Soulmate from Meghalaya is belting out 12 bars across the globe. Sumit Bhattacharya listens in.
A band from northeast India belting out the blues on the banks of the Potomac in Washington, DC? Rudy Wallang and Tipriti 'Tips' Kharbangar, who call themselves Soulmate, will do just that at The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Terrace Gallery on March 4.
"We are leaving for the US on the 2nd or 3rd, playing on the 4th and heading back on the 5th," says Wallang, one of India's most respected guitar players who has been performing for over two decades. "What a waste of money on travelling!"
Last year, the duo from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, has 'wasted' a lot of money on travelling, performing in Indonesia, Singapore and France, besides 14 Indian cities and five American cities.
"And, if I might add, a little jam in New York City with Slam Allen and his band," says Wallang, rounding off his e-mail-interview answer with a smiley.
In 2007 and 2010, Soulmate made it to the semi-finals of an international blues competition in Memphis, Tennessee, where they were the only Indian band in over 150 participants. This year, they will open for blues legend Buddy Guy in Mumbai.
Image: Tipriti Kharbangar
Photographs: Jazzuality / Creative Commons
Soulmate, 8 years old, was formed after Wallang met Kharbangar at his studio. She had come to sing for a gospel album. "I was smitten," says Wallang. "By her voice at first, then we became friends. Slowly, it developed into love."
Both have music in their DNA. The first musician Wallang saw live -- at about age 5 -- was his father Toto Wallang, who sang at Trinca's on Kolkata's hip-nerve centre Park Street in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Kharbangar's dad Michael Wahlang played part-time with local bands in Shillong. She sang in church as a child.
"My voice was louder than the others," she says, "so the choir master would put me in the back; or wouldn't let me sing at all!"
That powerful voice, coupled with a commanding presence and the chemistry she shares with Wallang's wailing guitar, helps the band on stage -- whether they are belting out numbers from their albums Shillong and Moving On or reinterpreting legends like Jimi Hendrix, BB King or Stevie Ray Vaughan. The music is raw, sensual, dripping oomph.
It's the blues, alright.
Image: Rudy Wallang, left, and Tipriti
Wallang, who says he is "48, going on 17", and Khabrangar, 28, hire session musicians as required. For now, his son Leon, 22, plays the bass, while two other old friends fill in on bass and keyboards. The band was christened after Wallang wrote a song called The Blues Is My Soulmate.
But, why the blues?
"Like Cheech Marin (of Cheech 'n' Chong fame, the original Harold and Kumar, if you will) would have said, because hahahahaha!" quips Wallang. "But, seriously, I'm still trying to figure out that one myself. Something about the music that is passionate and real you can't fool the blues. There's nothing like standing out there in front of people and baring your soul, getting emotionally naked in public!"
Soulmate's albums were released by the record label wing of the Blue Frog, a Mumbai pub/night club making waves across the musical world by hosting musicians ranging from jazz-guitar god John McLaughlin to electronica pioneers Shpongle to US desi dance rockers Bamboo Shoots.
"I don't have any idea about how our albums are doing," Wallang says with signature candour. "We're just happy playing."
He has been doing that for a while. In the 1980s, he was part of Great Society, a band from Shillong headed by the charismatic frontman Lou Majaw. Majaw's annual Bob Dylan festival has been featured in a BBC-Guardian documentary. And Majaw, with his shorts and mismatched socks and ball-lightning presence, is still singing across India, winning new fans.
Image: Tipriti Kharbangar
Photographs: Jazzuality / Creative Commons
Why does Shillong -- where it is not uncommon to find Led Zeppelin blaring from taxis -- produce such passionate musicians? "Music is in the blood, man," says Wallang.
The story of rock/blues music in India is not new, but, like the India story, it is becoming better known in the new millennium. The northeast hills have always been alive with 'western' music. It's difficult to throw a stone in Kolkata without hitting a 'rocker'.
Delhi is India's concert capital. Mumbai's heavy metal scene is attracting niche magazines like Metal Hammer and Spin. Kochi progressive-rock band Motherjane have swept an indie award touted as the Asian equivalent of the Grammies. Bengaluru's funky boys Thermal And A Quarter have toured the United Kingdom.
