That day, with a typical child-like excitement, I reached the Riverbend Center in Austin to witness the first live concert of my life. I always had this fascination for live concerts, but somehow never got the opportunity to materialize this dream of mine before. Finally, on 10th March 2018, I was about to check off one of my dreams from my wishlist.
I have been in Texas for about 3 months now, and the first “live concert near me” notification on Facebook read – ‘Pankaj Udhas Live In Concert “Madhosh” in Austin,TX‘. That took me back to a string of good old memories. I sat reminiscing about my childhood when my father spent one Sunday morning cleaning the shelves meticulously. He then added a newly purchased audio cassette named ‘Mahek’, to his already available collection of Pankaj Udhas cassettes like ‘Nasha’, ‘Humnasheen’, ‘Yaad’ – to name a few. This was way back in 1999, and we used to play audio cassettes in a tape recorder those days in India. The vivid memories of that lazy Sunday afternoon, still makes me pine for childhood again. After a sumptuous lunch, the whole family reclined to the sofas listening to the melodious ‘Saaya ban kar saath chalenge, iske bharose mat rehna…’ (read : Don’t expect your loved ones to always walk with you as your shadow) till evening. Those were blissful days indeed! Families used to have their meals together and enjoyed music together (inspite of being in a wide range of age groups).
This brings me to the 90s in India, when Indian pop culture was at its peak and music albums were extremely popular. I remember being truly enamoured of these album videos and the deep meaningful lyrics of the songs. This was quite weird for a 10 year old back then. But I’d been always attracted to such deep thoughts from early days of my life. Back then, they had a nice storyline for each video (unlike the meaningless dance numbers we see these days) and the lyrics infused life into the songs. I was quite an admirer of Pankaj Udhas songs since then. Who knew that I would get to relive that teenage love for mellifluous ‘ghazals’, here in USA!
For beginners, ghazal is a lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme, mostly based on themes of unconditional, superior as well as divine love. Padma Shri Pankaj Udhas is a popular Indian ghazal singer of international repute. And I got a chance to witness the magic of Pankaj Udhas. The concert started right on time. I still remember that moment when there was an uproar in the audience and people stood up in regard, when he walked into the stage. Such is the honour and respect for him, in everyone’s hearts!
The musical night started with a melodious conglomeration of music and voice of Pankaj Udhas and his team. A typical aspect that I experienced was, in a ghazal concert, you tend to get into the mood gradually. And if ghazal maestro, Pankaj Udhas is at the helm of affairs, you’ll definitely slip into a light trance. He took special care to mention the name of the poet/lyricist of each ghazal that he sung that evening. His endearing demeanour and humility, inspite of being such a renowned celebrity, spoke volumes in itself. Gradually, all my favourite ghazals poured in one after another and my soul still kept yearning for more. My favourite part of the evening was when a 70 year old man, stood up and started clapping to the beats of the ghazals. That sight of an old man enjoying to the fullest, was so delightful.
A special mention about two of my favourites in his team that evening – Shri Ninad Mulaokar (flute player) and Shri Rashid Mustafa (tabla player). They added a special rhythm to the concert that day. I fall short of words to describe the sheer expertise and talent of these musicians. The instrumental interludes were longer and slightly different from the originals. That added such a special touch to the melodious evening. I’d never imagined that just a volley of 7 classical musical instruments (harmonium, tabla, dholak, flute, mandolin, violin and keyboard) would create such magic. I developed a new-found respect for Indian classical musicians that day. No wonder the concert was titled ‘Madhosh’ (meaning : intoxicated)!
The main highlight of the concert was the emotional ghazal “Chitthi aayi hai”, which had the Indians in America, brooding over their folks back in India. The feeling that evening was inexplicable. This experience will stay with me for a lifetime.
A huge round of applause for the organisers of this event in Texas!