I entered the first class suite of the flight ….and oh my!! What a place!
I’d never ever, even in my dreams, imagined of traveling a meager business trip by first class. All that my pitiful music company could afford was the cheapest economy class flight ticket available on a local flight.
But as luck would have it, my flight got cancelled and to compensate, or by my stars, I was shifted to the first class section of an international flight.
I took the seat offered by a lovely air hostess, properly addressing by my name, Miss. Ramya. “My name had never before sounded so aristocratic”, I thought.
I had been provided with the window seat, by the plushest seats and comfortable headrest unlike that which I was used to.
I looked out of the window, all lost in my dreams of flamboyant blissfulness, when someone interrupted me. I unwillingly turned my face towards the interruption when my eyes were star struck….
Oh my Gosh!!! It is the great, famous and my idol, and recent Oscar winner- Mr. A.R Rahman.
Mr. Rahman was blabbering away to me in his sweet voice when all I did was stare back at his face. In my eyes there was all you can imagine- astonishment, respect, surprise, shock……
It took me a complete 5 minutes to realize that he was asking me to shift my luggage a bit to the left so that he could fit in his bags. It took another 15 minutes to believe that HE was my neighbor.
I just couldn’t stop staring at his face. No airy show or pomp about himself. I always read and knew that he was humble and modest, but never in my life had I imagined it was true, that too after winning my Oscar.
Another 5 minutes later, I realized that he was returning my flabbergasted gaze with a sweet smile. I fumbled a bit and finally managed to reply back with a smile.
“So, where to?” He asked in his musical voice.
“Mum…..mum…..Mumbai”, I replied.
He answered back with a sweet smile again. Then turned back again to mind his own work. He pulled out something that looked like an i-pod and plugged the ear phones to his ears. It took me another 15 minutes again before I touched him lightly on the arms and when he turned, I blurted out in one breath.
Are you really Mr. A.R Rahman?
He just smiled back innocently and said, “You want to hear something?”
“Su…sure”, I fumbled again, angry at myself now!
He took out a miniature keyboard, which easily fit into his laps…..and then smiled at me again
“The advent of technology”, I thought and then said out aloud, “could you please play the new sensation- Jai Ho! ?”
And then he began….oh what a time it was! I found myself lost in the melody, the tune churning around in my brain wonderfully. Each key struck was a masterstroke. The way his adroit hands moved on the keyboard and melted out the tunes, had me in awe.
And slowly the tunes came to an end and I turned back towards him, wisfully this time, with respect and confidence before muttering, "Thank you!"
"Thank you for what dear?" The old Parsi lady standing beside me asked back inquisitively.
I jolted back to the present. ….
Me standing in the local Rs 5 fare bus, being pushed to and fro by the bus jumping over the pits on the roads, the cheap tyres and the poverty stricken people. My mobile earphones finally jumped back to life with the RJ in the radio informing me that I had just heard A.R Rahman’s Oscar winning song!
All I could do was give a long sigh and mumble a unheard “nothing” to the lady.
This post is my congratulatory post (although a bit late, but better late than never, you know!) to the wonderful personality and music maestro, A.R Rahman, for winning the Oscar for Jai Ho and doing his nation and all citizens of India so proud!
P.S- I've shunned my good old specs for contact lenses :)
