“Hello Raashi!” he said.
“Hey, Sameer!” Raashi replied.
Natasha came forward too. The girls exchanged awkward hellos. The last time he was in one of her restaurants with Natasha, Raashi had unceremoniously thrown them out and here he was repeating history, standing again in one of her restaurants with Natasha by his side.
“So, you own this place and AquaNox?” Natasha asked.
“Yes,” Raashi replied. She saw the other woman sizing her from top to toe. She appraised her too, looking her over deliberately. She was not going to be cowed down by her.
Sensing the obvious tension between the two girls, Sameer stepped in, “Thanks Raashi, for your help.”
“Anything for Rishi,” she replied, smiling at Rishi.
“Great band playing tonight, Raashi. Isn’t this the same band that you...” Rishi said, moving closer to her.
“Yes,” Raashi replied quickly. “Come on, I’ll show you to your table?”
Sameer and Natasha followed behind Raashi and Rishi. Sameer heard Rishi ask her, “And this lead singer was the same one that you once...”
The remainder of Rishi’s question and Raashi’s reply was lost as they moved through the crowd. The music got louder as they got closer to the stage. Raashi pointed at someone in the crowd to Rishi while speaking very softly to him. A tinge of envy stabbed Sameer on seeing his brother interact so easily with Raashi. What was she telling Rishi?
Damn! He was envious of his own brother now. Before he could give it any more thought, Raashi stopped in front of their table. She had organized one for them right in the front of the stage.
As soon as they reached, the band took a break. Raashi settled them at their table and motioned to a nearby waiter, who came forward to take their orders.
“Thank God, they’ve taken a break. It’s just too loud and I think it’s going to be worse from where we’re sitting,” Natasha grumbled.
“Sorry,” Raashi spoke absently, shaking her head, her attention fixed on the stage. Sameer turned to see what had distracted her. One of the band members was pointing to herand then to his guitar and Raashi shook her head vehemently. Then with a strongly mouthed NO, she turned back to Natasha.
“Sorry! It was the best I could do in the circumstances,” Raashi said.
“Don’t apologize, Raashi. It’s great,” Sameer remarked.
“Yes, it’s so cool. Thanks to you, I have front row seats to watch Rhapsody play live,” Rishi beamed.
Sameer frowned when he saw the band member waving to her again.
Raashi quickly turned to the, “Well, I’ve got to get back. You guys enjoy yourselves.”
Sameer saw the guy leap off the stage and go after Raashi as she disappeared into the crowd. Instantly, Sameer recognized the guy. That was Dheer Malhotra. He had read somewhere about him. He was the lead singer of the band and a darling of the female populace. He also wrote most of his music himself plus he had his own successful music company and a movie production house. Sameer had heard some of his music and it was quite good. Rhapsody normally played a mix of fusion and rock, though he couldn’t claim to be an ardent fan.
A moment later, the crowd parted and he could see Raashi and Dheer arguing and Raashi kept shaking her head. She finally splayed a hand out stopping him and pointed at the stage. Sameer saw him turn to see that the band was ready to play again and were waiting for him. With a shake of his head he walked back, crossing their table and in the same stride leapt back on the stage.
What was going on? And what had Rishi been asking Raashi earlier about her and the lead singer of the band? Sameer started to inquire, but
the band started playing again and he turned to watch them play.
Raashi watched Dheer and the band play from a far corner. Dheer, being typically himself was pestering her again. He’d been bothering her ever since he’d agreed to perform here tonight. But she wasn’t giving in to him. Mercifully, the band was playing in full swing since the past half an hour and he hadn’t had the time to trouble her since then. The crowd cheered at the end of the song and she was thrilled for the band. They deserved their success. They had worked long and hard to reach the kind of acclaim they had acquired and she was proud of them.
She blinked when she realized that the band had stopped playing again. She rushed towards the stage to find out why they had stopped and if there was a problem and halted in her tracks when she heard Dheer’s voice on the microphone.
Sameer had thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of songs. It had been so long since he had watched a gig being played live. And this band had only gotten better over the years. Rishi was in high spirits, cheering with the crowd and thankfully even Natasha was enjoying herself. He had noticed her tapping her foot a few times with the beats and more importantly she wasn’t asking to leave. The crowd applauded at the end of the song and instead of playing the next track, the lead singer, Dheer, conferred with the rest of his band members before walking up to the microphone again.
“OK, people! The next set of songs that we’re going to perform for you are from our very first album, ‘Bohemia’.”
The crowd roared in delight.
“But, but,” Dheer said raising his hands to silence the crowd, “playing this album will be incomplete, without the one person who was the soul behind Bohemia. She’s here tonight and we all,” he said pointing to the entire band, “will continue only if you convince her to play and sing with us.”
