Dupattas, a shaadi band, fireworks: I went to the MSG 2 premiere

On Wednesday evening, 2.5 lakh people collected at IFFCO Chowk grounds in Gurgaon.

2.5 lakh people is twice the capacity of Eden Gardens, Wankhede and the Chinnaswamy stadiums. Combined.

Every single Gurgaon policeman, I was told, all 5,000 of them, had been positioned around the Chowk, in cars and with artillery that could make the Hurt Locker guys break into sweat.

The crowd turned out in those numbers, from as far as Australia, Singapore and rural Maharashtra, not for a nationwide protest, nor to watch a Federer-Sampras game umpired by Shahrukh Khan, but to watch a film together.

The film in question being MSG 2.

Sunil Saxena/ Hindustan Times via Getty Images

And if Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan, (director, lead actor, script-writer, fashion designer, music composer and producer of the film) harboured any hopes of breaking into the Guinness Book of World Records on Wednesday night, it wouldn't be his first.

Because he's proven time and again that he's prone to largesse of bizarre proportions.

He's broken the Guinness World Record for the largest finger painting: a colossal vegetable mosaic spanning twenty thousand square feet.

Also, the record for most trees planted simultaneously across India - one million, nine hundred and forty-five thousand.

Which is why I shouldn't have been surprised at all when I wandered into what I thought was a film premiere, but in fact, greatly resembled the Kumbh Mela.

Hundreds of buses poured in from all the neighbouring states, and many not so neighbouring ones too. Fans, believers, followers burst out of them, rushing to get ahead of one another. Many were wearing lycra fitted neon shirts with MSG's face printed smack across the middle.

Somewhere in the parking lot, a shaadi band emerged. Spontaneously, a group of bhangra dancers collected around it, and the moving ensemble, again spontaneously, appeared to be swarming towards the entrance of the grounds.

Sunil Saxena/ Hindustan Times via Getty Images

We followed, and after jostling around the underarms of men who had travelled for hours in congested buses in the post-summer heat, we emerged at last - on the red carpet no less - minutes before Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan's parade.

And then we saw the crowd. A hundred thousand people on either side of us, a vast sea of cheering, sweaty, drunk-with-anticipation, thrilled-with-expectancy, neon-clothed, pink dupatta-ed people; some on plastic stools they carried all the way from Patiala, some on newspapers they bought from the thronging vendors outside; old, young, with-family, stag, helping mother-in-law rise from squatting position, elbowing the person behind, clapping and cheering, waving and dancing.

This was the stuff of Chris Martin's dreams.

And perhaps because he knew this, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan did for his fans what most Indian superstars fail to do for their following - he arrived on time.

Now here's an easy way to tell when indeed Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan is arriving.

Fireworks.

Red, blue, green and white and gold. All the colours of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan.

Because Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan's colours are all colours.

It doesn't matter that there's still ample daylight and you can barely see the fireworks. The crowds will clap and cheer and point anyway.

And so it was.

Preceded and proceeded by a posse of colourful turbaned Bhangra dancers, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan entered in a convoy of black Lexus cars, his torso emerging from the top of one. He was smiling and waving generously, as happy and flushed as the two hundred thousand who loved him.

This man knew what it meant to be Love Charged.

The music started. Guruji emerged from within his own parade, walked smilingly onstage and began.

Aunty from Bhatinda, who had previously been squabbling with her daughter-in-law for leg-room, forgot all her spatial travails and began clapping with glee.

Dupattas began to fly with exuberance, whistles were drowned out by more whistles, and there was bhangra everywhere.

Family members of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Photo: Parveen Kumar

A colleague and I exchanged looks of wonder, believing we had just seen it all.

Except we hadn't.

Not till Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan began singing You Are My Love Charger.

It was everything we had seen so far, but with a magical change of tempo - doubled in magnitude and in speed.

Twice the clapping, twice the glee. Twice the exuberance, twice the number of flying neon dupattas. Twice the jostling. Twice the whistling. Twice the bhangra.

But because the universe doesn't allow you prolonged moments of wonder, it ended.

Guruji exited from the shamiana into an alley for a press conference. The crowd, bringing out plastic stools and newspapers once again, settled down to watch MSG2.

These travellers, tourists, enthusiasts, followers and believers, and Guruji himself, knew instinctively what many of us often forget.

It may be a world of Twitter and FB and Whatsapp and Snapchat and Instagram. But the most effective messages are the ones delivered in person.