " How in the world should I picturise such beautiful compositions?” By now, RAHMAN was done satisfying the directors. He wanted to so something for his fans. Perhaps a gift that he could offer to them, as he would like it. That was how VANDEMATARAM was conceived and THE GENIUS of RAHMAN was appreciated globally as the album was released in 28 countries with SONY entering the Indian market with this album( they wanted to enter it with a bang and they had their money on the Perfect Horse... clever people).

RAHMAN had more to offer, so had Mani Ratnam to derive out of RAHMAN. They both came up with DilSe.. regarded as the Benchmark in Bollywood music with Chhayya Chhayya becoming a rage among the nation.
Rahman accepted Subhash Ghai's challenge of his musically rich films and composed the music for his TAAL. It has to be the BEST musical under Mukta Arts banner. Circa 1999, RAHMAN went international as he landed BOMBAY DREAMS. Other international projects followed and also followed LAGAAN. With LAGAAN, RAHMAN came full circle. Again that melody, those earthly tunes, easy on ears . Amazing!

Post LAGAAN, bollywood saw very few of RAHMAN products as he was busy internationally. THE LORD OF THE RINGS stage version followed and then came RANG DE BASANTI. With RDB, RAHMAN showed he is still RAHMAN, as Techno was beautifully dissolved with patriotic tunes. The effect was indelible. Was any room left? Was any territory left unconquered? Everybody yelled a big NO. RAHMAN said YES. I still have to do an English song!! PRAY FOR ME BROTHER.

The fact that it became UN's anthem for poverty eradication and NOKIA's default offering in the N Series says it all. From having the rare distinction of being the composer of ' Airtel ' tune which saw itself in Guinness Book of World Records as The ring tone that was downloaded the most in the world to being the only brand ambassador of WORLDSPACE, RAHMAN has had it all. No other composer has successfully composed in the number of genres than he has done.

From Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada to HINDI and English.. All done!

From Ads to movies to Theatres to Themes to Ring tones to Anthems. All done!
From rookie Naresh Iyer to SP Balasubramaniam to Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan to Varttina to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Michael Jackson. All done!
What continues is the beautiful journey that started off with ROJA.

There are journeys that are memorable as some sweet thoughts are associated with them. There are some journeys that leave a mark and are never forgotten. But this is one journey that everyone feels should never end, as all the destinations in this journey so far were soul satisfying. They were magical and full of pleasantries. Mr. Navigator... Looking forward for the next destination that happens to be JODHA-AKBAR. Here's wishing you all the best for your future SIR.