ROI 5: Finale of all the Theatrical Performances...

Hey guys!



Lissen….I’m extremely sorry about this delayed posting up of my entries. I can’t help it. I don’t get the time to access the net as frequent as I could back in Dubai. And moreover the network her is…wel…I’d rather not lose my cool speaking about it! J



Well… my third set of roomies were Vanita (yeaaaaaayy!!) and Priyanka (not Mukherjee…another Priyanka from Delhi). Vani tho I already knew from Dubai and Priyanka …well it’s sad that I didn’t get much time to interact with her, seemed like a nice girl to me! We reached Sahil at around 10:00 and believe in those three days…no actually in my entire college life…that night was the first time I slept before 12 o’clock…at 10:15 !!! Wow…now that is something for a nocturnal being like moi!!Hehe!



The next day as usual we left at 7, reached NCPA at 8 and well as usual…waited…and waited…and waited for hours till my turn!! (Why am I always so lucky to go LAST??? Hmph!) No actually before the wait we had rehearsals with the band, that was fun. (we had rehearsals even for the duo/trio rounds but that wasn’t as fun as this). The song that I chose, 8 other girls also chose that, and trust me all of us sounded heavenly when we sang together! All the other 8 were singing the mukhda and the 1st anthra, while I chose the 2nd anthra…yea..that’s me…I’m always Different! ;-)




Oh before that let me tell you something interesting about Aisha. While all of us were on our way to NCPA that day, there was hardly any place for all of us to sit in the bus. I sat next to Vartika Vani was adjacent to me on the other two seats, while Aisha was standing. Before we the bus started off she began humming her song and Vani over-heard her hum an interesting tune which was not there in the original and by the way Aisha and Vani were roomies for the previous night. Vani was like “Hey Aisha, just sing that portion again na…sounded like a really nice improvisation for the song..” and then Aisha goes, “ Umm…actually…no.. I don’t want to sing it to again…don’t mind…”. Vani understood why and told her, “look rey..I won’t copy your tune or anything, I am anyway singing Aawaara Bhanware…”, a very flushed Aisha said, “ Sorry rey Vanita…didn’t meant to be rude but my previous roommate also said the same thing and she turned out to be a cheeky and copied my improvisations, while I conveniently forgot to do it on stage…so that’s why..i am.. a little…well no hassles.. here goes..” and she sang it again for Vani. Later when Vani had problems with the pitching of the song, Swapnali Di (the music manager) told her to change the song and she got to sing Sajna ji Vaari itself. And at that time Aisha’s face was worth taking a look at!!! Hehe. But Vani is not the kind who would copy other’s ideas…and again Aisha forgot to do the improvisation on stage…so there goes all the effort in vain! Hehe!!



Now back to the long wait…what all happened while that time now let me think..hmmm.. oh yea it was Vartika’s Bdya that day. One of the crew members kept her busy talking, while the other one told us to all gather around her quietly and sing and wish her. She was so deep in conversation with Thomas (another Associate Producer) that she didn’t see all of us creep up behind her and all of a sudden jolt her with our pretty loud, and harmonious “Happy B’day To You!!!” …after every one finished their versions, I sang for her in Arabic too and it goes “Sana Haaluaa Yajamee”! Everyone was behind my life after that asking me if that really was a genuine song or whether I just made it up!! Heheh!! Especially Jatin from Kanpur…as it is that guy was soooo funny, on top of it he kept asking me the right way of saying those words in that song! “Sana…halwa…allergy?....Sahin gaya na maine?” Hehehe!!!



My turn came and went, sang …umm…OK! The rhythm of the song went much slower than the original and that kinda lost the spakr of the song. But I somehow managed and yea came out of the hall pretty satisfied with my performance.


Oh …miss Richa again cried that day..this time for not being able to remember the lyrics for her song. And again she was caught by the cams and was being comforted by her two Delhi ‘Bhaiyas’, Amit Sharma, and Parleen Gill. Never Mind!! Hehe


Parleen’s fav pastime was going around clicking weird pics of all the contestants either sleeping or in deep conversation with others…God!! Seriously…he was irritating all the crew members when they were trying to shoot our video diaries, by making all of laugh showing us those pics!! Stupid Fellow..I told him I’ll catch him once when he’s asleep!!



