ROI 14: Armaan ke Aasmaan...

We were having our last few practice sessions with the band members before the Piano rounds. All of us were busy rehearsing when we get news from Rittika (one of the associate producers) that we have to write & compose a song to be sung for the kids of Shiksha- an NGO for underprivileged children. Wow! Finally a real challenge! Ankita quickly jotted down some lyrics…and our man Shantanu was busy putting tune to those words…and finally we created our piece “Armaanon ke Asmaan”



All of us were so glad with this project given to us…that we forgot about our piano songs for sometime…all of us were busy singing this song…our song! We even practiced with the instruments of the Band members… Sui brought out his flute and started with a small piece…Emon on the Keyboard…Abhi on the congo…Bharat on the Dholak…Amit on the rhythm pad..and Shan on the Guitar…it was lovely when all of us sang to their music…what a feel!


Here are the lyrics:


Armaanon ke aasmaan ko liye…
Chalte hain apne sapnon ke liye…


Kwaahishoon ke paar chal…
Mushkilon se kabhi na daar…
Apne bhi honge sapne kabhi…
Aaye jo milne hua yeh yakeen…


La la…la la…la la la la…la la…la la…la la la la…

Armaan ke asmaan ko liye…
Chalte hain apne sapnon ke liye…



The next day morning we were taken to a park near by and only after a long time did we get to know that Renuka Shahane was coming to meet us. Were we thrilled or what!!!! I have always loved her right from her Surabhi days!! What a wonderful actress she is…no no…what a wonderful lady she is! So beautiful…so intelligent…with such a pretty smile! Talking about smiles…as soon as she came we sang her the song and she was so surprised that we had done such a lovely thing for the kids of Shiksha…sad they couldn’t be there though! Then we all told her how we love that smile of hers…then suddenly Chang from behind me told her.. “ma’am…aapki tarah we have someone here who smiles so beautifully…molar to molar…” and everyone turns towards me…if I was wearing a red dress that day my face would have been camouflaged that instant! Hehe!!

(gosh I look horrendous in it!!)

Here’s a very amateur shoot of what we sang for her… (just avoid my extensive hand shaking…since all of us were swinging to the tune...I couldn’t hold the cam steady..sorry!) And by the way...the only instrument you can hear is Emon’s guitar coz we could obviously not carry everything to the park!

After shooting this about 5-6 times we all sat down under the cool shade of the Jamun trees in that park and began talking to Renuka ji. We slowly brought her to the topic of music..and then la..we made her sing for us…it was a really nice moment…here…have a peek at it!

We even made our maestro Shan strum his baby for her…take a look at this too…sorry only a 3/4th of the piece is there in this video…that is ‘cause my cam’s charge got over by then :(

In the end after all the various bytes for the show…we took our final parting shot with Renuka ji…and bid her adieu! That is one day we had loads of fun together…outside hotel Savoy where we were on house arrest!! Hehehe!

I’m glad we had such fun-filled moments for me to cherish when I’m a little down or when ever I miss all of them too much…three cheers to all 28 of us for that lovely song we created!!! Hip hip…HURRAY! Hip hip HURRAY!!! Hip Hip HURRAY!!

ROI 13: The nautankies of 210 !!

I loved being in those guys room…oh no no please don’t go thinking I’m crazy or something…it’s just that their room had the most beautiful sight form their window….mountains…trees…far away buildings…green…mud-brown…and cement here and there..



Ok before you guys get confused let me tell you which room I’m talking about here…210…the residents of which were: Amit, Bhavin and Prashant. Bhavin I knew from Dubai, a good friend of mine…but Amit and Prashant were still on my get-to-know-them list! After my frequent visits to their room for our sessions with Shan in the evening, and after watching Prashant, Abhishek, Shan and Bhavin take their turns to get into the bathroom after every 15 minutes…I got accustomed to these guys! By the way those four were trying to smoke in a no-smoking hotel!



I used to watch Prashant and Abhi fight over that last pack of cigarettes which Prashant “with loads of difficulty” (as he states it) hid it from Alfe (our contestant manager if you people remember my earlier posts)…God!!! Can’t they just give it up if they find it so difficult hiding their precious possessions!! Guys!!! There was no way anyone could stop Prashant from quitting…but I did try my level best to make Machar (that’s what Vani & I called Abhi! Heheh) quit. Everyday, when to others I’d ask how many songs they prepared and practiced…to Abhi I’d ask how many he fagged! And if I heard more than 2…I vowed not to speak to him till he brought that down to one!! Yea people….that’s the other side of me…I can get stubborn if it means getting my friends back on track!!! LIKE IT OR NOT!! HMPH!!



