We were at Allahabad , Uttar Pradesh , India and I was the CEO of a defense undertaking from 1993 to 1995 . Every year in the of month of January , the citizens of Allahabad used to organize a music and dance festival for a week and famous artists performed for the public in an auditorium . We were special invitees for such events as I was also the sector commander for Internal Security duties .
In the year 94 , Jagjit singh , the famous Ghazal singer was invited to this event . When we reached the venue , it was over full and there was almost a stampede at the gate . We occupied our seats with some difficulty . We were told that the artist will arrive late as his flight from Mumbai to Varanasi – the nearest airport – was delayed . The organizers played a few cassettes of Jagjit Singh in the mean time .
Jagjit Singh finally came after a two hour delay from the scheduled start time and he narrated to the audience a hilarious experience he had outside at the entry gate . The policemen on duty stopped his car and refused entry . When some one accompanying the singer told the policeman it is the VIP Artist Jagjit Singh who is in the car , the policeman dismissed the claim summarily telling him that Jagjit Singh is already in and has been singing for the last two hours . The poor guy apparently mistook the recorded music for the real singer singing inside . It took the organizing staff some time to clear this issue and get the artist into the auditorium .
The Artist with this introductory remarks won over the audience who were getting rather edgy because of the delay and the musical concert which followed was a great experience for all.