shoutout to the backstage people.

Had to share excerpts of this email exchange with you guys:

Taposhda wrote us an email, thanking us for backstage support and volunteering. To which, Sujan Kabir replied, “Three cheers for Taposh'da...Hip Hip........................Three cheers for Amra Kojon...Hip Hip.........................

Commenting on the event will be patting our backs, so let others do that. It was fun, will always be cherished, specially the new ties and bonds we just made :-) Amra Kojon is a large family in the true sense."

Taposhda countered with a shout-out to Tanvir bhai, “And my dear Bondhu Tanvir: All this personal emotional talk goes to you too. I know Noreen was pretty upset with you and Sujan for AK related over work!!! Thank God, your wife was not in Boston.
Welcome to AK family my friend. Aami bhalo bhabe kotha bolty likhty pari naa, aamar okkhomotaa etaa [I can not speak or write well, that’s my shortcoming]. But mone mone tomaader sobaar mongol kamonaa kori [But at heart, I wish the best for you all]. What ever all of us did, its not for me or ak or for us...its for our bangladesh, for our motherland, jaar kachee aamder ontoheen reen [for our motherland, to whom we are indebted infinitely].

Noreen: Here is your husband Sujan, take him back to your life again...keep him for next two months. Will borrow him again from August 2006, hee hee heeee.....”

Noreen apa quick replies, “What??!?!? August 2006?? We never talked about August Taposhda! Oh wait, I won’t even be in Boston, okay, do with him what you will, but I want him back in early September again!”

Sujan bhai writes in, “Bhai aar bon-er majhe aami "shuttle cork"! "Keep him" "take him" choltase. Ki aar korum! [I’m the shuttle cork between the brother and the sister! What can I do?] BTW: How are other 2 AK Sujans' doing!”

Sujan (ATM) writes back, “Hey, Sujan-bhai, I'm doing well.
Just got back home and am reading this thread of mails.
It was all a whirlwind of an event. Looking back, it seems like a dream,...well, borderline nightmare because of the pressure! With the responsibility of the "Sound of Music", I probably looked the most grumpy on stage. Taps tried to get me to smile, with his warm and encouraging "Has na, shala!" but to no avail. Also, I messed up many things. But next time will be better - there will be 4 keyboards for me alone! I'm just kidding. (Or am I?)

Anyway, here's a suggestion for Taps - we know how important backstage is to the main show, so why not bring the backstage to the front (say, at the end), and highlight the backstage crew in an elegant way? They deserve to be seen by the audience, to give them a sense of the sheer magnitude of work behind some of these shows, and for us to express our gratitude for being able to stand on their able shoulders and sing. After all, Amra Kojon isn't just the 20 or so singers and a few musicians, but much much more.

Anyway, Taps, thanks for creating this platform for us. I feel very proud to be a part of it. You da man!”

I had to pipe in, “I vote for glass backstage walls, sound proof though, and then at one point, we airlift the glass walls away, and reveal the chaos and madness behind scenes. :) hahahaha.

Sujan bhai - there were no messups that you guys all didn't deal with exceptionally well.

Frankly speaking, and you guys might hate me for saying this, but I feel that we're focusing a bit too much on "highlighting" those who made the production possible. In my view - we all wanted to do something fun, present something aesthetically pleasing, and share bangla gaan with our audience. Wwe did that. Doesn't matter who helped - we were all in it for our personal satisfaction and not for the recognition. Acknowledgment and recognition gets into the tricky game of "who did we leave out" and other icky areas I love to avoid :) but that's only me.

Alright, now for the next one week - I forbid all AK show related thanks, acknowledgments and the like. We need to all focus on recharging, strategizing for the next projects, and surging forward. Yes, part of that can not come without learning from our experiences, but I think Taposhda needs this week and the weekend TOTALLY off from AK life and AK. Just sleep, eat, and vegetate. Everything else, we will handle, and keep going.”

A quick support from Nadia, “I second Naina, 210%. Everyone, please vegetate.”

Yet almost simultaneously, the jhari pours in from Fawad, “Naina, Two words. Be quiet. Who needs to rest anyway? (This comes from the person who didn't make it to the afterparty since he was too tired.. hehehe) I am up and ready for our next array of rehearsals. So damn excited and ready to kick ass, not even funny. As far as Taposh da goes….. we all know he doesn't need to eat, drink OR sleep. And asking him not to think of AK for a week is like asking him not to breath for a week (even worse, smoke). Anyway, I can't wait to watch a recording of our show. Any words on when where and how???

Sujan (ATM), Tumi jodi maiya hoita [if only you were a girl]..... ok never mind.. hehehe

Hope to see you guys soon.”

My quick reply, “Recording of our show - ETA at least a week from now. Our direct audio capture from the first half of the show was "burnt out" - so we've requested the audio track from ATN Bangla, and it will take them a few days to get it to us, and then Chip will do the video editing and prepare a DVD. One week, 10days from now.

Show pictures - Auditi and I took some that are ready for viewing – by the end of the weekend. The professional pictures will take a bit more time - we expect that the photographers will give us their collection by the end of this week.

Performer profile pages will be up soon. for a sample, click on "Abhijeet Bhutra" from the show page, you will see what I mean. Fawad mia - profile dao [give me your profile].

I'll be quiet, promise. but "da man" needs to recharge.

For antsy performers who want to do more RIGHT NOW - send me your profiles, send me blog entries, send me notes on the songs you sang, so we can put it in the description section under each mp3 clip :) I know this email isn’t going to reach the performers, but I will rely on Fawad bhai's exuberance to call people/email them and badger them for profiles, blog entries and song descriptions :)”