I Was At The A.R.Rahman Concert! Yes I Was!!!

On sunday I was one of the determined few who decided to brave it out to get to the A.R.Rahman concert!
Yeah, I was there!!!
And now that's one thing I can tick off from my "to do" list that I created mentally. I have always always wanted to watch a live concert.
And I did!

We left home at around 2.45 for a 6.30 concert. Yes, thats how far Marg Swarnabhoomi is. Even before we could come within proximity of leaving the city limits we were starved and took a pizza on the go. Funily enough we were not the only people eating as we drove because there were hundreds of cars moving in the same direction - towards ecr with people stuffing their face with food. I guess nobody really wants to miss lunch.

My cousin filled up his SUV and we drove and drove for what seemed like eternity! We crossed ecr, then this lovely bridge place with the backwaters below it. Marg Swarnabhoomi is situated someplace between Pondycherry and Chennai and some say its around 100kms from Chennai and well, it is. We reached the venue by 6 and the place was already overflowing with people!

The first time I saw the stage I was disappointed. I heard that there was going to be some kind of a laser show but the stage looked so plain, so ordinary. Just as we were about to enter some VIP people walked in fron of us and we sneaked inside with them to the VIP seating area!

Yes! I was THAT close to the stage. But unfortunately the speakers were right in front of me. The concert was supposed to start at 6.30. It was 7.00 and Rahman was yet to come. I guess all celebrities HAVE to arrive fashionably late. Its like a law or something. By 7.15 people were restless and every five minutes there was whistling and shouting and screams of "Rahman is coming NOW!".
"No, now he is coming!".
"See there he is!".
"Yedhuku pinnadi pakre? A.R.Rahman helicopter-le dhaan varuvare"
"Oh can you hear the siren? Ya, NOW he has come!".

But he came at 7.30 and the crowd erupted into hysteria! His starting song was some song from Jodha Akbar. Having hated that movie I couldn't care less for the songs. But the crowd was going crrazy! And Rahman started "athiradee kaalam" and thats all. Crowd was uncontrollable!!

Later he came up in one crane like thing right above where I was sitting! And he was all "vanakkam Chennai. Nalla irrukingala?". Avaladhan. People were screaming "Thala!" "Thalaiva!!!" and he started singing that konjum weird song of his which I don't like. That song with the free hugs campaign thing. And Chennai-aites are not very fond of anything Hindi. Let alone hindi A.R.Rahman songs.
BIG NO NO.

He was belting out one hindi song after another and the crowd was just being polite because it was rahman and they din't want to be mean to him. But when this straight haired singer female whose name I don't know started belly dancing to Mayya Mayya thats when people started to take notice.
Especially middle aged men.
Who came with their families and were making eyes at the pretty singers and those side dancer girls.

Then one super irritating Marg Swarnabhoomi- owner guy -I -think came on stage and was all "Oh religious heads from the three religions are asked to come on stage". And the religious head for Muslims is the head man or whatever from Nagoor Dargha!
Ya!
A dargha!
And that was when my tolerance reached its peak!
Shame on you A.r.Rahman!!!

Coming back to the concert, after that lame guy blah blah-ed his way through, the last 20 minutes of the concert was mind blowing!
Eveyone were recovering from the lame guy when this guitar dude came and started plucking a few strings (chords?) and played our favourite cult song!
"Mustaf mustafa don't worry Mustafa. Kaalam nam tholan Mustafa"
"Day by day, day by day, valkaiye payanam day by day. Mulungadhe ship-e friendship dhaan"

The 70,000 people there would have hugged Rahman if they let 'em. It was AWESOME!! I don't know why that song is so popular but for some reason it just is!!
After that finished, the crowd was on a new high and to add to this rapper Blaaze or Blaze I don't know what he calls himself came on stage and was all "Humma Humma can you say Humma?"

Oh ya! We could so say humma!
"Humma.
humma.
humma humma humma.
Hey humma humma.
humma humma humma.
Indhe arabic kadalorum oru alagaiye kandhene .."

And that made our day!
There is nothing better than tamil songs I say!

As predicted he finished off with Jai Ho since it is a jai ho concert. I've heard that song close to a few hundred times that it now sounded stale to my ears. He then fused it with Vande Mataram and there were sparklers going off in the sky that just added multitudes to the experience! And thats how the concert came to an end with Rahman saying "Bye Chennai. Dirve Safe".
And I tell you, people did NOT want to leave!!
Thats how awesome it was.

