Wah Ustaad Wah!

Jan 11, monday (around midnight): Dunno why, but I suddenly feel like going for a Zakir Hussain concert. I start checking the web for any links to a concert I could go to. The official website only talked about his tours in Oct(in the US of A); of which the last two concerts were canceled due to his mother's demise.

Jan 12, tuesday(around 530pm): I get a mail at my office which said there was a Zakir Hussain concert, in pune, on friday! What coincidence!

20 seconds and 900 amdocs club points later: I've registered for the concert, without any second thoughts.

Jan 15th, Friday: I left office at around 6, with Soumitra. He too, like me had joined amdocs last year. We hired an auto from Magarpatta city which cost us 90 bucks and 30 minutes to reach the venue: MES Abasaheb Garware College Ground. Hundreds of cars on both sides of the road outside the college, told us that the ground is gonna be crowded. We were lucky the concert hadnt yet started. They were just having a presentation about the Maharastra Education Society, which was conducting the concert; celebrating 150 years of its existence. Few minutes later the stage was handed over to Zakir Hussain and Sabir Khan. Sabir Khan had played sarangi in great musical hits like Jodha Akbar, Saawariya, and Chameli.

First Sabir Khan started off with his sarangi, and the Ustaad followed in later. They started off slow first, but within a few minutes their fingers started to move at such a fast pace that the crowd was totally mesmerized. You could hear so many "Ohhooo"s, "Wah"s and "Kya baat hai"s around. Zakir Hussain then started to create many situations using his tabla. He first showed with his tabla, shiva's 'dumroo' and his disciples blowing the conch shell (creating the sound of the conch shell using tabla was simply awesome and unbelievable). And then he took us into a train and its compartments. Few minutes later he produced the sound of rain, clouds and thunder, then a deer running in a forest. The crowd was clapping most of the time; if not they were stunned hearing the sounds. I never knew so many sounds could be created from that simple hollow percussion instrument. And Sabir Khan too is a great talent. He played the Sarangi really well. There were times when Zakir Hussain would go slow on his Tabla and Sabir Khan would start showcasing his endowment.

Zakir Hussain played the tabla so well and at times so fast that it would seem like two or more people were playing at the same time. You would even doubt a musician or a tape playing on the backstage.

It went on non-stop for more than an hour an a half. And during the time he forced out three words from almost everyone present there,
"Wah Ustaad!! Wah!!"

PS: This is my first post this year....so a very happy new year to all the readers!