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Bambai Street Collective, one of the prominent busking groups in Mumbai performs outside Lassi te Paronthe.

When Indians Go Busking

Payel Majumdar

Busking, an urban phenomenon where musicians play instruments on the streets, sometimes for money but more importantly just for the love of music, has struck a chord in several indie musicians in India, who devise a variety of ways to ensure their music reaches as many people as possible, beyond the walls of a club, or the gates of a concert.

Delhi, March 2014:

Walking around in M Block Greater Kailash-I around dusk, a regular upscale market in Delhi usually occupied by family and school kids at that time one recent weekend, we encounter a four-piece band setting up bang in the middle of the market in front of a store that sells everything in nostalgia-coloured pastel shades. Since this is the first time we have seen something of this sort in M Block, we’re rather surprised to see this and stop. But what is more pleasantly surprising is the mixed definitively-not-hipster crowd that gathers to listen to their music and cheer the band along.

Delhi, February 2014:

Peter Cat Recording Co., a Delhi-based band known for its eclectic vibe, organises an open gig (with a BYOB deal to boot) to celebrate the band’s birthday. Friends and brethren bands are to perform on a terrace at Hauz Khas Village, owned by one of the band members. A bucket is passed around for people to drop in how much ever they pleased preferably in cash. The terrace is bursting at the seams with people half hour into the show, when some cops bust everyone’s party. (Rumour goes that some of the adjoining clubs at Hauz Khas Village got very insecure of the Pied Piper-ish trail that the party rats blazed, choosing a mere terrace over their glitzy places.)

It has finally happened. Live performances, even ten years ago, however dare-devilish and experimental in nature, would always take place in controlled inner musical sanctums. Only baraatis had express permission to raise noise levels on the street. Everyone else had to be in their place. Classical music recitals in sanctified halls. Folk performances beyond flowery marriage hall archways. ‘Bands’, that elusive word in India (meted out the same treatment as ‘hippies’) mostly meaning a four-piece gathering of teenagers singing ‘western music’ in clubs. Is it possible then, that carrying so much baggage of perception, originally made music can finally break away from all the categories it is often forced into, and present a new, freer vibe, an exclusive variety of music brought out into the streets, literally so, for all to hear, without a background of sorts? We’re thinking like a flash mob meets an awareness programme for music appreciation.

That is exactly how these new events, sprouting up in all places underground, reminds us of happily. Busking as a phenomenon has existed all over the word, where musicians and other artists do an impromptu performance on the street. In a recent interview with Shema Maria, founder band member of Colour Chaos, an acoustic band operating out of Chennai, told us of the band’s most memorable performance that happened in a small rural village near Pondicherry. Shema recalls of the experience, “What is amazing is the local crowd just milled around us, in their bikes, saying, “Eyy! Girls machaa!” (Hey look girls!) For a minute it was like that, but then their attitude changed, body language changed into respect. We had a little bottle with Colour Chaos written on it and we gave a talk about how it is not necessary to lose your respect, if you can do something, instead of just begging, then do it. A cop came up to us, put a 20 rupee note and said good job. And this little beggar kid who did not even have a shirt on, came and put in a 20 rupee note.”

Malcolm Khurshid, a regular at Bambai Street Collective.

While busking might not be a very common phenomenon in India right now, performing on the streets and music in more relaxed situations is sure catching up. The Drum Circle started by ex-Agnee member Varun Venkit decided to give up his life as a professional musician to go and start a community of drummers (read here), a regular busking session that is designed to work as a healing ritual. Music is intuitive, and at its crux, its quality is beyond intuitive and social conventions are but a superficial layer to understanding music. Bambai Street Collective, another initiative started by a bunch of local musicians in Mumbai, meets every Sunday at a common spot on Carter Road for an open jam session. Musicians are invited to join and play whatsoever pleases them, but Nikhil (co-founder of Bambai Street Collective) says, “We do not let any particular musician dominate the sound. The idea is to get everyone to play together. If a commercial musician, set in his ways comes and tries to dominate the course the music takes, sometimes we make a lot of noise till he stops, and then try and get everybody to be open to listening and playing off each other.”

Then there are venues that are opening up to the concept of impromptu jamming by fresh indie bands or solo musicians, a concept called ‘cafe busking’. Turquoise Cottage in Delhi is known for its hugely popular Rabbit Hole Sessions, a day in the week where young bands come and jam their way through the night, playing covers as well as original music. B69 in Mumbai, known for hosting new metal bands might not be around anymore but there are clubs as well as events like Bomb Thursdays organised by the likes of indie record label Ennui Bomb where often indie music lovers get to hear a lot of fresh music. Freedom Jam, a similar concept in Bangalore, a city which gives a lot of space to original music to grow has been organised over the past years, where new young bands come and jam till it all culminates in a music festival which is organised in Puducherry (Pondicherry) annually where entry is free.

Shema, of Color Chaos, is quite positive about taking her music around the world, as she thinks the country is ripe to accept this new indie vibe, and not just your regular westernized urban youth variety. “We’re hoping that eventually we’ll be able to busk across India, and we’ll call it ‘Sing for a Cause’. And hopefully, whatever it is, we’re hoping to start something bigger (with busking).”

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