But people were leaving. And quickly.
The concert ended at 11.30. The drive back to the city would take around 2 hours and noone wanted to get stuck in the traffic.

We managed to (again) sneak ourselves in between tow VIP Ambasador cars and get out early. But we drove for so long and reached home at 1.30 am.
And it was worth every minute!

Here are a few photos i managed to take when the security guy turned the other way:

=)

This is one of the old Cadbury India advertisements.
Reminds me of a much simpler time...

Okay I Admit It I Had Fun Today!!!

Today is my 20th birthday.
I'm 20 freaking years old.
Yes.
Me.

And I'm not even the least bit mature!!

It was fun celebrating my teenage birthdays but when it came to my 20th I was a little hesitant. So when I woke up this morning I was all "okay another day. And oh ya its my birthday. Cool".

When I was little, waking up on the morning of birthdays was such an event! I couldn't wait to wake up! I would be so high. And every year my birthday would be during Quarterly holidays and school would reopen two days later. The teachers would promptly distribute papers when I wen to school few days later and there I would be sitting in my 'birthday' dress receiving not gifts but mark sheets.

Birthdays were never a cause for celebration at home.
1. Because its haraam to celebrate birthdays.
2. Because we were never interested and it was not imperative that we do it.
But my folks would let me do what I wanted to with my friends.

The selection of a 'birthday' dress to wear to school was such a rigorous process. My mother would scream in agony and I would never pick a dress until it was perfect.
And I got my perfect clothes every year!

I would decide what chocolates to take to school. And the decision would be so tough that even the United Nations couldn't solve it if they wanted to.

I would plan and replan and go through the entire day in my mind. And when morning came I was so excited.
Ah to go to school in 'colour' dress, to be the center of attention, to show-off.. what bliss that was!
This was all birthdays meant to me.

Sweet sixteens and sexy seventeens. (yeah, my friend came up with the sexy seventeen)
Birthday clothes and presents.
Food, cake and fun.

How immature I was!

Now I realize what birthdays really are. Allaah gives us one more year.
One more year to do things you have never done.
One more year to change the way you want to be.
One more year to come closer to the person you want to be.

I understand how blessed and lucky I am to go through these experiences when many people have nothing at all to live for. Each year has taught me something. As each year passes I can feel myself becoming stronger, more confident. I can feel myself ready to face challenges, to believe and to stick to my choices, to be smart enough to know what I want.

Birthdays should be about growing up. And about realizing responsibilities. And about becoming the person you want to be.

I woke up this morning feeling morose and unexcited but I had a wonderful time today! My two very lovely friends in college SF and Ulsa actually surprised me with a gorgeous chocolate cake. I used to day that cutting cakes in college was so cheesy and so stupid. But they gave me a taste of my own medicine and I liked it!

My wonderful wonderful girls from school, my bum-chums, my girls, my most favourite people in the whole world surprised me by being not too discreet! But it was fun nonetheless. My lovely Myrtle Turtle baked THE most sexiest cake I've ever had! And I blew off the candles too!

So to be honest, this was the best-est birthday I had =)

Thank you:

SF
Ulsa
Myrtle turtle
Khalida
BigB(um)
Mallu Girl
And YOU. If YOU made my day all the more special =)

MASH

We had a symposium on saturday. A technical symposium is where many different colleges come together while one college hosts it and lots of fun and exciting events happen. Except that there in nothing exactly fun or exciting about it.

So what we did was wear sari, click photos, go to college, click another million or so photos, change clothes, bunk the symposium and go to bessy.

If you are one of those people who frequently visit Bessy then you must have visited MASH. and since I'm not so frequent I got to go to MASH for the first time.
And its a pretty fun place to go.

MASH is located right opposite Bessie beach. You ask- the beach is so effing long where exactly is it?
I say - I don't know.

The restaurant is modeled like a shack. The little birdies that keep flying make it all the more interesting. The decor is also very beach-y. Cane chairs, paper lanterns, the works.

We had the most creamiest, cheesiest, most cholesterol inducing, pimple-giving, butt-expanding pasta whose main ingredient was cheese, cream cheese sauce and grated cheese. But it was way better than the other white sauce pastas in the city.

The sandwiches were the conventional 3 tier types filled with layers of vegetables and cheese although they concentrated a lot on onions which was gross. And i hate raw onions. The sandwich came with an amazing coleslaw. Not the usual watery mayo + wilted cabbage + smelly carrot types but actual fresh cabbage and mayo. The fries were so-so. I've had better.

