Do you know what is girl math? It is buying tickets in December for a January concert and then thinking the concert is free. I know it doesn’t work like that.
Well, I am glad that I booked tickets to Anoushka Shankar’s concert that happened in NCPA on 25th January. It was the most cathartic experience I have had. Every minute of that one-and-a-half-hour concert was a gift to all my senses.
Jamshed Bhabha Theatre is such a gorgeous space that seats a large audience and it won’t be an exaggeration to say that every person seated was mesmerized. From the moment the lights were dimmed there was a regal feeling to the entire show. The lights team of the theatre needs a special mention. It was so beautiful and truly did a marvelous job of enhancing the performance. The lights made it look like a shower of divinity which is exactly how the music was


I have also attached some recordings of the evening.
Anoushka Shankar incites a lot of feelings from her listeners through her work. Her music list was created in a way that the audience would experience a spectrum of emotions through the show. It started off in a slow but fiery music to the middle being extremely exciting along with a few lullabies to sober us up. The ending was her song “Reunion,” which was a great choice to showcase the talent of every artist on the stage.
She was just amazing to witness. I also fell in love with every performer there. Tom Farmer on the Bass was genuinely moved; he was dancing and performing and just so into their music that I could see the enjoyment of creating such music live. Pirashanna Thevarajah was the multi percussionist who literally played everything; I could not keep track of the instruments that he used throughout and it was amazing. The clarinet played by Arun Ghosh and his solo genuinely made me forget breathing. There were several moments in the concert where I felt like I was having an out of the body experience. Lastly but equally phenomenally was Sarathy Korwar on the drums and I think he was guiding everyone’s heartbeat.
I can’t truly express how beautiful the concert was.
I remember that in school how some days after sitar classes, we would sit down and hear our teacher play. There were few days when artists who visited our school to perform would also come to our class and they would all jam together. We would sit and marvel. We would all be in a daze for so long. Music does that. And I love it when Music does that. Even in this concert, I was accompanied by a friend who was similarly moved by the performance. We were both energized by the end. It is therapeutic.