12 hours of music and much more

What started out as a quest to experience something new, ended up being a magical night that I would remember for a long long time. The heady cocktail of different kinds of music, the ambience and the crowd is nothing short of being unforgettable.

The all night music festival is an annual event conducted by fire flies international. They have a theme every year and this year’s was, working towards a greener planet. I thought the idea of reaching out to the youngsters for a much greater cause, in a language they would understand was just brilliant. The event is conducted every year at the fire flies ashram. The ashram is in a village far away from the city, which helps retreat from all the harsh realities of the world to touch something much deeper in your soul….

An old banyan tree was the focal point of all the “happenings” of the night. And it glowed with all the attention it so aptly received. It was surrounded by an amphitheatre with sitting of not so even, unpolished stone - it just added to the beauty of the place. We were welcomed with some classical Kannada music which I couldn’t understand. To be honest I didn’t listen to much of it, since we were busy hunting for a place to plonk ourselves for the evening. We finally found a place from where the view of the stage was good after some five shifts. We decided that all of us would just be content with what we had rather than move around anymore. The decision came at a right time, since next on the list was a classical performance with a twist.

The group incorporated an Indonesian instrument called the Angklung. It’s made of bamboo and needs to be played with two other bamboo sticks. It was nice to see the use of this Indonesian instrument with pure Indian classical music. In fact, most of the night was confluence diverse cultures in the form of their music, whether it be this classical piece, or the dohas from Kabir so beautifully put together in Sufi music by Shabnam Virmani or the folk rock by Swaratma.

Swaratma… hmmm.. they took like a good 30 minutes to set up their system with constant request to someone called Dinkar to “up”or “down” or “cut out” either the violin or the guitar. They were a crazily dressed bunch though, completely living up to their “rock band” image. They sang in hindi and mixed some nice messages with rock music. My friend tells me, they sang the same songs last year too.. a tad disappointing for her, but not for me…

Shabnam Virmani is someone who I will not be able to forget in a long time. She mesmerized the audience with her voice and her compositions of the dohas. You could make out that she was a favourite by gauging the reaction of the audience. Her connect to the audience was brilliant and what helped even more was her explanation of the dohas.

How can I not mention this person called Prakash Sontakke. His group played fusion music with the Hawaiian guitar, tabla, mridangam and the drums coming together to create music. What struck all of us however was his attitude. He started of playing this beautiful piece of music and when the audience applauded said that it was played to show he was tired!! His one-liners mixed with dry wit and sarcasm were amazing, not to mention his almost pleading the audience to send some pictures of the performance to his email id. I am sure all of us remember the id even now.
I also heard this highly enthusiastic and energetic group from Kerala perform. They are supposed to be India’s only bamboo band. Their enthusiasm got the already “high on music and ….” crowd to its feet, despite none of us understanding what they were singing.

A group of just singers came on the stage. The highlight of that group was this one guy who would take out drum beats from his mouth. So they had no musical instruments but some amazing song and music. After initially booing down the group since it had softer music, the crowd begged for more from that one guy. He actually played out a DJ mix without any instrument. Some effort that would be!!

Speaking of the crowd, I was impressed by the younger Bangaloreans wanting to hear anything other that club music. The place was crowded with people prepared for an all nighter. I saw people who’d come with pillows, mattresses, sheets, blankets and even emergency lights!! And for some the motivation was alcohol and cigarettes. We had these two guys sitting in front of us well stocked with whiskey, soda, water and a never ending supply of cigarettes. One of them didn’t move an inch through the night :-)

Coming back to music, they also had Qawalli which I was disappointed with. The group missed the energy which is required for qawalli. Or maybe it was the expectations that were set, since last year the qawalli was supposed to be really good.

That’s when we realized that we’d been sitting for close to 8 hrs and needed a walk. We went around the stalls to look at some really good jewellery (girls yes!!) and had some strong tea to give us some warmth. We welcomed the dawn with some soulful fusion of the Veena, mouth organ and the guitar. And though the musical strings pulled us to stay back a little longer, we knew it was time to get back to reality and head to the city….

It’s an experience for which words are few and needs to be experienced to understand the connect it has with you. I can’t thank my friend enough for the 12 hrs of music she introduced me to.

PS: Fire flies does not publicize the event and its spread through word of mouth. You can however visit the website http://pipaltree.org.in/ for details.