So I came to pass.
And whatever calamity that forced me to land in the Capital is done and I'm back to home sweet home, which is the best place to be despite the rodents running the government and the assorted insects that populate the city council. It is depressing to see the state of the state and the rather dismal progress in the establishment of infrastructure here when in sharp, stark contrast the NCR has a metro up and running and plans to get an elevated monorail up and running (in more ways than one I guess) in the next 2 years. A giant flyover connecting the airport to Gurgaon should be ready in a month which would shorted transit time between the two points to less than twenty minutes. Depressing but this is home.
After the usual digression we get to the point. Watched an open air concert - Indian Ocean. At the Garden of Five Senses. Yeah I couldn't believe they had a wiki on that but it's not a great one and the external link doesn't work anymore. I'm guessing Delhi Tourism doesn't think too much of it anymore.
It's a lovely place. A huge sprawling botanical park with curvy lanes that essentially go round in circles, effectively making one lose one's way ever so often. I found the amphitheater after about half an hour of searching. It looks a lot like Trans Indus if some of you've been there and know what I mean. A pit of sorts with benches and occasional rocks as seating. Anyway, Indian Ocean started at 7.30pm. The crowd was a spectacular one with almost every year from 17 to 70 well represented and applauding like it was going out of style. Yours truly perched on a rock in the midst of a crowd that started smoking tobacco, went on to weed and somewhere in the middle I could distinctly smell eucalyptus too. In the immortal words of Obelix, these Delhi people are crazy.
Indian Ocean is an amazing band. Rahul Ram on Bass, Sushmit Sen on Guitars (more about that later), Asheem Chakravarthy on tabla and Amit Kilam on Drums. Seamlessly integrating Indian classical with jazz and vocals that include everything from their own rather good lyrics to Kabir and Sanskrit shlokas. Though I've been listening to their music for a while now, their live concerts are always a treat. Vasanthahabba a couple of years ago had them on as the last act at close to 5am. On a post-rain Bangalore morning with the weather taking on just a nibble of cold, clear skies, an amphitheater, an appreciative audience. Perfect. Their show at IIM a year ago wasn't too bad either except that Strings was also playing and within a few minutes it was pretty apparent that Synth Strings are no real match to this band.
The Garden of Five Senses hosted them this time around. November in Delhi feels like Bangalore now. Replete with hordes of them from higher latitudes. And a cool stage setting with boom cameras swaying by every once in a while, since the plan for a concert DVD is on. The three hours were filled with the usual Indian Ocean repertoire of Jhini and Bhor, Bandeh, Hille Re, Ma Rewa (with the gab gubli, which is the strangest sounding instrument I've heard after the didgeridoo) and Kandisa to name a few. Interspersed with the songs are Rahul Ram's incessant chatter and the occasional listing of cars that were parked awry and in danger of being towed away. And the frequent video tape changes. Altogether a good trip.
Indian Ocean though one of the most original and refreshing bands to have come out of Delhi and perhaps India itself does leave one persistent thought. They sound the same everytime one listens to them. It is a good sound, there are no second thoughts about it but somewhere it gets a tad repetitive.
This incidentally was Sushmit's guitar. If you can read Japanese there's more here.
And Thermal should be playing in the same venue next weekend.
And Lounge Piranha plays tomorrow in Bangalore.
And a couple of posts in the pipeline.
And whatever calamity that forced me to land in the Capital is done and I'm back to home sweet home, which is the best place to be despite the rodents running the government and the assorted insects that populate the city council. It is depressing to see the state of the state and the rather dismal progress in the establishment of infrastructure here when in sharp, stark contrast the NCR has a metro up and running and plans to get an elevated monorail up and running (in more ways than one I guess) in the next 2 years. A giant flyover connecting the airport to Gurgaon should be ready in a month which would shorted transit time between the two points to less than twenty minutes. Depressing but this is home.
After the usual digression we get to the point. Watched an open air concert - Indian Ocean. At the Garden of Five Senses. Yeah I couldn't believe they had a wiki on that but it's not a great one and the external link doesn't work anymore. I'm guessing Delhi Tourism doesn't think too much of it anymore.
It's a lovely place. A huge sprawling botanical park with curvy lanes that essentially go round in circles, effectively making one lose one's way ever so often. I found the amphitheater after about half an hour of searching. It looks a lot like Trans Indus if some of you've been there and know what I mean. A pit of sorts with benches and occasional rocks as seating. Anyway, Indian Ocean started at 7.30pm. The crowd was a spectacular one with almost every year from 17 to 70 well represented and applauding like it was going out of style. Yours truly perched on a rock in the midst of a crowd that started smoking tobacco, went on to weed and somewhere in the middle I could distinctly smell eucalyptus too. In the immortal words of Obelix, these Delhi people are crazy.
Indian Ocean is an amazing band. Rahul Ram on Bass, Sushmit Sen on Guitars (more about that later), Asheem Chakravarthy on tabla and Amit Kilam on Drums. Seamlessly integrating Indian classical with jazz and vocals that include everything from their own rather good lyrics to Kabir and Sanskrit shlokas. Though I've been listening to their music for a while now, their live concerts are always a treat. Vasanthahabba a couple of years ago had them on as the last act at close to 5am. On a post-rain Bangalore morning with the weather taking on just a nibble of cold, clear skies, an amphitheater, an appreciative audience. Perfect. Their show at IIM a year ago wasn't too bad either except that Strings was also playing and within a few minutes it was pretty apparent that Synth Strings are no real match to this band.
The Garden of Five Senses hosted them this time around. November in Delhi feels like Bangalore now. Replete with hordes of them from higher latitudes. And a cool stage setting with boom cameras swaying by every once in a while, since the plan for a concert DVD is on. The three hours were filled with the usual Indian Ocean repertoire of Jhini and Bhor, Bandeh, Hille Re, Ma Rewa (with the gab gubli, which is the strangest sounding instrument I've heard after the didgeridoo) and Kandisa to name a few. Interspersed with the songs are Rahul Ram's incessant chatter and the occasional listing of cars that were parked awry and in danger of being towed away. And the frequent video tape changes. Altogether a good trip.
Indian Ocean though one of the most original and refreshing bands to have come out of Delhi and perhaps India itself does leave one persistent thought. They sound the same everytime one listens to them. It is a good sound, there are no second thoughts about it but somewhere it gets a tad repetitive.
This incidentally was Sushmit's guitar. If you can read Japanese there's more here.
And Thermal should be playing in the same venue next weekend.
And Lounge Piranha plays tomorrow in Bangalore.
And a couple of posts in the pipeline.
