Jul 29, 2008

When I met God....

Feb 9th 2008 was the one of the most important days in my life; one of the most special day too.

I had no idea how my day would turn out to be until 6pm that day. I was in a huge crowd waiting for a darshan of my favourite God, when I suddenly got a call from one of my friend. She asked me if I was interested in visiting the same God personally at his temple. But the meeting she said is uncertain; god cant make himself available for me, right? She asked me to wait for her call again. I retired from the crowd, wanted to freshen myself before appearing before him. I waited impatiently and got a call from my friend at 10.20pm to come over. The excitement grew thousand folds as I was on my way. Finally, I got inside and I was made to sit in Gods shrine. The door opened and he just came in wishing everybody and also simultaneously chanting some mantra. I could not believe that I was there in the same place with him, talking to him. I pinched myself. Yes, I am seeing my God. It’s not a dream and it is not mere imagination. My eyes got filled with tears of happiness, somehow managed to hide it. I could spend only about an hour and a half there; he needs to make his presence felt for innumerable devotees like me.

Now for the actual incident - I am referring to A.R.Rahman as God here. The below picture was taken at ARR’s residence soon after his live concert in Chennai for the MARG Group on Feb 9th 2008. I won the tickets for the show through the net and I was at the show enjoying, when my friend, Dhanya, from Times Now called me. She had an opportunity to conduct an interview with ARR and she wanted to know if I would be interested in meeting him. She asked me to leave immediately if I wanted to and also mentioned that there are chances that the interview could get cancelled. I could attend his concerts again, but meeting ARR personally at his residence is like once in a lifetime. However, listened to a few songs during the concert, took a few photographs and rushed home to get ready. I got a call at 10.20pm from Dhanya asking me to reach ARRs residence in 15 mins. ARR actually stays about 10 mins away from my place and getting there wasn’t difficult at all. (Every time I pass his residence, I would slow down my bike and peep to have a small glimpse; but never been lucky.) My dream of meeting him is finally coming true. I reached there on time and Dhanya was waiting for me outside with the rest of the crew. Initially, we were made to sit in his waiting room that was under construction and I was helping the crew with their cameras and stuffs. A Toyota Innova rushed in a little later and we were then asked to make ourselves comfortable in the sitting hall. In 5 mins, ARR came in humming some song; probably he was in his composing mode. He was wearing the same attire that he had worn during the concert and asked everyone if it was fine. A great person, indeed, he had committed a time slot for the interview after the concert and without any starry tantrums, and without even a minute rest, he sat with us. I have read so many articles on ARR being humble, modest, etc; but none of them mentioned about his wits. The man truly rocked that night with his witty one-liners. Whatever I write about him here would be less; we all know how he is. After the interview, my friend introduced me to him and she asked him if he could pose for a snap along with me. He readily agreed and we had a few very normal conversations during the photo session. How I wish I could have told him that I would love to be a part of his team. How I wish I could have told him that I sing and that I would want him to listen to me atleast once. But I did'nt want to take advantage of the situation as I felt it would look bad on my friend and Times Now, so had to keep my mouth shut. Moreover, there were people waiting for him outside, probably some more interviewers. Nevertheless, I could not ask for more than this. During the concert his presence made a lot of fans go wild with happiness but for me ...... I stood in silence with happiness.. so dumbstruck I became on seeing him and so blind I was with my happiness that neither did I have words to express then nor do i have it now; he made me the happiest among all his admirers.

Long live A.R.Rahman !


PS : Special thanks to Dhanya Rajendran who made it possible. I am indebted to her for the rest of my life. It was so sweet of her to remember me when she got an opportunity to interview ARR. Also thanks to the crew of Times Now who were present at that time, they made ‘a nervous-with-excitement’ me feel a lot comfortable.
and I am extremely sorry for posting this so late !

39 comments:

mystiquedew said...

Vimmu,

I think I was in the concert too..the concert was absolutely lovely..

Only cripe is that the crowd was too well contained..

Congrats on meeting ARR :)

Vee said...

Yo Boy!!! Congrats for that... I wonder when will I meet my gods.. there are so many of them... hehe, jokes apart ARR no doubt is god to many... u know whenever the mention of ARR comes in my talks with my bro, he says, "Call him Rehman Sir, dont just call Rehman" and I just smile at that..

WhatsInAName said...

Wow!
You are one helluva lucky boy :) ... to be blessed by your God!
Heres wishing you good luck and may your God listen to you, singing some day soon!

vimmuuu said...

@ mystiquedew :

Thanks a lot yaar. There were two concerts by ARR this year in Chennai.One in Feb and the other in April; which were you a part of? The second concert was too crowded and was not disciplined at all.

@ Oxy :

Thanks buddy. and u better listen to your bro.hehehe. I guess most of us like ARR because of humility.

@ whatsinaname :

Thanks a lot. I am wishing for something similar too in life. I finally took the first step for that and will posting about it very soon (the happy news that I mentioned in my BDay post)

mystiquedew said...

sorry I meant to say not too well contained..

was a part o' the April one..

Yep..the crowd was very suffocating

vimmuuu said...

@ mystiquedew :

True; a total chaos that day.

Anonymous said...

hmm...
i knew u will b posting this article n ws waiting for it...n u took a lot of time.neways,i know how crazy u r abt music n ARR.. ;)u will always love to be infront of the croud so dt u can look n listern him cleraly..wht ever it takes or hw ur leg brks ;).
it is definitely a nice feeling whn u r so close to some1 whom u admire the most.the same ws wth me whn i meet Sonal Mansingh.wish u get to work wth ur god soon.good luck

Vee said...

