Kailash Kher: God's favourite child

When Kailash Kher first heard the news of the Pawan Hans helicopter that had vanished with the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu on board on Saturday, he was numb.
The reason: Kailash, along with band Kailasa, had gone to perform in Arunachal Pradesh and was offered to take the same chopper back from Tawang.
Despite repeated requests to use the chopper so that he could save time, Kailash opted to return by road.Call it divine intervention or whatever else you will but the whole incident has reinforced Kailash’s belief on being God’s favourite child.
In Kolkata on Sunday for a private show, Kailash said, “I had returned from London on April 27 and immediately after returning to Mumbai, I had to leave for Arunachal Pradesh. It took 24 hours for us to reach this beautiful state. The place, where we performed, was called Daporijo in upper Subansiri of Arunachal Pradesh. The deputy commissioner there is Ameya Abhyankar. He is the first IAS officer to have organized the Youth Festival Daporijo 2011. In the history of AP, this is the first time that such a youth festival of this magnitude has been organized.”
Kailash reached AP on April 28 and performed on April 29. “The people there told me that it was the biggest treat that they had received in the state so far. I am assuming that no big league star has dared to come and perform there because there is no basic infrastructure to reach the state. More than 10,000 people had a full blast in the audience and they enjoyed “Agad bamm bamm” and “Saiyyan” with Kailasa. The people there are so nice. I literally saw God in Nature and people there,” he said.
Once the concert was over, Kailash and his band was asked to take a chopper to return. “In fact, Paresh (my band member) was very keen on using it. But, I insisted on returning by road. I shudder to think what would have happened. We too could have gone missing. Today, when I read the news that four people in the copter just went missing like dust, I wonder what kind of a country we live in. In fact, we were to fly in the same
chopper! The Chief Minister was also supposed to attend our concert in Arunachal Pradesh but cancelled it at the last moment. In terms of safety, we are still living with the “raam bharose” mantra. We’re crossing the Brahmaputra river and saw how little has been done to help the people of this state. Our system and this country need serious overhauling. We are lagging behind in terms of providing basic living amenities.”
Kailash reached Mumbai on Monday and headed straight to the studio to shoot for the auditions of “Li’l Champs”.