Indian on the Road

A musical tour is not about groupies and champagne, instead it's about taking one's music to faraway lands and sharing festive dinners and smoke saunas with strangers

I write this on a flight back from a successful but short European tour with my band that played six shows in three countries — Estonia, Norway and France. It's no chartered flight with roadies and groupies popping open endless bottles of champagne. It's just an old Aeroflot aircraft that was probably meant for soldiers returning from war. It's got wailing kids with stern Russian air hostesses trying unsuccessfully to console them. I do feel like I am returning from war. Nevertheless, it was a good rock 'n' roll tour supported by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). Back in 2007, when we had first approached the ICCR for an international tour, they had given us their standard artist empanelment form to fill. I remember attacking it with incredulous excitement and a ballpoint pen only to realise that there was no category for Indian rock bands. Thankfully, our enterprising manager, Satish Warier, did well to convince the powers that rock had come of age in this country and that we were brand ambassadors of a different India. I was glad to see "Modern Pop/Rock Band" as a category in the empanelment form this year. It's a step forward for this industry and an approval from the establishment that indie music is an integral part of modern India. It's also a beginning for many on-the-road experiences for bands.

Most musicians are consumed by wanderlust — a strong desire to see new places, meet new people and hear new sounds. And in this urge to take your music to faraway lands, the most unexpected things happen. Complete strangers will open their doors to you, welcome you to their homes and extend the kind of hospitality no fancy resort can match. In 2008, while touring the US, playing gigs in random bars, we decided to rent a tour van and drive from Austin, Texas to New York. The only problem was that none of us had an international driver's license. We needed someone to drive us. We posted an ad for one on a classifieds site (Craigslist) that's notorious for serial killers and conmen. We got our first reply from a young comic book artist Jeff who'd decided to move to NYC to make a career in the publishing business. Midway through the adventurous road trip, he stopped at Kentucky where his parents lived. They had been forewarned about an Indian band on the road and had already made preparations. An elaborate Thanksgiving meal and warm beds awaited us. And all they wanted us to tell people back home was that they were really sorry about George Bush.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Little Vaara in a Bottle

Home Again

Actors don't get money, stars do: Manoj Bajpayee

Zanjeer would not have been made without Pran, says Salim Khan