Singing away the blues

BENGALURU: With an aim to wash away the sombre lockdown mood, musician Saumya Shanker, along with his wife Soma Bolar, held a balcony concert at his housing society in Marathalli last week. The idea may sound similar to the balcony performances in Italy, which went viral recently, but Shanker brushes off any comparison, saying when it comes to India, it’s different.

“The mood travels really fast here. When it’s live music, it has a different feel. We wanted to bring the whole community together ad divert their worries,” says Shanker, a resident of Sobha Iris apartments, who shared posters of his ‘concert’ on the community groups. “When we came out on our balconies in the evening, people were already standing on their respective balconies, waiting for us to perform,” he says, adding that the hour-long performance was kicked off with a drum jam, which was followed by songs and collaboration with his neighbour and drummer, Kamalesh Ghosh.

While Shanker, an IIT Kanpur alumnus who has pursued music since college, improvised with a djembe and guitars, Bolar was on vocals and Ghosh joined in with drums and guitars. “We also went live on Facebook. We did a drum jam, set of originals and also a cover of the song, Baar Baar Han from Lagaan,” he says. Ghosh adds that sound was a challenge.

“Saumya and I struggled to hear each other. Being on drums I had an advantage of being loud and clear,” he explains. Shanker, 46, who has been performing for 25 years, says such activities are great for lifting moods. “There was some opposition, since some people think of music as noise. But the community came together for this to happen,” he says.