Yesterday, AR Rahman appeared at the K-Lounge of Bombay Palace restaurant and then at the Asia Society in two separate events to announce his summer series of concerts – called the Jai Ho Concerts: Journey Home World Tour – kicking off in the US on June 11th at Nassau Coliseum.   More info on dates here.

The first event contained a line-up of all the US-based concert promoters as well as Amy Tinkham the creative director for the shows.

Next stop, the Asia Society, where the guest of honor was personally and warmly welcomed by Society President, Vishakha Desai, who pointed out that for her and many others in the room, their love of Rahman’s music “goes all the way back to Roja.”

After introductory remarks by Rajan Shah, co-founder of SAMMA, he called Anjula Acharia-Bath, co-founder of Desi Hits to the stage, and she proceeded to do a Q & A with AR Rahman (who by now had shed his sparkly black sherwani in favor of a dark blue jacket) before opening the floor to questions from the audience.

Anjula began by asking ARR about how he got into music back when he was growing up in Madras.   He explained that he had wanted to be an engineer, but his mother discouraged him from that in favor of music, which had been his father’s profession too.

By the way, have a closer look at Anjula’s uber-stylish footwear:

The sun-filled conference room was filled to capacity and included many regulars from the Indo-NY entertainment scene (DJ Rekha was in the front row, IAAC’s Aroon Sivdasani was present too), and someone had even come all the way in from SUNY Stony Brook on Long Island.

One last photo for the moment, more later…