Jagjit in concert!

This post was long due. But was putting it off for a long time now. We went to watch Jagjit Singh live in concert – just a week after we saw Bryan Adams.

I have never liked Jagjit Singh. I have nothing against poetry, or ghazals, but I just never liked him. I was never into ghazals and never in my life until a few years ago, was I exposed to ghazals or Urdu poetry. Yes, I never even read Ghalib back then. Well, as luck could have it, the Mister – big fan of Urdu poetry and Jagjit Singh. There was a time when all he listened to was ghazals and he read a lot of Urdu poetry too. He was the one who introduced me to Ghalib. Well, now I can say that I really like reading Ghalib. I absolutely love and devour his ghazals. But Jagjit Singh – I cannot come to appreciate.

Newho, the Mister had been trying to get me to like Jagjit for a long time. Well, I listen to him when I am forced to – and after all these years, I can even say that I like a few of his ghazals. The Mister since the past couple of years was trying to get me to agree to watch a Jagjit concert. I told him that he could always go alone and enjoy it – ‘cos I knew I wouldn’t appreciate or enjoy the concert. But he wanted me to come with him and share the experience (!) So, this time he somehow convinced me and bought the tickets, and one Friday evening we were at the Jagjit Singh concert. Well, I was surprised to see the turnout – quite a few Jagjit admirers in Chicago I must say. All the women dressed in their finest clothes – seeing all the bling around, for a minute I thought we were in the wrong place and there was a wedding going on instead – no, am not exaggerating. The Mister and I felt quite dowdy next to most of the people. Newho, it was still the beginning of spring – and was quite cold that night. Well, we entered the place where he was going to sing – and of course we had good seats – quite close to the stage. But what shocked me were the chairs. In India, the metal foldable chairs, that are usually found during marriages and functions, hard – metallic and cold – those were the kind of chairs that were there. The concert lasted for more than 4 hours. Well, for a 68 year old guy, it was great that he sang alone for about 4 hours. And also, he sounds better live than on a audio cassette :)

4 hours was a little too much for me. I was squirming in my seat – partly because they were sooo uncomfortable. But the Mister had a time of his life and he really enjoyed it. As for me, he was just happy that I did not fall asleep in my seat like the lady sitting in front of us. It was very funny, the lady dressed to the nines – bedecked with jewelry fell asleep half an hour into the concert :)

Song of the day: Sarakti jaaye (one of the few ghazals of Jagjit singh that I like)
Mood of the day: Happy!

P.S: check out http://ghazalrasik.blogspot.com – the Mister’s attempt at collecting ghazals that he likes and trying to interpret them.