Music on a Wintry Evening...

Yes, it's a bit late to write about it but ah wuz they-ah - at the Kailash Kher and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan concert. And I thought it was pretty darn great.

We were in the (ahem) VIP area, which extended to about a mile from the stage. About half a mile away, were my husband and I and the mother and the mother's sister, otherwise known as the masi. Anyway, it was crowded but it was beautiful (Purana Qila - had never been inside before) - and despite the cold weather, it all warmed up pretty soon and was thoroughly enjoyable.

I thought Kailash Kher was a really great performer, sang really well and had loads of energy. The best part was watching him gel with his band, who had a really cute guitarist ( the minute I mentioned this Vijay took a dislike to him - although let's face it, I had to slip on my spectacles to make out Kailash's form, so I could be pretty wrong about the cuteness of the guitarist). But the band was really talented and they looked they were having so much fun!

Kailash kept making these comments during the performance, and he made a lot of fun of those of us in the VIP area 'these VIP types are too cool to get up and cheer, etc'. I looked around me and had to agree, they were a pretty stuffy lot and kind of old. Not my mom and masi, huh! The others, the others!

Anyway, so he also made this comment at one point about Aman Ki Asha being a very noble 'cose' and a distinct and unkind murmur of mostly female laughter went up at his pronunciation. But I thought he was really sweet.

After a few songs, he made way for Rahat and I was very surprised to hear how incredibly beautiful and melodious the latter's voice sounded - he isn't quite the performer that Kailash is, but the voice, the voice. Really, truly amazing.

But to my disappointment, he ended up singing mostly songs that I knew rather than some nice Pakistani numbers - I didn't even know before this how many Bollywood movies he's sung for. Given the context of the whole concert ( Indo-Pak peace), one was hoping for a little bit of Pakistan in the whole performance but after the first couple of numbers and I think one Dumadum Mast Qualandar type, there really wasn't much. He even sang that song from Singh is King that Peanut likes (Teri Ore), and it really wasn't that hot. But the voice!

Towards the end, he invited Kailash on stage for the only song they song together - Piya re, I think. Was nice, but yeah...nice. By this time, I had abandoned my VIP status and pushed to the front, pulled up a chair in imitation of a gutsy north-eastern girl and jumped on top of it to clap along, with my husband behind me waiting to catch me when the inevitable fall came.

So...fun. Should do this more often. Were you there, too?