Month: November 2010

ajnabi shahar ke ajnabi raaste

Just few random thoughts taking the shape of a post. How good it feels to be in a new city and then exploring things as they came. Things as simple as finding where to find good food and where to buy your daily need items. I have not experienced a traveler’s life but whatever few cities i have been to, i always found the initial time there to be very nice. You are almost a stranger with very little knowledge about the city. Looking for almost everything is a new exploration, most importantly without any pre-assumptions, taking things as they come. I have lived in Amritsar, Chandigarh, Noida and then Delhi. It was always a nice experience exploring the cities.

Well, not much to write…just playing a Jagjit Singh’s ghazal and loving it. Enjoy

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJxPtz4j2s

The magical Abida Parveen

Before I start writing anything else, I must thank Narvinder Bal who actually let me know that this awesomeness was going to happen in the city.  Well, watching Abida Parveen live concert was another dream come true. We reached the venue well in advance. And to our biggest surprise, we were about to enter the place where she had to perform and what we saw that she is coming from the other side and crossing from where we were standing. It was kind of so surprising that we couldn’t even manage to ask her for a photograph 🙁 .

We entered the venue and took our seats. Due to a bit of rain in the morning the weather had turned really pleasant, a kind of perfect for such an evening. The program started around 6:30 but Abida’s performance started around 7:30 as there were few other things before that. Few songs by 2 singers from Zee’s Sa Re Ga Ma concert and a dance performance by a group. Finally around 7:30 she came on the stage, in her typical style, acknowledging the crowd waving her both hands in the air.  The stage was all set and she immediately took her seat. The opening performance was Amir Khusro’s man kunto maula which she started with oooo jeeee maulaaaaaaa o miaaaannnn and believe me listening to that much only was equivalent to attending the full concert. There was pin drop silence in the audience and the only voice in the air was maulaaaaaaa….maulaaaaaaa…absolutely mesmerizing. Then she went on to sing verses from the poetry of Bulle Shah. The next was Kabir’s poetry. Then few of tracks were bit new to me. Finally came the legendary jab se tune mujhe diwana bana rakha hai…totally super awesome. She sang for around 2:25 hours and ended the concert with dama dam mast qalandar. It was an amazing performance and I am already looking forward to her next performance in the city.

As usual there were so many distractions. The biggest being that people didn’t reach in time and there was so much of disturbance of people moving around. Another reason was that probably they distributed more number of passes than the seats so many folks were standing as they were unable to get the seats.

Otherwise also what I have observed about myself is that I am not able to enjoy in live concerts as much as it should be. That i think, mainly due to all the distractions around. To enjoy this kind of music, one needs to be in certain state of mind. Now first that state of mind can’t be achieved intentionally and secondly due to so many disturbances at the venue it becomes so difficult to connect with the music. I would go to the extent that a single youtube video can give more satisfaction than watching that song live. Obviously when you are in that “state of mind”. This thing really disappoints me 🙁 .

Anyways, i am so happy of having seen all the great singers live in concert. My next wish is to see Sain Zahoor Ahmed (along with watching Rahat, Ghulam Ali, Abida, Jagjit Singh & Wadalis again 😛 ) perform live. Let us see when that wish is fulfilled 🙂 .