“LIFE IS EITHER A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL” ~ HELEN KELLER
Feb, 2020. In conversation with Nishant, he had spoken highly of the Dhrupad Mela, the annual music festival featuring performances in the Dhrupad tradition of Indian Classical Music at Varanasi (Banaras). Nishant would be travelling from Delhi by train with a companion a few days ahead of me and be staying for a longer period. I got excited and decided to go to Varanasi from Delhi with Gump, a Royal Enfield Standard 500 motorcycle.
Chapter 1: The Team
I had invited Sanjeev to come along at first. We have an unfinished project in the pipeline that requires some travel, but he couldn’t evade a gig clashing with the dates of my trip schedule.
So I invited Minakshi Majumdar a.k.a Myna to join me, who seemed both hesitant but interested, being a biker herself. She had been recovering from recent biking injuries in Goa.
Chapter 2: Delhi To Banaras Via Kanpur
Minakshi took some convincing but saw the magic in it soon after, in the nick of time. And so we hit the road about five in the morning and reached Kanpur by late evening. And jammed. Well its almost a simple as that.
Good preparation for what was to follow the next day with a ukelele which, both of us are still learning but managed to figure out a performance ready song each.
While riding from Kanpur to Varanasi, we intuitively found a surreal spot just before sunset to take it easy; to breathe the view and feel the air.
Chapter 3: Music On The Riverside
It was Myna`s suggestion that we play some music and make a video while I wondered about getting back on the road and covering more miles. But that was all the trigger I needed to snap out of it. Rest assured, a one of a kind spot it was, that we stumbled upon after an arduous journey.
We are standing on what is locally called a `bandh` construction that protects farmlands on one side from flooding river banks on the other especially during monsoons. It also serves as a road.
So I parked my bike in the middle of the path and say that I’ll go first. And she filmed me while I performed ‘Samaroh’ for the horizon, wonderfully.
And then I filmed Myna performing her original song, ‘Set Me Free’, with some interesting kid in the background; him sitting on the road throughout the song like it were a couch and leaving when it ended.
Another kid was herding goats around. Notice the sound of a ground water pump running about two hundred feet away under a tree amongst the farms.
Chapter 4: Banaras
We made it to Banaras post sunset and headed straight away to meet our friends, Nishant, Dark Overlord (Sorry we can’t reveal his name, for now. He studies sitar at Banaras.) and Somi Das (A writer and an painter.)
Banaras is ancient. The remnants of each passing ruler, merchant and seeker over the ages are strewn in the museum that is its river bank. Each ghat symbolising and occupying a different place in history and each block of stone and slab living to tell the tale.
During our stay there, long story short, for the purpose of this blog, we were chilling at our usual spot on the terrace and Myna ended up shooting some behind-the-scenes while I warmed up the vibe to get Nishant to work his magic and jam to the track from the video of Myna performing 'Set Me Free' that we had made en route to Banaras, while I filmed him.
I wasn’t keen on working with the video of my own song, Samaroh while we were so busy tripping on the Banaras vibe. It was hard to focus on work strategy too far out. This wasn’t the purpose of the journey at all. Only incidental.
This was my first visit to Banaras by the way. I had heard charming tales of this city over the years. The music and festivities associated with Maha Shivaratri seemed a perfect time to visit.
Chapter 5: Journey To Delhi
So now we are jamming it out, just absorbing the vibe and pretty much exhausted with that by the time its time to ride back to Delhi, so we limit our adventures to photography and videography (Mostly by Myna on pillion.) and had a good time riding back. Meenakshi is great company. Absolute smasher for a pillion. She claims that I`d been riding much faster with my speedometer dysfunctional.
So I get home and relax for about a couple of days because I’m still vibrating from handling the bike at hundred kilometres per hour over two days, having covered eight hundred kilometres straight through Uttar Pradesh from Banaras to Delhi in India. And the days were only getting hotter.
Chapter 6: Retrospect
And to think, soon enough, we would be under lockdown, due to the covid pandemic across the world.
And to think, what is this Dhrupad Mela that people seem to elate themselves over the memories of?
And what is the oldest city in the world like and what if we would always be left just wondering and watching as life passed us by; without really breathing it; without really knowing what is left to be known?
And there will always be something left to be known in this world, in this life.
Soon enough, I couldn't keep my hands off the ship. So I sailed through the footage and tailored my way around, to present to Myna, Nishant, Dark Overlord, Somi and to you my family, glimpses of a trip to the oldest city in the world to experience the Dhrupad Mela, and Banaras itself, during the occasion of Maha Shivaratri and a secret I kept safe, unbeknownst to my friends and company, an unannounced birthday celebration, in classic style, as always.
Love
Wumbaya
Comments