Well, despite earlier misgivings, I ended up at the Rolling Stones concert after all.

Earlier on Friday, we decided to postpone Anjali’s party to next week, because it looks like this weekend is going to be rained out, and quite a few people couldn’t make it to the party anyway.

Was sitting in office when Anjali calls saying that her friend had managed to get some passes for the Stones show, which I had earlier decided to skip because I didn’t have company (Mrinal had declared the Stones outside his area of interest, Gopi was too beat, etc.), and because it looked like serious rain. But since Shanu, Sony and RK had also decided to go, I trundled over to Palace Ground to check out the action.

The show was great. Even though it rained cats and dogs, everyone stayed and enjoyed themselves, and the Stones, seeing the enthu from the crowd, gave their best.

Because we weren’t right up front, I had resigned myself to squinting (in the rain) at the distant stage, though the sound was passable. To my delight, during the third number, the back of the stage suddenly lit up with a *huge* plasma display, with *excellent* live video coverage of the show – including from a “stump vision” camera from Ronnie Wood’s guitar headstock! This made things so much easier for me and others at the back – we didn’t miss a thing.

I am used to seeing stacks of speakers on each side of the stage for such shows, but this one was different – just one slim column of speakers strung up like a ribbon from a frame. Despite the unimpressive looks, this speaker arrangement (obviously state of the art) pumped out louder and clearer sound than any of the shows I had seen earlier.

Lights and screen-projections were very impressive as well – the rapidly changing lights ensure an almost live-MTV feel to the show, which made it all the more impressive.

This was Anjali’s first ever rock show, and she appeared to have enjoyed herself, even though she and her friend Sweety got hopelessly soaked in the bargain.

By the time the Stones played “Satisfaction” and “Jumping Jack Flash”, most people had decided that this was most definitely a “paisa vasool” (money’s worth) event. I am glad I went – this was almost certainly my last chance to see the Rolling Stones live – and unlike most DNA Networks organised shows, this one had almost zero glitches (other than the rain).

After a 20 minute hunt for my car (because I couldn’t remember where I had parked it), we had to face the usual traffic jam, which kept us immobile for almost 45 minutes. Being soaked to the skin, this would have been a most unpleasant experience, but since my Fiat Siena has an *excellent* heater system, we were all warm and toasty in no time.

We came home to a power-failure, but the ordered-in Chinese food made up for that. There is *nothing* like a Hot & Sour Chicken soup when you are seriously soaked!

Crashed out early after reflecting briefly that while Mick Jagger may have wailed that he don’t get no satisfaction, I was as content as a pig in the mud. Literally!