Ok chill I just got into the mood….heheh!



Well…about Amit…he’s a real genuine guy, an awesome singer and a loyal friend. Harshi and he were pretty close friends…he was so sweet he promised that he would help her with her pronunciation once she got the tune of the song right…and yes like most of you would have also guessed …people talked about this friendship behind their backs and then Amit would come to me and start discussing how narrow-minded the others were…to doubt such a simple friendship that Harshi and he shared… he did use hi now-famous line.. “Ek bath bolu…dukh hota hai yaar!”



Ah… never mind all of them Amit…I trust you and so does Harshi…we’ll still continue to freak you out like we used to…remember the Awesome foursome?? Hehehe… CHEERS!!! Really hoping you or Emon become the Idols!!! Keep rocking the stage buddy!!!! We are with you! :)

ROI 12: She completes the Awesome 4some!!!

She was a darling…tall beauty with a lot of brains. I’ve never met a person more humble and down to earth especially hailing from the UK…a powerful voice…a playful mind…and a persistent learner (when it comes to speaking and singing Hindi)…Harshida Madhaparia!



My first proper acquaintance with her was when she was my roomie at Sahil during the theatre rounds. Damn sweet this girl is I tell you. All these thoughts about how girls from UK/US are born snooty just vanished when I met Harshi. Then at Savoy she was put up with Priyanka and Charu in 301. But most of the time she would be with us (Vani, Aish and me) in 308. I used to adore her sense of humour…how she used to come up with wacky Hindi dialogues for the video bytes especially the Agnisakshi one…”ek machar saala admi ko hijda bana detha hai” [CHPAK!! That was me maarofying the machar that just flew past my eyes!]



She had nicknames for almost all 28 of us…lemme see if I remember them all…umm Vannita (stress on the double ‘n’)…Ashmi (note: the ‘a’ should be squeaked at a higher pitch than ‘shmi’…and this one was for me! Hehe)…”pur…pur…pur…purrrrrrrr” (for Parleen…remember the starting tune of Bunty aur Bubli?...that’s it!)…Chang wang…Var’tikka’ Masala (Hehehe!!)…yea I guess that’s it…no no “sui”(again high pitched…and with her finger in the air portraying a needle…for suhit!) God!! She is the limit!!!! Hehe!



I enjoyed our riyaaz sessions…Harshi would come up and plonk herself on our bed when Vani & I would be doing our riyaaz. She would follow us very religiously because she didn’t understand what her roomies sang! I remember this once she came running to our room in the morning ans went “MAN!!!! I was woken up by Priyanka…and then when I tried to get into the bathroom Charo was in there singing… my room is full of Riyaaz!!!!” Hehe! Wasn’t that a classic line?!!



She was the official “hair-straightener” for everyone who wanted to style their hair. Seriously! Her most ardent customers were Aisha, Vani and Puja…every second day they’d want her to straighten their hair. And she would patiently draw aside strands of hair and straighten them with her straightener (sounds like a tongue twister doesn’t it? Strands…Straighten…Straightener.. PHEW!). Once Emon and Parleen also straightened their hair…Parleen’s looked fine…but Emon…must say it looked damn cute on him…but not suitable for public viewing!! Hehe! Even Chang wanted to straighten his hair…Chang of all the people!!! He has naturally straight hair…and he wants them “straightened”….Hah! She didn’t do it obviously!! :)

The guys used to be terrified of the four of us together (Vani,Harshi,Aish&me)…they called us a foursome! Why? ‘Cause we used to scare them with our showing off how much love and affection flowed between the four of us...don’t go thinking now you guys… we just hugged each other that’s all! But even that scared the guys if it were more than one hug per minute….hehehe!! And boy! Did we enjoy doing this to them!! Especially Amit…his face is worth watching every time we call him to catch a glimpse of us hugging each other!! Hehe!

Awesome foursome…that’s what we were…together always…singing…pulling each other’s legs…dancing…masti maarofying…always! Miss all of it like crazy sometimes!!! Hope this bond of ours lasts forever babes!!! Harshi…when you’re off to London don’t you forget your “Ashmi” ok?? Hope you do well sweety…get someone to (in Harshi’s style) “riyaaz” you up and you’ll ROCK!!!