MASH serves a wonderfully chilled refreshing lemonade, the likes of which I've never heard anywhere else. We didn't have dessert because we were too ful from all the eating.

The unique thing about MASH is that they have a little sit out from where you can watch the beach and stuff your face. The view is actually pretty cool. Plus MASH is actually worth your money and the prices are reasonable.

Here are a few photos we clicked:

the view from MASH:






MASH:

Back With A BANG!!

After getting an awesome response last year, LITRAPTURE is back!!

B.S.ABDUR RAHMAN UNIVERSITY formerly BSA CRESCENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE introduces LITRAPTURE09, a one of a kind inter collegiate literary fest for students from all streams engineering, medical, arts and even law. Last year the event drew crowds from all top colleges like SSN, SRM and MEASI and arts colleges like New College, Stella, Ethiraj, WCC, Loyola,MOP, etc.

So if you live in Chennai and are a student then please do come to BSA UNIVERSITY on friday, the 11th for the literary extravaganza! Events include JAM, block n tackle, spin a yarn, DUM-C, shipwreck, ADZAP, mock interview, an online quiz- E-mystic, the dubut of the litrapture open quiz and the grand finale- whose line is it anyway.

Celebrity judges for the events VJ Craig/ Cary from SS Music will be present.

For further details visit www.litrapture09.com.

Umrah

I just got back from seeing my cousin and his wife off at the airport. I couldn't help but feel jealous when he told me he was going to perform umrah. My thoughts went back to the time when I performed umrah for the first time in 2002.

****

I was 13 years old and was sincerely studying for my board exams when my dad comes to me and says "Oh we are going for umrah".

"What????", I say having heard that word for the first time.

"umrah, its like a small a haj.."

And the only thought that goes through my then tiny brain was, "Yaaaay!!! I'm going in a plane!!!".

My father had planned the travel for my family exactly during my Half Yearly exams and I had to bunk my last exam with not so much regret although my principal, Mrs.Williams was all, "I'm not going to give you permission but if you want to go then go".

And I was so happy that I got to bunk an exam. English exam. But still, exam is exam no?

My mother went into a shopping frenzy and she got me the loosest, most tassel induced abaya you can ever find. The day we were leaving I was forced into a red, synthetic salwar kameez high on silver jigna and made to wear that oddly shaped abaya when all I really wanted to do was to snuggle into my jeans and read my Meg Cabot books.
Yes. I was extremely addicted to Meg Cabot. Don't ask me why.

Although my father had coached me on Makkah and what to do when I got there I was in seventh heaven just because I got to go in a plane. I was super excited to taste 'plane' food but what they gave us in Saudia was a tasteless dish of mac and chesse.

We reached Jeddah and took a car to Makkah. When we got there the driver went, "Look to your left thats the Haram Sheriff". And I was all, "Why is he calling this place HARAAM?? Isn't it supposed to be holy?!!"

I remember thinking "wow this looks so real", when I first saw the haram.

We were made to enter through this particular gate, I don't remember which one, such that we could see the Kaba with maximium effect. One look at the Kaba standing there looking so majestic in black, forming a beautiful contrast with the white marble I felt an instant connection. It felt like someone had tied a rope from my heart to the kaba and the rope was pulling me towards it.It is said that the Kaba is situated right under the heavens and I found that to be true.

Although my emaan was not up to standard at that time I felt something that I knew would stay with me.

Those 2 weeks in Saudi was when I got interested in the hijaab and realized that it was not just a cultural thing. Alhamdulillah ever since my return from unrah I started wearing the hijaab with the understanding of what it reallly is.

Alhamdulillah we finished our umrah peacefully by Allaah's grace. The proof of Allah's barakha was evident when we came back. It showed on our emaan which had increased by leaps and bounds, on our wealth which multiplied itself. After my umrah I have travelled every year. I have visited Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Bangkok. Never in a million years did my family ever think that we would have an international vacation. Ever.
But Allaah proved us wrong.

What I am today is all because of the wise decision my father made that day. This level of faith that I now have, the strength to believe, no matter what, I owe it all to Allaah who put that niyath in my fathers heart. I cannot thank my father enough for what he has done.

While I performed umrah I never realized the significance of what I was doing. But the impact of it I see even today.

Frankly I believe it is upto tje parents to introduce that small quotient of Islam into their children. Because after all your children and your wealth are a test from Allaah.

Don't you want to ace that test?

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