"The live scene in India is really happening," agrees Wallang. "Musicians can finally earn their bread and butter making and playing music. Also, a lot of bands are playing their own music and being accepted for what they are. I guess the audience has matured and become more accepting of us. That's because the bands are more confident of themselves as musicians."
But anyone aware of the Indian rock 'scene' knows that like the country's GDP, the music is growing despite seemingly insurmountable hurdles.
"There are still people or organizations that want us to play covers," says Wallang. "The cost of flying has shot up. I wish the roads were good. Then, we could all travel by tour bus and be out on the road and do a long tour. Club owners would be able to afford bands and bands would get paid more. There is no industry as such, I feel, for western music (in India). Bollywood, yes, but not western music. There are a few good bands playing original music, no doubt, and a lot of really good musicians."
How has Soulmate captured international attention so fast? "I feel that people connect with us easily," Wallang says. "We make them happy and that is our satisfaction and joy. The money is a bonus. Also, we have had some really good support from the people at Blue Frog, especially Emma (nuelle De Becker, artist manager). A good friend of ours in Colorado, John Catt, has supported us ever since he heard us in Memphis in 2007."
Soulmate's hectic travelling has thrown up anecdotes. Wallang recalls Indigo airlines delaying a flight because the band was stuck in "the mother of a jam" en route to Guwahati from Shillong. But the band is "not in the 'star' league as yet," claims Wallang, with another smiley.
"I am able to take care of my family and provide them with the basic comforts of life," he adds. "And I'm happy, that's the most important thing."
Officials of adult education wing under the school education directorate has distributed reading and writing equipment to Santhali labourers employed in road projects and stone quarries on the outskirts of the state capital a few days back, an official source said today.
''The officials are fully engaged in teaching slum dwellers on the outskirts of the city,'' the source said.
The special literacy drive launched last year aims at making the northeastern state fully literate by March this year, officials said.
''The ambitious mission was aimed to make Mizoram a 100 per cent literate state before completion of the 2011 census in March,'' School Education Minister Lalsawta said.
According to 2001 census, the literacy rate in the state was 88.80 per cent, next only to Kerala's 90.86 per cent, against the national literacy rate of 64.84 per cent.
A latest survey conducted jointly by the Mizoram government and a New Delhi-based research body in 2009, the mountainous state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, had achieved 90.27 per cent (of the state's one million population) literacy rate till 2008.
According to the minister, priority to implement the multi-pronged RATLC would be given in less literacy areas of Lawngtlai, Lunglei and Mamit districts of the state's eight districts.
Mizoram is a Christian-dominated state and one of the beneficial results of Missionary activities was the spread of education. The Missionaries introduced the Roman script for the Mizo language and formal education. The cumulative result is the present high percentage of literacy.
Two armed personnel of the fourth Indian Reserve battalion, including a 'havildar' were arrested yesterday with police not ruling out the possibility of sophisticated arms falling into the hands of the Bru insurgents in Tripura, a senior police official said.
Inquiries indicated that the two policemen, belonging to the Bru community, might have headed to the Bru relief camp in north Tripura during the same time, between end of December and early January, when the AK-47 assault rifle and a magazine were found to be missing, Commandant of the fourth battalion of Indian Reserve battalion, F Lalhuliana said.
The national carrier will offer four free return tickets to all the children which will be valid for a year - till Jan 26, 2012 - for travel on any domestic sector.
Air India will also bear all the taxes and levies on these tickets to avoid any financial burden on the beneficiaries and their family members.
The winners of the Bravery Award for 2010 are: Jismi P.M. from Kerala who has been awarded the Geeta Chopra Award, Priyanshu Joshi from Uttarakhand conferred with the Sanjay Chopra Award, and Vishnudas K. of Kerala, Moonis Khan of Madhya Pradesh and Ipi Basar of Arunachal Pradesh were awarded the Bapu Gaidhani Award.
The youngest awardee is six-year-old Shrawan Kumar from Rajasthan.