Adios Amigo!

ROI 11: Entertaining...Mischievous...and Often Naughty...that's EMON for you!

With that specs on him and that naughty look on his face 24/7…he reminds you of the kid brother in your family. At least for me he did resemble my 11 year old cousin bother a lot! Not only does he look like a miniature version of Sonu Nigam…he sings like him too!! A bundle of talent…mischief…and innocence…the chatterbox of Idol…my little shonu…Emon Chatterjee…



It took less than a few minutes for him to start talking to me when we first interacted at Sahil Hotel. Then at Savoy we were neighbours…Chang, Rehan and himself were in 309. We had loads of fun with this fellow keeping us entertained. Whenever Vani & I began conversing in Tamil or Malayalam he began talking in Bengali to us just to irritate us! And then he’d bring in Puja and Sachi (one of the cameramen who was also a Bengali) to join him in this act of his.



It used to be fun to see how both Emon and Shan played their favourite instruments…their babies…their guitars. Emon’s face is worth looking at when he used t admiringly look up at Shan while he played his classical guitar numbers. And Shan used to give him tips to play and we used to look at this teacher-student duo in awe… heheh!



Although I haven’t spent much time with Emon on a personal level there were two incidents which I will never forget in my life…both showed Emon’s naughtiness personified!



There was this one day when we heard loud music being played outside Savoy. It appeared to be coming from the flat opposite to the hotel. After dinner Harshi, Parleen and myself, we went to see what was happening. The flat tenants were having some kind of a party in their parking lot and they were blasting awesome Punjabi numbers after hearing which we couldn’t stay still for even a second! The three of us started dancing right there on the parking lot!! Soon we were joined by Emon, Abhishek , Chang and Rehan. We danced like crazy for a full 45 minutes. Then when the DJ started playing sad songs Emon bent forward and screamed out to them “Oye!! Music change kar Oye!!” we freaked out!! As it is the security guard at Savoy was beginning to look at all of us suspiciously since we were dancing in the middle of the night like some crazy kids! On top of that our fellow screams out loudly to that DJ …thank god the music was loud and hence drained his voice!! Hehe…



Then the second incident happened the night before our first Piano shoot. In the evening Vani and Emon were busy listening to Shan relate some horror stories and by the time Vani came back to our room it was almost 11 in the night. Moreover it was raining heavily that day…Mumbai was having it’s first rains that night! Now Vani had her back towards the window and she was relating the stories she heard to me while I was lying on the bed. All of a sudden we saw someone jump from the window into our room! It was Emon! God that fellow took the life out us! The thing is his room window and our room window are adjacent and there is this platform on which one can travel from one room to another safely…he used this to jump in and scare us!! God seriously we freaked out! And after we gave our dose of “what would have happened if he fell down” he went off to his room to sleep! Naughty to the core that little guy is I tell you!



But he’s a darling what ever said and done…no body can hate this dude…he has a charming personality which attracts everyone! And he gets away with all his mischief giving cute and innocent smiles! Trust me our trip would have been a bore without people like Emon and Sui (Suhit) to keep cracking us up into bits with their cheesy jokes!! I miss all the pranks Emon played on all of us and the crew members…ah..those were the days!



I am happy to see him still going strong on the show…Rock on Emon!!! And whatever whoever says about this dude (you know that he is overconfident and crap) he is what I told you earlier…a bundle of talent with energy gushing out him all the time in the form of mischief! Best of luck l’il fella!!

ROI 10: Pur..pur..pur..purrrrrrrrrrrrr

He had a CD player of his own…but he had to borrow mine! He had an awesome sony erricson K750i but he had to listen to the songs on my Creative Zen all the time!! He had a room and room mates but he would always be with us in 308!!! He’s the person who irritated me the most at Savoy and managed to go scott free each time…Parleen the great!


He only looks mature guys…I have never met a more immature guy than this young lad!! Trust me...he is so very easily distracted from his goal…just like small children…so very easily dejected…so very easily hurt! God sometimes when I used to have these ‘pep-talks’ with him it was as though he was the girl and I was the guy! Sheesh!


He’s a good friend…irritating yes…annoying yes…immature yes…but nevertheless fun!


There was a time when almost all the girls on Idol (except 308) had a crush on this dude and he always came to me to express his utmost disgust on that matter, although I knew within he was jumping joyfully at the attention he got unasked! These boys I tell you!