By then I had become familiar with a lot more people, Amit Paul (the guy who had a cd full of different south Indian songs, and he just learnt them blankly without knowing which one is what language. He kept singing Telugu , thinking it was Tamil and vice-versa…I told him I’ll help him recognize the languages if he gets me the cd…if he got thru that was! J ), then. Jatin ( funny guy from Kanpur) , Abhiskek (another one from Dhanbaad..always wearing an ulti topi!), Rajsee (Vani’s and Bhavin’s Trio partner) , Shahid (Oh this dude from Mumbai was the funniest of the lot…he used to tell jokes with such a straight face…that I just laughed looking at his face! Hehe!), then Amit from Delhi (man.. all the guys I kept meeting turn out to be damn funny yaar!!), Shantanu (te amazing guitarist), Vartika (the sweet little girl!), and others like, Harshi, Aisha, Bhavin & Vani..whom I don’t have to specially mention!


You people must be wondering why I have more guys in the list than girls yea? One simple reason, theses guys were carefree and bindaas and not chui-muee and bitchy like some other girls…other wise also I hate gossip mongrels! And as this journey of mine kept advancing, I could only confirm the fact that I mingle better with guys, than girls…no wonder why my parents keep telling me I am tom-boyish! Hehe!



Hmm after all this…all 46 of us were made to sit on neatly arranged sofas, and Mini and Hussain told us about how our results would be announced. They said that since there were a lot of good singers among us, for the first time in Idol history they were going to select 14 girls and guys each instead of 12…so that’s how it became 28 from 24!



We were to walk a loooong walkway , through a long corridor, up the stairs and through another passage to reach were the judges were seated with one single chair placed in front of them , our judgment chair..or whatever they called it! This looong walkway was termed… “Faisle ka safar”


I kinda knew what it would be like, ‘cause I had seen a similar thing being done with the American Idol contestants and there it was called…well.. I don’t really remember the term..ah.. forget it! Back to all of us being seated…


One by one we were shown the way…and all of us had to go alone to the judges. First one to be selected was Chang and we knew it the minute we heard him howl!!! Even here my turn came towards the end. I went up…smiling at all the cameras that kept following me and then when I finally saw the 4 judges at the end of the ‘safar’, my heart slowly started pounding….lub-dub….lub-dub…..


Sat on that chair…looked at all four of them…Annu ji said “ Javed ji ne hi aapko chune the Dubai se..so Javed Ji…please …do the honours” (with a very glum face!)

‘Rashmi…be ready to face the worst..’ I thought to myself…


Javed Ji began…”Aapko humne Dubai se…saw logon mein se chuna…yeh badi baat thi…uske baad phir aap theatre rounds me ab taka age pahunchti gayee..yeh bhi badi baat hai…lekin…aage agar…yahan…aapko phir selection mil jaayega tho yeh sabse badhi baat hai…”… pause…and he smiles…!


“aap Piano rounds ke liye selected hain!!”


I actually let out a sigh of relief and screamed “lightly” according to Annu Ji. I got up and before I left I shook all of their hands, and while I was leaving Annu ji said “you didn’t scream al lthat much…” and I told him..i wanted to surprise my friends waiting downstairs..and don’t want to let them know whether I am in or out with my scream! And to that Annu ji was like..”aah.. you want to something different and unique..as always!”. .and I agreed…



I walked back down…quietly…no reaction at all..and when I reached the waiting arena…they were not ready for me..infact Hussain was shooting a byte with ..Amit (the next one to go after me) I think…He saw me coming with a glum face…I was sooo serious…and Mini goes “Nahin yaar…yeh nahin ho sakta….it’s not possible.. how can you not be.. damn!!” ..I still continue looking serious…then even Pinky comes in front and begins “Your joking na Rashu….yeh sach nahin ho sakta.. your joking na…”.. and then till I was sure all of them had a shock. .I looked at my watch and said” theek hai yaar..april 1st nahin hai aaj.. main select ho gayee hoon!!!! Hussain was like..”waah Rashmi…singing ke saath saath tum acting bhi achi tarah karthi ho huh!! You really had us fooled for a minute there!!” Hehehe…that’s me !!!