Others are Gurjeevan Singh from Punjab, Sunita Murmu from West Bengal, Kalpana Sonowal and Rekhamoni Sonowal from Assam, Rahul Kurrey and Parvati Amlesh from Chhattisgarh, Anoop M. and Raj Narayanan from Kerala, Rohit Maruti Mulik from Maharashtra, Mohammad Nurul Huda from Manipur, Freedy Nongsiej and Lovelystar K. Sohphoh from Meghalaya, Lalmawizuali from Mizoram, Bibek Sharma from Sikkim and Uttam Kumar from Uttar Pradesh.
Chhampa Kanwar from Rajasthan and Shruti Lodhi of Uttarakhand have been honoured posthumously.
The 48kg lifter from Manipur said she was happy that though lately, her hard toil has finally been recognised by the government.
"I thought I would get the Padma Shri after I won gold in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. So I was not expecting to get the award this year. When I got a call that I have been awarded with Padma Shri I was pleasantly surprised. I am happy to have got the award though belatedly," she told PTI.
Kunjarani, now 42, has been one of the most decorated sports persons of India, having won more than 50 international medals -- at the Asian and Commonwealth Games as well as at Asian, Commonwealth and World Championships.
She said she was happy to have got the fourth highest civilian award of the country, having already received Arjuna Award (1990) and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (1997).
"I have got the Arjuna Award and Rajiv Khel Ratna and the Padma award was the only one missing. So, I am happy that I have been honoured with it now. I have won more than 60international medals and I feel my hard work for the country has been recognised," said Kunjarani, who is yet to announc eher retirement though she has not taken part in any international event for a long time.
"I am happy for the people of Manipur that I have been named for the Padma Shri Award. I dedicate this award to my family, to my colleagues and officials at the CRPF and my coaches," said Kunjarani who last appeared in a competition in the Senior Nationals in Udaipur last year.
President Pratibha Patil will confer the medal on Major Laishram Jyotin Singh (posthumous) at the start of the Republic Day Parade tomorrow, the defence ministry announced today.
Singh, 37 years old, died on February 26 last year while fighting the suicide bomber. He is survived by his mother Ongbi Ibeyaiha Devi and father Laishram Markando Singh, who live in Nambol Awang Leikai in Bishnupur, Manipur.
The defence ministry said Singh’s actions had saved the lives of three colleagues, two officers, four paramedics and two Afghan civilians.
Singh, who was born in Nambol, went to the Manipur Public School in Imphal and obtained an MBBS degree from the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences there. He completed a two-year sports medicine diploma from the Baba Farid Institute of Health Sciences in Patiala.
He joined the Army Medical Corps in February 2003 and had served at a high-altitude location and in counter-insurgency zones before being selected on merit for deputation to the Indian medical mission in Kabul which he joined on February 13, 2010.
Heavily armed terrorists attacked the mission on February 26 and detonating a vehicle with around 500kg of explosives. The blast demolished the boundary wall, killed the guards and blew open the iron gates, allowing a terrorist to walk towards a guesthouse where he began firing and lobbying grenades.
Singh crawled out from the debris of his room and charged at the terrorist, pinning him down and preventing him from throwing more grenades. This allowed the occupants of the guesthouse to take refuge.
But the terrorist panicked and detonated his suicide vest, killing himself and Singh.
“While struggling till his last breath, Singh saved the lives of his colleagues,” Major General A.C. Anand, department of medicine, armed forces medical services, said.
Eleven-year-old Raj Phairembam from Moirang in Manipur has won the International Peace Poster contest in which children from 100-odd countries took part. He is the first Indian participant to win the global award.
Raj, who is a Class V student of St Xavier's School in Moirang, painted a dove removing a dark covering featuring guns, blasts etc from the earth.
His poster was very creative and the earth underneath featured happy faces of children and another dove carrying the flags of many countries.
"We are very happy to announce that Raj Phairembam has won the grand award in the International Peace Poster contest. I think it's a tremendous achievement for the boy and he has done the entire region proud," said Pankaj Kumar Poddar, the regional chairman of Lions Clubs International, which has been organizing the contest in the country for the last 20 years.
Raj will receive the award at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 18 this year. The award, which was officially declared on Monday, will feature a plaque and a cash prize of $5000.