Although I have heard from reliable sources that boys seldom clean their rooms, I fail to agree in Parleen’s case. I can say he was the ‘Aisha’ of 206 (his room) with his roommates Shan and Roshan. He was cleanliness raised to a 103. Whenever he felt even a spick of sweat/dirt on him he would dash for a bath! Yes a full fledged half-hour bath! Even if it was 12 in the night! Have you heard of such insanity? I think he used to have it thrice or four times a day!

Apart from his irritating urge to keep attacking my tickle-sensitive spots (this disease which soon transferred to Chang), even though his weakness was the same too, his weird table manners irked me. He used to eat with both his hands! Yes…tear a chappati with two hands…my two year old cousin does it single handedly with ease! When I told him that we normal human beings use only one hand, and after a lot of coaxing…he started using one hand. Phew! I told him his parents would be glad that he found a friend on Idol who transformed him from a naughty boy to a well-behaved man!!



He loved posing for pictures. And if the photographer (like mua) was really serious about what he/she was doing then the pictures came out brilliantly. If not singing…after Idol I’m sure Parleen a.k.a Pinni is gonna get loads of modeling offers!! Among all my pictures half would be filled with both Parleen and Vani posing extensively!! They loved being shot…and sometimes I really did wish my cam could shoot them down! Hehe!


Check this one picture I took of his, first I experimented the Beckham hairstyle on him and then wanted to try out the low-lighting technique in my room and the result is…

So…? Wha’dya guys think of my photography huh?


Since I am in the mood of displaying my skills here’s another one with Suhit and Chang (the posing idea was Suhit’s while I was the hand behind the cam!)

Hmm I know I know… multi-talented…well…that’s me!! Hehehe!…Puh-leez I am just a Jack of all trades and Master of known seriously!!!


Back to pur..pur..pur…purrrrrrrrleen!! That’s the nick name Harshi gave him!


He loved talking about…no no I’m sorry…he Loves talking about bikes!! Given a chance he could spend days telling you his adventurous (boring to me) biking trips! Or even car swerving tricks would do!! Gosh!! Why do all boys have some-sort of magnetic craze to these metallic wheeled vehicles??

Well I know Vani & Aish always asked me why I never reacted to the pranks and irritating things he did to me or why I never got pissed off at him…probably that’s because under all that naughtiness and immaturity I saw a pure-heart and a genuine friend…he was more like a brother I never had...a younger one though in age he is elder to me by two months! Like that matters!!

If you end up becoming the Idol dude…don’t forget old folks like me…atleast I know I did try hard to get you to focus on your singing when you were busy thinking of “other things”!Hehe! And if you don’t well…don’t give up faith in your talent…keep trying…and like you told me once..I might see you in those army uniforms like your dad one day!! All the best for everything buddy!

ROI 9: Damsel from Dubai...

I had known her from Dubai. Known her in the sense…we used to meet annually at every single singing competition, inter-school, solo or group that was held in the country. We used to regularly compete with each other for the classical vocal category to be more precise. It was always like this…She used to come first, then another girl from my school second and then me with the third prize. No jokes... this happened every single time!! After a point I began telling my parents the minute I saw her at a competition…”why are we even here…she’s gonna bag first and im gonna be stagnant at 3rd! Hmph!” According to me she was snobbish, had a big time attitude written in capital letters all over her face and thought of herself as the most prettiest thing on earth!! WHAT EVER!!!



But then…we met again at another singing contest, this time we were singing English songs…and I got second in it while she bagged third!! I couldn’t believe it!!! The first time I was ahead of her!! Then she came and congratulated me and said that I really sang like Christina Aguillera ( I had sung Genie in a bottle!)…I felt elated and my opinion about her slightly changed. After a gap of a year or so we met again for Zee Tv’s SRGMP Middle-east Muqabala 2006. This was hosted by Shaan and had eminent Judges like Kumar Sanu, Adesh Srivastav, Ismail Darbar and Jatin and Lalit Pandit who judged us ( we were 32 contestants from the middle east) and while she got out at the Quarter final stage, I went up to the finals and came second. Coincidently we both lost to the same singer…that lady was horrible anyway!! Coming back to this person…by the time SRGMP was over we both had gotten to know each other a little better. Not just us but our parents too. I was invited to her place once and we bumped into each other at our college campus too if I am not mistaken. So my initial conception of her was changing with these un-planned frequent meetings.



