Wednesday, January 24, 2007

'Rag Basant'

Damn I am loosing my nerves.

In the rare and real celebration of Basant, Shubha Mudgal was to perform in the town on the invitation of Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Academy on the eve of Basant Panchmi. The news sparked me up like always and I decided to be there at any cost.

I always take such decisions whenever I came to know about such events. As Chandigarh is getting one of the most happening places both ways. Artists I adore are performing here now and then. But unfortunately most of the time I miss them this or that way. To be a part of mad crowd in free entry is not my piece of cake. Passes are only for VIP’s and they too are making money outta this these days (As happened in Mohali test matches last year) and tickets for the artists I adore are always too expensive. (Is this cause I like rare performers?) So I was telling, like always I made my mind to be there for Shubha Mudgal. But obviously entry was with invitation only and as I was not VIP and had to manage a pass (not two, cause she never likes such classical).

I know how many calls I made for a pass in my circle. Some of my business parties were in advertising field and a wishful thinking was hovering over me that at least one of them would get a pass for me from any sponsor. But ha, no one was sponsoring that event or at least we had no idea. Two days were gone and by the day of concert all the hopes were vanished. As I was trying to make myself understand for the lose, a call in the noon from a friend Naveen helped me to grab a reason and told me to be home early as he would visit with his wife to see Raavi. Fine, now I had a reason to tell why I could not watch Shubha performing.

But that was not my day. And to make my remaining day more spicy, destiny urged Naveen to call again only to inform that he had to visit somewhere else and could not visit me. Fine enough, I paid a visit to another friend Ameesh who was slightly injured in a minor bike accident.



Some how the day was gone. Today morning as usual I went for my routine work out. And on the way back I stopped at another friend’s house for tea and I picked up the paper just to make my heart bounce to my mouth. A fabulous picture of Shubha performing at stage was there on the front page. The picture greeted me a ‘very good morning’ and I was again carrying a long face. The friend saw my expression and asked the reason. When I told him the tragedy I faced earlier day he jerked his head like I was a stupid and said ‘You crazy? Don’t you know ‘he’ had plenty of passes lying with him?” ‘Who he?’ I jumped off the sofa and shouted. “Naveen, who else’ he replied carelessly biting a pinni and sipping tea, ‘being office bearer of Sanskar Bharti he always get passes of such events.”



Damn you! What was I supposed to say? Immediately I called up Naveen and asked if this was true. “What do you think why I cancelled the visit to your place? It got off my mind while making program to your home and when I recalled I called you up for cancellation. So you mean you were interested? In fact I had duty to perform there and I was just at the gate to attend some people in theater when I called you.” He was more excited than me.

I was not in position to narrate him how I felt and I am not in position to write here either. But as Naveen told me and what paper wrote, it was really a captivating performance. Shubha presented compositions based on Rag Basant and Rag Bahar Bageshwari and appeared to be at her best. The concert was well attended by people who managed to add yellow in their dressings to celebrate the euphoric Basant and dedication to Ma Saraswati. ‘Indeed this was an unforgettable evening for me’ he said.

Never mind Naveen, this was indeed an ‘unforgettable day’ for me too. But the good part is that Naveen promised me to send every pass he would receive for such spirited occasion in future. May be that is going to get real spirit of Basant for me.



Damn I am loosing my nerves again. Just can’t wait for another such evening to be a part of.

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