An Outrage

HI Again,

All of you who know me know that i am not easily outraged. Angered, amused and pissed-off maybe, but seldom outraged except in rare cases like when people throw cats and dogs out of moving cars for 'sport' (see blog dated friday October 13).

However last Friday I went for a Ghulam Ali concert and to say i left the concert outraged would be an understatement.

The crazy man strolled in 1 hour late and then proceeded to sing only classical numbers. In his own words he "informed" us that he has been singing for 50 years, so for the first half we should listen to his choice and that in the second half he would take requests.
Pakistan Television, PTV, he added, survived and flourished only because of him. (I could not figure why that piece of info was given to us at that juncture)

The charlatan then went on to sing precisely 5 songs in 1.5 hours. If you are wondering why it took 1.5 hours for 5 songs, well.... he decided that he would do his riyaz here and go aaaaaahhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhh, saaaaaa reeeeeee gaaaaaaaaaaaa for ages.
In between that he also managed to scold the official photographer, a member of the audience for standing up and almost every member of his troupe for being out of tune.

Now my issue is simply this. When you insist on travelling with your own musicians (at what must be quite a considerable cost to the organisers, which is then passed on to the poor ticket buying public) the least you can do is get them to tune their instrumennts before the show.
And please dont take out your frustrations on the other musicians when your own son is playing the spanish guitar (dont ask) on a completely different scale.

At this point i have to be honest and mention that this is not the first Ghulam Ali concert that i have attended. About 2 years back i had been to one in Nepal with Prabir. I had flown the whole night and chatted with family and friends the whole day and then attended the concert in the evening. Therefore i was gracious enough to attribute the mind-numbing boredom that followed to lack of sleep. (I would also like to say jetlag but HRH Prabir insists that jetlag is only applicable when you fly from Wisconsin to Kathmandu.)

Oooh how wrong was I?

After the neverending first half finally got over i dragged myself to the bar (selling overpriced & overwatered drinks, even by Crowne Plaza standards) hoping that like the nawabs of yore, lifting a few glasses would help lift my spirits too. Alas that was not to be.

Post interval Mr. Ali decided that just fleecing people of their hard earned money wasn't enough, he would thrust his son on us too. "Please," he intoned in mock humility, "bless my son by listening to a few of his songs."
Talking of the son here let me be succinct.

Overweight, Undertalented & Uncharismatic. Period!

After that was over and people started to get restless, he finally asked for requests and guess what.... he decided that he would not sing them. Why? Because he 'decided' that the audience should listen to newer songs and not pine after old stuff. Towards the end (nearing 2am) the crowd finally had enough and began to heckle, which only helped to get him more riled up. Chupke Chupke, Hangama etc came the loud and boistrous cries from the cheap seats in the back. Sensing trouble but still defiant, he sang the requested songs but only a paragraph each. Then abrubtly he got up to go but forgot that the door was at the back of the hall.

To see a great artist (he does have his talent) be ushered out amid boos and mockery almost made up for the horror that was the evening.

Pity PTV could not capture this.