Then we met again for another competition held by a radio station in Dubai called ‘Radio Star’ where the contestants sang over the Radio, and the listeners voted for their favorites. In that both of us were singing with different duet partners. My duet partner Karan (with whom there is a pic I have on Orkut) and I won the first prize while she and her duet partner got third. By this time we had become good friends. But the time I have most cherished with her is when we both got selected not just at the auditions but right upto the top 28 stage of Indian Idol 3…



Even though I haven’t told you guys who she is…I’m sure my readers are smart enough to have guessed who this “she” was in the above paragraphs…no??? C’mon…. how can you forget my dearest friend and oh-so-messy roomie….Panni… I mean.. .Vani!!! :-) Heheh!



The minute we both found out that we were roomies at Savoy we were the happiest creatures alive!!! For the first two days the two of us were always muttering something or the other in tam-alyalam (that’s Tamil and Malayalam alternatively) and didn’t know or rather didn’t bother to worry about what out third roomie Aisha would think about us…until the time she went…”There you go with your ‘Enna Pa…Enna Pi…Enna Po…’“ and the two of us were rolling on the floor laughing! That is was nothing of that sort in Tamil or Malayalam! Hehe!



As the days flew by Vani and I really got close. We both confessed to each what we thought of the other when we were in Dubai…and we both laughed at the others confession!! But now our opinions are no where near to what we originally had in mind…She’s worse than worse could be!!!! Hehehe!! I bet Vani’s face would be red if she was reading this!!



There were only two irritating things…no three…no actually there are a lot of irritating things she does…but I’d be inviting all of you to my funeral if she finds out I am disclosing all of it online…for Public Viewing! Any way coming back to my point…whenever she gets a new song the first thing that bothers her is the damn ‘Pitch’ of the song. Which in most cases should not and is not a problem in the first place. Pitch or Scale of the song is something we decide. It is the singer who decides what pitch to sing his/her song in. But No…Miss Vanita Subramanium has to make sure her pitch is right even before having the very first practice with the orchestra!! I can’t even count the number of times I have consoled her that she doesn’t sound as though she is screeching or that she can fix her pitch with the band members. But some things just don’t change.



The other very irritating thing about her is this nagging question she asked me from time to time whenever my facial expression changed from a wide smile to an ok-I’m-not-so-excited-now smile. “ What’s wrong Rashu? Did I do something? I know something’s not right…tell me..is it me? Huh?” GOD!!! Even if it was a buzzing fly I was angry with she had to make sure I was not pissed off with her and had to reassure her that it would in no way affect our friendship. Can you believe that?? I don’t remember how many “You are now one of my close friends and I don’t want anything to spoil that rashu” from her!! She got soo paranoid with me sometimes for nothing absolutely! Well that’s the part of friendship one doesn’t mind facing!! She couldn’t beat Aishu’s irritating “Maain”ing anyway!!



One thing’s for sure…in the one month that I spent with her at Savoy…I can truly count Vani as one of my closest friends now. We shared so many of our problems and helped each other understand others better. I am sure I would have been lost and I’m sure she would agree with me if either of us weren’t there with the other during Idol! Seriously. We had gotten so used to eachother there that we completely forgot that this was just a temporary phase and that one day we would have to go back to our normal routines in Dubai. And trust me when I say this…even though we are just about 10 minutes from each others places, meeting up never really happens, planned! That’s how it is in Dubai.



I miss getting up before she did…

I miss trying a zillion methods to wake her up…

I miss scolding her for acting like a kid at times (though she’s a year older to me)…

I miss how annoyed she looked when Aish used to call me the achi bachi…

I miss screaming at her to clear up her things…

I miss telling her to stand straight (I have never met anyone slouching the way she does!)…

I miss the warm and loving goodnight hugs and kisses we gave each other like siblings each night…

I miss the excellent leg massage both Vani and Aish gave me once… (not to forget the oh-so-relaxing hair massage both Vani & I received from Aish!! Damn…she’s god at it!!!)


I miss hearing her loving “Rashuuuuuuuuu you piece-a-shit!!!!” and calling her a “Panniii” in return…


I miss doing our riyaaz together…


And I miss our frequent fights over Shan and Chang… (Don’t looked confused folks I’ll be explaining this part soon…)



Well Vani…I hope we remain this way for ages to come and hope you do well in life…which I’m sure you will, hanging out with smart mallu friends like me!! Hehe! Luv you girl!!