I feel like I am at the top of this world… yes.. I am… I got to meet the legend on his birthday.
It was very dramatic, I never thought I would get to meet him, especially when there were likes of Benny Dayal and Naresh Iyer waiting for hours together to meet him at his residence and when the boss was extremely busy.
Actually, I waited in the morning for a couple of hours until he went to sleep around 10am. With me, there were 15-20 folks waiting to get a glimpse of the maestro. After he went upstairs, we were asked to leave the place and someone gave hope that we could meet him in the evening, though it may be a remote possibility considering Delhi 6, Slumdog launch and the out of country trip….
Yet, I was there at his residence by 8pm. Our man enters home and goes straight upstairs to join prayers. (In between, folks waiting were given a piece of cake…)
Boss comes down at 10:30pm, says a mild “Hi” to the folks waiting… walks down, on the way inside meets Benny, Naresh…. collects the flower bouquet from Benny, walks into the studio inside his house. He was busy listening to the mixing, even his sister Raihanah wouldn’t dare to disturb him, she leaves with a smile.
Clock kept ticking, number of folks waiting slowly kept decreasing… yet I waited with hope…
By 11:15pm, many had left.. while myself and my brother waited… along with us there were another 5 folks waiting…
We sat in our car for sometime, after 15 mins, we went inside the gate again and kept waiting. By 11:40pm everybody was asked to leave stating that “Boss” doesn’t like people waiting at this late hour… we were actually sent out and the gate is locked.
With very little hope of meeting him, we stood outside the gate…
We decide to directly message the boss.. (My brother has ARR’s mobile number… and he has been exchanging SMS’s with him since his previous birthday. He, a die-hard fan of AR Rahman doesn’t like to disturb the boss even by SMS & SMS’es him very rarely…)
He sent him a message stating that he was waiting and was asked to leave…. He brought a small gift for ARR and he requested to accept it..
Within a couple of minutes, to mine and his surprise, the gate opened. Someone asked “Who is Jahabar?” When we identified ourselves, he said “Come in, sir is calling you!”
Wow! What a feeling that is.. Boss calling us inside… I felt at the top of the world…
We went in to meet the boss. He asks “Sadique…?” yes, we nodded our heads… We were absolutely speechless… He took us inside, we handover the “Quran” that we got from Mecca printing press, the place that prints thousands and thousands of Qurans day in and day out.
He is truly ‘awed’ by the tiny little holy book, we tell him about the place that prints these. He says “Thank you very much”…
I wonder how can this man stay humble all through these days of fame and popularity. He apologizes..”I have a very busy schedule, couldn’t sit down and speak with you, Sorry!”
Oh No, I don’t expect a sorry from the master… We are spellbound.. we stay calm and gaze at this wonderful man. How silly of us to ask if we can shake hands with him!
With his trademark smile and with his hands full (he is carrying the Quran and a photo frame offered by another fan), he offers his wrist… yet we grab it gleefully and shake it up!
Then, he says take care, bye and we left the place with smiles all over our face and heart filled with joy, ecstasy, what not! Can I believe it? It’s 11:49pm, yes, we made it. We met him on his birthday!
I thank and pray to God, that I should get this opportunity every year and many more like me should get to see the glowing man near and dear! Amen.
