A rendezvous with a musical messiah

Beep! 1 new message received: Pray for me brother launch at Welingkar institute of management tomorrow at 12 PM. It will be great if you can come. We can click a picture with ARR after the event…

Ecstatic, dizzy, a thousand thoughts whirling in my head, I reread the SMS to confirm what I read was true until my heart suddenly plummeted into great depths. It was the next day, less than 24 hours! It would be rather ambitious of me to hope that I would get an off to attend the PFMB launch. With sheer desperation, I told my boss that I would be coming in early and if necessary, even come in to work after the launch was over. The sport that she is, my boss laughingly wished me luck and sanctioned a half-day for me. I whooped and clapped and did a little jig (when I thought I was alone) to celebrate the fact that I would be meeting ARR!!!! My mother looked at me rather incredulously as though it was no mere feat, sticking to the schedule I had prepared for the subsequent day.

Something that, rather unfortunately, turned out to be true. When we tell trainees and applicants that work in our line is rather unpredictable, I realized that day that we speak the truth. Determined to make it to Parel/Matunga (wherever the hell the institute was) come what may, I worked with extraordinary tenacity to get it done with: cut, slash, fix, amend words and make the manuscript pretty (English-wise). When it looked quite all right, I dashed for the door and made a quick exit. Commuting in Mumbai is an experience NO one cherishes. I love Bombay (yeah yeah Mumbai) and am a true-blue Bombay-ite, but the traffic here can leave you tearing your hair apart in sheer frustration. The weather gods were not very co-operative either: for a winter day, I was sweating and stinking 15 minutes into the commute and I still had to reach the station to take a local train. After an IMPATIENT and unbearable wait at the ticket counter for 35 minutes (am not exaggerating!) replete with full-on drama (two aunties tried to take an easy way out instead of waiting in the queue, which was enough to get the already frustrated public started…one sober-looking uncle alarmed me when he told me that such characters should be “shot”) and after pocketing my precious ticket, one look at the indicator told me that that I had better get the train on platform 2. Running up the stairs, knocking down and shoving a couple o people on my way, I managed to get into a train (no mean feat, trust me) where I read the one pending message flashing on my cell phone: ARR had been delayed and my friend was with him, they were still on the way :: phew ::

Thinking to myself that the athletics had been worth it, I got out of the station and headed for the institute, procuring the help of two police guys in an attempt to get a cab for such a short distance. A sulking cab driver and a 7-minute ride later, I found myself among a chic lot dressed in formals. Cursing myself for not ‘dressing up’, I entered the air-conditioned auditorium to find ARR in grayscale, rendering the title song on the screen. On the advice of our (influential) friend, a couple of friends and I made our way to the ITC, where ARR was put up. After an agonizing wait, we then glimpsed our man making our way into the hotel. Darting looks every now and then, we stood there with strained patience while a Mid-day journo interviewed him (unscheduled of course) .

In minutes, the moment dawned upon us and I, the big great fan, did the expected: mumbled incoherently and handed out the CD for an autograph and then posed for a couple of photographs. What followed next is a blur and of little consequence of course. So if someone other than me were to write this account of me meeting ARR, it would have been…so she went for a launch and met ARR, but like they say, the experience will always be somewhat different

Info: A.R. Rahman’s English single ‘Pray For Me Brother’ will be the UN’s anthem for its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) campaign.

Music has the power to inspire people. I hope this song inspires the world to increase the efforts to end poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Unfortunately, at the current pace, we cannot reach the MDGs.

Additional important info: To support the ‘Pray For Me Brother’ music initiative, Nokia Nseries will be conducting a series of events and activities across the country. The proceeds generated from the activities and the sale of the album will be donated to the United Nations charity towards poverty alleviation.

For details on Pray for me brother, this is a nice blog…check it out.