Rock & Roll with Amit Paul

When I found out that Amit Paul was coming to Atlanta for a concert. I was sooo excited. I actually watched *most* of Indian Idol - Season 3. Hey, it was mostly spoken in Hindi and very different from American Idol, even though I don't watch much of it either, so I didn't know what to expect. Funny thing is I only have seen season 3. Mainly watched it for Meiyang Chang, Prashant Tamang, and Amit Paul. Now, I like Prashant too (the winner of Indian Idol 3) and would've went to his concert but I found out after he came. I wasn't going to miss my chance to see Amit Paul. He's so talented and cute!

So I bought my tickets two months in advance online. The prices were reasonable. I decided to get VIP. Hey, why not? A few more extra dollars and I get to be closer to the stage and have a meet/greet with Amit Paul. Plus it is not far from my house at all!

I tweeted about watching Luck By Chance. That was such a good movie! (Should I blog about it? And make lots of caps?) Forget the "Baaware" song. Yes, Hrithik is cute and can dance. But the best song on the soundtrack is sung by Amit Paul - "Pyaar Ki Daastan."



Did the concert start "Indian Standard Time"?
Well, it did *not* start on time. However, I didn't have to wait that long.

I'm an early bird. Blame it on my parents. When they say 3 pm, what they meant is be there before 3 pm, not be there at 3 pm. So I got to the venue around 2:20 pm. Early, huh? I was okay. I was waiting for one of my friends.

Originally, I bought two VIP tickets for the concert. One for me; the other one for my daughter. However, my daughter's friend had a birthday party that day. The friend's party had to be re-scheduled for the day of the concert. The week before, there were floods in Atlanta. It was sooo hard for my daughter to choose but I told her that I know she wants to go to the birthday party so go ahead. I will find someone else. And I did.

My friend is not a hardcore movie bluff like me. She watches some, ranging from Thai and Bollywood films. Plus she is an aspiring photographer so these pictures will be great for her portfolio.

When it got closer to 3 pm, we walked inside and waited. I asked someone about the Amit Paul concert because looks like everyone was busy with Durga Puja. Then I learn that Amit hasn't even arrived yet.

We just waited and took pictures of the lovely ceremonial traditional. The women were dressed beautifully with their colorful sarees paying tribute.



Once the ceremony was over, it was 3:30 pm. We saw Amit arrive. Then 5 minutes afterwards, we went to the theater. We had second row seats! Yah! And we sat in the middle too!

The Atlanta Bengali Form introduced Amit Paul.



He performed for 2.5 hours. Ranging from Bengali songs to Bollywood classics to Bollywood hits. In addition, he asked the audience what they wanted to hear.

A few songs I am able to remember are Om Shanti Om songs - "Om Shanti Om" & "Dard-E- Disco," Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar - "Pehla Nasha," Mann - "Nasha Yeh Pyar Ka Nasha Hai," Saawariya - "Saawariya," Jab We Met - "Tum Se Hi," and of course his song from Luck By Chance - "Pyaar Ki Dastan."



Besides Amit's amazing voice, what I love about Amit is his interaction with the audience. He would ask the audience what they wanted to hear. If he didn't have the music, he sang acapella to at least the chorus. He brought people on the stage to dance with him.

People just got up and started dancing from their seats. A few times he said he was done for the night, but the audience wanted him to continue. And he did. He sang more songs for them. How sweet is that!



Since my friend is an aspiring photographer, she definitely had a much better camera than me. The following two are pictures from camera.



Told you it looks better than my pictures, lol.



After the concert was over, we were able to meet/greet with Amit. We went backstage and waited in line. The sponsers were nice and let us go to the front and told us to go ahead.

I told my friend to go ahead and take the picture first with Amit. Once it was my turn and before taking pictures, I brought two photos of Amit I wanted him to sign.

Ever since I met Jay Sean, I just have to stars' autograph. Hey, it has worked so far. Autographs I received - Jay Sean, Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, John Abraham, Salman Khan, Dev Anand.

One photo, I got from the Internet. I don't know who to credit but thanks so much. It was Amit's Indian Idol picture. When Amit saw it, he blushed and chuckled. He couldn't believe I actually watch Indian Idol. He asked where we were from.

My friend answered, "Laos." My friend I are both Hmong. I usually tell people that I am from Thailand because I was born there. But since it's so complicated explaining to people who Hmong people are, I left it at that.

Then he saw the other photo that I just put together. It was simple but I absolutely love the outfit he had one. I told him that that outfit is similar to my culture. He then asked what my ethnicity was and I told him HMONG. He was impressed and sweet.



I debated and debated to share my picture with Amit. I look horrible. But Amit looked adorable. Now, just don't be scared off with my pic.



After my friend and I got our meet/greet with Amit, we walked to the parking lot. Since we took separate cars, we just stood outside and started chatting about how much fun we had. Even though we kept seeing so many people come by and leave, we didn't realize the time.

All of a sudden we saw Amit pass by us with the sponsors. He was sweet enough to talk to us! He asked why we were still there and said it was great meeting us. Aaaawwwww! Love him even more.

I took several videos of Amit singing. However, I'm having problems with them. On my desktop computer, the videos won't play. I even tried on my laptop, the videos play but the audio doesn't work. Whenever I get it working, I will share with everyone. He is awesome, sweet, good-looking, and talented. Gotta love that!