I was taken immediately back into the auditorium where all of us were asked to wait for some shoots, we were made to dance individually on the stage (to shoot sign’s of happiness on winning the top 28 title) and yea.. if any of you have seen that really horrible picture of mine on sify, the one where I look like I have been possessed…yea.. that’s precisely when I was full into the dancing groove! Whoever put that embarrassing pic up there!! Sheesh!!!



Well after this we had a brief interaction with Annu ji, who made us right the lyrics down for Janne ke Jaane na.. to sing as a group. And believe me it was the most funniest sight ever to see him sing!!!! In that typical nasal tone of his!! Hehe… all of us went up back on the stage…and the now top 28 contestants of Indian Idol had a teeny-weeny sing & dance session to celebrate their victory!


Here’s presenting to you the then top 28:

Vani.. (yeaaa…both the Dubai Damsels were selected!!!!)

Parleen (Cool…my first friend on Idol also got in…!!!)

Vartika (Yeaayy!!!)

Bhavin (Awesome!!!)

Pinky (…umm….welll..ok…no hassels…she’s a good singer..and that’s all I care!)

Roshan (that quite guy, who was Bhavin’s roomie if I am not mistaken…didn’t know much about him..so.. yeay!!)

Aisha (hey..cool!!)

Bharat (didn’t even know he existed….so mean of me na!! tsk..tsk…)

Deepali (hmm…ok..Yea..Vani’s no-hassles roomie…nice!)

Padhmanabh (rolly polly..cuite..from Assam..I was really glad when he appreciated me for the long lecute I gave to all the contestans on the mic , the very first day of the theares…he said even he was one of the dejected contestants who re-gained their confidence only after hearing my ‘speech’!! ahem ..ahem!!! *raising collars* hehe)

Smita (seemed to be a sweet lady…nice!)

Anish (umm…oh yea..the guy who didn’t like it when Shantanu played his guitar to relax…hmm…didn’t like his attitude then!)

Shifa (ahh… one of the other sweet little girls..nice!)

Prashant ( oh.. yea. .that ‘paavum’ guy who had to suffer Richa’s torture! Great job buddy!)

Richa ( aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh WHT THE…..NAhinnnnnnnnn!!!)

Amit Paul (I could araam se help him sort those songs in that CD of his! Hehe!)

Priyanka Mukherjee ( hmm…seemed like a nice gal…didn’t know her!)

Chang ( oh.. that…HOTT…CUTE….chinese guy!!!! Cool!!!)

Charu (hmm.. the one who fought with Suhith…hmm.. ok…)

Suhith (not bad..I liked the guys attitude ..this is then… things changed later.. *wink* )

Pooja ( oh.. that girl who claimed that she deserves to be the Idol since she had done 24 hours of Riyaaz for almost a week before she came for the theatres…ok….seemed to be a girl with loads of “head-weight” )

Shantanu (Yes!!!!! I intended to make him play a lot for me!!! The guitar I meant!!)

Ankita ( ah…I liked this girls Kanpur auditions…liked her attitude…smart girl!)

Abhishek ( hey cool…topi wala joker!!)

Harshida (heyyyyyy awesome… two of my ex-roomies are in!! Vani & Harshi to refresh your memories!)

Rehan (ahh.. didn’t know much about him except that he was polio affected)

Rashmi ( ah…. Wonder who this female is!1 :P)

And last but not the least.. Emon (that cute little. .guy. .who also plays the guitar…sings damn well.. and yea.. that’s all I knew about him!)

All the above statements were ofcourse based on my first hand knowledge on meeting al of them for the first time, with not much interaction….my later entires will slowly let all of you take a peek at the wonderful..emotional…relaxing…and fun-filled moments I had with all 27 of them at our next Stop Hotel Savoy!!!


Oh and by the way…that night (and the night after that ‘cause it was a Sunday) Pooja became my roomie, she was a pretty bubbly girl I must say!! Not bad…


Then I got talking with Emon and Chang too… I finally got to know that Chang was 24!!!! And that he was a Dentist!!! Man!!!! Cool…I told him about the regular pain I kept having with my lower gum for the past 3 days…he took one look at it and said that when I go back to Dubai I have to get my tooth Surgically removed!!! OMG!!! I hate dentist visits…(ok..not if they are as cute and sweet as chang!!hehe!)


All this and more…..on my next entry!!! (wondering why this abrupt end??? Being called for dinner.. like a zillion times now!!!! Gotta go folks!!!! Ciao!!!)