Yeah I listen to him and also to his hands at the keyboard sometimes in the middle of night....

vimmuuu said...

@ soneeta :

Thanks a lot. I am hoping the same too. Lets see. U met Dr.Sonal Mansingh???

@ Oxy :

Oh.Thats nice. Whats your bro doing? Btw, what do you do!!!

Smita said...

Hey Congrats on meeting AR :)

I can relate to u...I saw Salman Khan from a great distance during IPL finale but I was so excited ki i can't tell...U to met AR so closely :)

Poonam Sharma said...

wow! At Rehman concert...

and meeting him in person more wows ... :)

Anonymous said...

ya..i did meet Dr.Sonal Mansingh and even Kalucharan Mahapatra personally n if u knw thm they r gr8 Odissi dancers n it is a fortune for any dancer to meet thm.

vimmuuu said...

@ S :

Thanks. Infact, I had the opportunity to see Kamal Haasan, Jayaram(Malayalam/Tamil Actor), Yesudas, Sharada(yesteryear south indian actress), Suresh Gopi(Malayalam actor) for a cultural programme way back in 1999. It certainly is a pleasure seeing your fav stars in front of u, na?

@ Poonam :

Thanks for the wow-ings :D

@ Soneeta :

I have heard of Dr.Sonal, but not the other person. Btw, are you a trained odissi dancer?

Anonymous said...

i wish i were you atleast for that hour man... i'm envying you...
its a great feeling when u get to see the person whom you admire and adore for a long time...

ARR is really the GOD of indian music...! three cheers to him...

theSaintlySinner said...

so you have shifted allegiances to human gods? not good these days buddy.........:)
and hopefully none of your old orkut photograph tricks backfire with the photo that you have put out here...

Anonymous said...

MAN u are so damn lucky ..!!!
i have nothing to say more..
i envy u :D

Smita said...

Fav?? Arrey I wud get excited seeing any star near me ;-)

May be we Indians have a tendency of keeping these people on a platform that they become so inaccessible that even a sight of them excites us :)

S

vimmuuu said...

@ Harsha :
Yeah.Hope you get an opportunity to meet him. Three cheers to our God. Hip ! Hip ! Hurray !

@ Thesaintlysinner :
I know, these days God in any form is dangerous!!! But how can someone so adorable as ARR be dangerous, rt? Moreover, he looks a lot like you too :D
The foto was initially dismissed in the way you had mentioned in my office. It was only the rest of the snaps that proved my point.

@ Arvind:
Hope you too get an opportunity to meet him.Thanks.

@ S :
Hehehe.Thats the indian spirit !!!
But, this getting excited thingy is not with us indians alone. Have you watched any of MJ concerts, I mean, on the video? People are simply crazy there.

Rakesh said...

Congrats bro ..finally u met ur GOD!! :)

so whn r u goin to meet the MOON GOD??

Anonymous said...

I think GOD is withn us If any one want to see GOD Analyze your self.

vimmuuu said...

@ Rakesh :

Thanks man.Moon god, dont tell me u r referring to urself here!!!

@ indiatravel :

Dont think I am rude.... but whaaatt ???

Anonymous said...

Yeah i dont mean to be rude either India travel....but whaat???The guy is just excited over meeting ARRahman.This is nothing to do with analyzing the existence of GOD.I think u have ventured into the wrong blog.The name V-lokam is a misnomer.....this is not one of those religious sites....Thank you visit again...
BTW Vimmuuu congrats man....that is bloody awesome...i hope he gets to hear u sing someday....

NidhiMB said...

thats so cool... Must be a memory of life for u..

Cherish it!

Cheers!
Nidhi

vimmuuu said...

@ Morenita :

Hey, was just wondering where you had gone? Thanks a lot for the wishes and for asking India travel to visit again. Woah! V-Lokam sure made me get some good defending pals. Thank you once again.

@ Nidhi :

It sure is. For a couple of days, this was the only thing in my mind ! Thanks for visiting V-lokam and keep visiting.

Anonymous said...

Yeah was a bit busy with work...but i always find time to have a small peek into ur blog.
And yes i will defend ...against nonsensical comments.Keep up the good work...and dont worry i know a good guy when i see one ...oops when i read one....ha..ha

vimmuuu said...

@ Morenita :

Thats so sweet of you to find time for v-lokam.Thanks a lot. Keep visiting, keep defending and keep commenting :D

Anonymous said...

Hooooooooo!
dats really cool!
congrats! ur really lucky n the pic shows how excited u were !
hmm nice to know about someone who met ARR :)

Anonymous said...

This is my first visit to your blog. Nice :) I was TOTALLY confused by the first paragraph :D Nice post.

vimmuuu said...

@ Allirekha :

Oops! I thought u had dropped in only at that Raksha bandhan post. I am sorry to have missed your comment.

Thanks a lot.The experience was simply out of the world!

@ Indiapavan:

Thanks a lot for the award, man!

Thanks for dropping by too, though I had welcomed you in the Raksha bandhan post.

For Allirekha and Indiapavan, let me make it a lill grand :

WELCOME TO V-LOKAM !!! (trumpets and drums plsss)

Reets said...

Guess what, just now, saw this post of urs, I must be the only one osting a comment sooo late.....Good to see that u saw god, so u must admit miracles do happen ... & remember the best things in life happen when we least expect they wud!!!

Praveen said...

its a mystery how all fans think alike..my feelings after I met rahman perfectly matches what u wrote here..
and ARR stays at 10 minute distance from ur place?

Anonymous said...

wow...ths is exciting indeed ;) great :))

Smita said...

I think this where I commented for the first time in ur blog :)

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