An evening with Ghulam Ali

Last night was the perfect end to my long weekend.

I went to Ghulam Ali concert with Ashish, Thanks to Neha Sahni and Mirza .

I bought the tickets a week ago and felt oh my.. I should use this money some where else, but I the wish to see Ghulam Ali live won and I couldn’t wait for Sunday.

I had been to few of Jagjit Singh's but never to Ghulam Ali, so didn’t know what to expect.

We were there by 5.25 PM the show was supposed to start at 5.30. The venue was little confusing and lot of people were calling to get the right place. We waited and waited but Ghulam Ali sahib was no where in sight. Finally we got to know that his driver also got lost. I couldn’t stop comparing to the latest Jagjit Singh show I had been to. It was in Boston and was very well organized.

Finally the show started around 7 PM and Ghulam Ali stared singing –

Lakho ke bol sahe sitamgar tere liye. And we all just forgot that we waited and were restless. That was one fabulous ghazals to start the show.

Then he just took over every emotion, feeling and made us feel the way he wanted us to.

He made us feel the sadness of an aashiq with Karoon na yaad magar kis tarah bhulaoon use.

Then he sang Faasle eeasi bhi honge ye khabhi socha na tha. I was just speechless and couldn’t think of anything else in the world.

Then he sang Dil me ek lahar si uyhi hai abhi.. And played/sang the lahar in variety of styles. People went crazy over that variation.

Then came the crown jewel – The Chupke chupke and he just made us feel helpless and deeply in love. The way he sang I felt I was back in my years when love was the most important aspect of life. I was surprised to see that he had the same effect on Ashish too. He sang his first sher and Asish said to me that the concert was worth everything just with one ghazal.

He added few more sher to popular movie version. I am adding those here for you..

Berukhi ke saath sunna darde dil ki daastan-
Woh kalai main tera kangan ghumana yaad hai

Waqte ruksat alvida ka lafz kehne ke liye-
Woh tere sookhe labon ka thar tharana yaad hai

aagaya kal wasl kee shab bhee kahi zikr-e-firaaq-
Woh tera ro ro ke bhi mujhko rulana yaad hai

ba hazaran istirabo sad hazaraan ishteyaque - 2
tujhse vo pehle pehel dil ka lagana yaad hai

It was a long ghazal and he sang it beyond words. He knew very well how to woo the audience. Once he finished I had tears in my eyes and smile on Ashish’s face.

 And then he sang Chamkte chand ko toota hua tara bana dala.. It was a very sad song,

Then he asked the audience and someone shouted tere shahar me aaye hain, he smiled and said han, man aapke shahar me aaya hoon and he sang Ab tere shahar me aaye hain musafir ki tarah another Ghulam Ali gem.

Later he sang 3 punjabi songs, I couldn’t understand much of it but audience had good time with rhythm.

Then came a very light and fun ghazal Mehfil mein baar baar kisi par nazar gai..words for lover of any age..this ghazal had a very nice jugalbandi with Indrojeet on Sitar.

Then he sang Apni tasveeer ko aankho se lagata kya hai another easy to ears ghazals.

Then he sang 2 Punjabi songs and here came my all time favorite

Humko kis ke gum ne mara ye kahani fir sahi.. it brought back memory of my high  shool when I heard this ghazal for the first time.

And then it was time to end the mahfil –e-Ghazal and what could he sing more than Hungama J First he explained and sang the aalap and then came the hungama. The whole auditorium was in different mood by then. It was time to go back in real world and yes none of us were ready for that. We all could just sit and listen to him more and more.

During the show he had many jugalbandi with Tabla (sabir Hussain) sitar and benjo. It was very obvious the repo he had with benjo player Mohmd Basheer khan.
Overall i had one memorable evening and cannot wait for next one :)