For once, music was the world. It did not matter that the two virtuosi hailed from different cultures, both geographical as well as musical. All that stood out as violinist Vanessa-Mae and sitarist Nishat Khan made music together in the City recently without crossing each other's musical boundaries, was the dazzling spell their music cast.

The duo played to a jam-packed audience. People scrambled for space as the evening set in. Nishat Khan began the concert at a slow, smooth pace. As he doubled his speed, his sitar assumed a new character altogether.

“What I liked about Nishat's performance was that he started off slowly and picked up momentum toward the end. That's what I call putting an audience to ease. I never knew classical music could be played in such an electrifying and engrossing manner,” said Ria Thomas, an architect who was present at the concert.

It was almost as if Nishat knew what the City's music freaks were looking for and he gave them exactly what they wanted. Nishat mesmerised the audience with his effortless blend of classical and modern music.

There were cries of joy, hooting and howling when Vanessa-Mae took centre-stage. With her band of boys, all master musicians in their own genre, Vanessa infused western classical music with pop and jazz with absolute ease.

She began her performance with her own compositions: Toccato and Fugue, Sabre dance and storm. At some point in the performance one even thought, she strayed into a bit of Indian classical music.

"I have a lot of Vanessa's compositions and have been following her music very closely. It's exciting to be in a live concert of a world icon. I had to call up at least 20 people to get passes to this concert.

I am no musician myself but thoroughly enjoy listening to great music," said Ranjit Bhatti, a pilot with the Air Deccan and adds, "with such concerts you don't really feel so lonely and bad being away from home."

Later Nishat Khan and Vanessa performed two duets: Havana Flide and Gypsy Road which lasted for more than an hour.

Chaos reigned supreme

The venue was overflowing and it was evident that the organisers were unprepared for the large crowd that kept pouring in till late. There were people found sitting on the  aisles, standing on raised platforms, meant exclusively for the television and press photographers and some even squatted on the floor before the two large LCD screens were erected just outside the ballroom.

A ballroom that could barely accommodate 300 people was overflowing with more than 500 people at least.

There were those who had to elbow their way through the crowd. Had the organisers of the event planned a little better, the chaos could have been averted.