Desi Gigs…

Just had a gig with my band Allgos, this last Saturday…the concert was organized for a great cause i.e. to raise funds for AID’s [Association for India’s Development] Seattle Chapter. This was a bit challenging show to do as we only had 3 solid practice sessions, and a whole lotta songs to perform, 22 to be precise. The concert started at 6:30 and went on till 10:30…good four hours, with short MC and a 30 mins snack intermission. This is typical of desi shows here in the US, I guess Bollywood music makes junta hungry, this may very well be one of the reasons.

Anyways…We opened with the latest hit, All Iz Well…came out really well and set the tempo for the songs to come. I’m sure audience liked it, more because this is from the latest hit movie 3 idiots with a mega fan following. After that we did chart busters from different Era’s…’YehLadka’ from ‘HumKisiseKamNahi’ being the oldest in the list. Crowd had some good fun and so did we. All in all…a great tiring evening, but hey if you enjoy performing music, fun part overrides everything else.

Now I’m looking forward to yet another small performance for a Nepalese band this time…never done that before…but it’s mostly pop music…so should be fun I’d guess…as long as I get to play drums 🙂

Orchha, A precious ‘Gem’ of Bundelkhand.

Orchha, is a charming village on the banks of river Betwa, a prominent river system in the Bundelkhand region. For those who are not familiar with Bundelkhand, this is the region which lies in the central most part of India, occupying southern region of UP and northern region of MP. Prominent cities include, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Banda, Chattarpur, Khajuraho, Panna, Tikamgarh, Sagar to name a few. The economy is mostly farming and little bit of tourism, mostly due to world renowned Khajuraho temples and Orchha, which is fast picking up as a major tourism attraction and is en-route to Khajuraho. I primarily belong to Bundelkhand region, and as a child growing up here, I have been to most of these places, but among all, Orcha is my favorite. It’s located on the banks of a beautiful river, famous Ram temple, Forts (with Bundeli and Mughal influence), national park and nice resorts.

Sunset at banks of river Betwa

Journey To Rajasthan

After a long planning and endless discussions, our much awaited journey to Rajasthan finally started on November the 14th of 2009 (Children’s day). Plan was to leave home early in the morning but with 2 toddlers, 2 teenage girls and 6 middle age adults it’s never easy 🙂 We hit the road just 3 hours behind schedule at 9 am. We were in two vehicles…Suzuki Esteem sedan and a Toyota Innova mini-van which turn out to be pretty comfortable than I actually thought when we hired it. We were bit disheartened to find that there is no place for audio CD or a Cassette…but were pleasantly surprised to find a USB port, its a thumb drive deck …WOW…India is way ahead my teenage niece told me quietly…we were excited…our 8 GB of audio will be with us all the time. Pretty Sweet!

Camel Safari at SAM dunes during Sunset.