Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Kya Baat!!

"Why aren't the gates open yet? it's 6:45, at 7 the concert's gonna begin right?" i screamed at the security guard on the gate.
"We have not been asked to open them!" he replied to my utter angst.
Siri Fort auditorium at khel gaon marg was hosting a special concert that evening,that of Pt. Ajay chakravarty and Ustaad Rashid khan together in a mouthwatery jugalbandi. It was something that all hindustani classical music lovers would have dreamt of. Two genius vocalists, each of them masters of their art, flag bearers of their respective gharanas! i had purchased the tickets almost a month back for this, and i had spent sleepless nights for the last 4-5 nights anticipating the magic that was about to happen on the D-day. The huge queue outside the gate was frightening, literally. We were waiting outside now nearly for an hour, and hence my tempers went soaring high when just 15 minutes away from the concert we were not allowed in. But on a very contradictory note, i was also pretty pleased with the turn out. i mean, this was no Metallica, Hindustani classical vocalists are not common man's popular artists! Though i must include, the people standing there in the queue were the high society, rich kurta and silk saree wearing, C R park inhabitant bengalis, who have not heard of Raj kumar Hirani but know what brand of smoking pipe Satyajit Ray used!
We finally entered exactly at 7. Needless to say, the concert began 15 minutes late than the scheduled time. As soon as i entered, i came back to my jovial mood which had disappeared for an hour when we were standing in the queue. I was with my singer friend Sankalp, fondly known as Tiwari(his surname) amidst his friends. after we sat, and before the concert began, in those five minutes, i narrated my previous experiences of listening to Ustaad Rashid Khan and Pt. Ajoy Chakravarty individually. As i narrated, suddenly to both of our horror, there came in our row a small kid with his dad, and then sat next to us. This for both of us was going to be a painful evening, because of our past experiences of kids in such concerts or art films, where they cry loudly and spoil the entire ambiance and mood. We started praying to the almighty as soon as they sat next to us, that 'Oh God, please let this baby be the surprise performer of the night, who sleeps throughout silently!' a lot of people from the accompanying rows also looked at the father-son, with a lot of apprehension and fright. But at least for then, the kid seemed peaceful.
Pandit ji and Khan sahab began the concert, and to my utter delight, with Raag Hamsadhwani. It is one of my all time favorite raagas! The evening slowly but surely was turning into this magical time i was having with Tiwari, as Pandit ji and Khan sahab, after a beautiful Alaap and Vilambit laya composition, began the famous madhya laya composition in Hamsadhwani, that being "Laagi lagan pati sakhi sang". The sweetness of the composition has always moved me beyond limits, and Pt. Ajoy chakravarty with Ustaad Rashid khan singing the piece was literally orgasmic! And then between all the 'kya baats' and 'waahs' from the audience, i saw tiwari looking almost at me. i use the word almost, since he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at The kid who sat next to me with his father. I too turned my head towards them now, and understood the reason for tiwari's sudden break of concentration. The kid had woken up. Let me exaggerate a little, me and tiwari started sweating with panic. Now was approaching the moment of horror which we dreaded all evening. Others too in our row and behind us noticed our panic, and participated in panicking!
And then suddenly the kid looked at all of this with big eyes, made a disgusting face and opened his mouth to cry out load. All this happened in ultra slow motion, and just when we were about to lose our entire composition's juice with a whaling cry from the kid, he cried in the same scale of the composition, no kidding, trust me, he cried in C sharp scale. Everybody in the audience in those 2-3 rows who were so disturbed the entire evening with the thought of the kid crying, shouted together, "KYA BAAT"!!