An Official Groupie

I went.

Washington's concert started an hour and a half late because of an idiot tabalchi who thought being an hour late for his own performance wasn't a big deal. But Ustadji more than made up for it, he played Raag Puriya in the first half and it was one of his most musically and emotionally intense concerts I've been to. He even sang for a minute or two, in order to explain a part of it, and I was in heaven. In the Second half he was accompanied by Anwar and they played Raag Des which was lighter, but still really beautiful. Ustadji finished off with playing a short piece in Raag Kedar. It was a really good concert as a large part of the audience were avid listeners, and there were a lot of not-old-and-retired people, so there was a lot of energy from the audience as well. Everyone, as usual, was blown away by Ustadji's performance but more so this time I think because it was a house concert and much more intimate so that the audience could actually feel the sheer energy with which he plays. It was amazing and I was really happy to have gone. Seema, Rachel, Reem and I all wore saris. I wore one of the saris Abbu bought back for me from Bangladesh, everyone loved it! Hiron Uncle took some pics of us and even burnt them for me, but Seema stole the CD. I shall have to get it back from her before I post a few sampls here.

The New Jersey concert was held in a mansion. It was a really nice mansion from the outside, but once we went in we were faced with some of the tackiest decor ever. Golden sinks and blinds with inlaid mirrors and what not! Yuck. This was an all-night music fest with mulitple artists. I got to hear Indian Classical Music on the Guitar (weird!! I know!) by Pandit Brijbhushan Kabra. Considering he's quite famous and revered I was very surprised to find that he sounded really bad, his meends were cringefying. Ustadji, we later found out, was really surprised too when he told us that he used to be very good. Weird, you think musicians wil get better with time. Ustadji played Raag Bageshree, and I was extremely excited because I recognised the raag, with no help, within 2 minutes with 100% certainty! It was my first time so I was ecstatic and you can imagine :) One of the gats he played was from the Synergy CD which was even more exciting! It was really hard to keep awake near the end of the concert because we had been without sleep for 3 days, and it had lasted till about 5 AM. That day, we spent 24 hours with no sleep. Suffice to say, I am still recovering.

I was really worried the whole weekend, due to missing my first day of school, and knowing I still had three courses to get into. But, I got into them just an hour ago so I'm happy now :)

It's two and a half years for us tomorrow. In some ways, like when I think about how long a time two and a half years can be, it seems like quite a lot. But when I think about it, it doesn't feel like it's been that long at all!