Amidst a crowd of English campus rock bands, The Moksh stands out with its Hindi flavour

The notes are similar, so are the vibes that reverberate throughout the hall. While they might look like any other rock outfit on campus, The Moksh sounds different. The three-month-old band keeps it all Hindustani with crooning essentially in Hindi. "There are too many English bands around, we wanted to be different," tells Akash Pahuja, lead guitarist, back vocalist of their four-member band. Is it also the Rock On!! effect? "Well the movie did help us because it gave quite a boost to Hindi rock," answers Akash, a second year student of UIPS,PU.

But the journey hasn't exactly been a bed of roses. The band's initial avatar was Aghaaz that saw members walk out. Ritesh Chhabra, the drummer and Akash were joined by Dhruv Angrish, vocalist and rhythm guitarist and Mohit. Together these four performed recently at Chemcon '09. So what's the Hinglish title The Moksh all about? "We write 'The' in Hindi!" retorts Akash before adding, "Our music takes us into a whole new zone. Nothing else touches us, so in a way it's like a deliverance." And the deliverance happens through soft rock and not hard metal sounds. And from the few matrabhashi influences they like Atif Aslam. "Red Hot Chili Peppers, Roxeen, Cold Play, Brian Adams also have a major impact on our music," tells Dhruv, who is a second year engineering student at IET Bhaddal.

Singing their own compositions the members have penned songs on friendship, love and life. "We also sing in English but want to focus on Hindi," tells Ritesh. While the future will see them perform at Cyanide and another campus event, CRI is out of the picture since a member will be unavailable. And moving on to the 'real' future, the members are clear about music being just a hobby. Well as long as it lasts!