concert @Birmingham
A good 2-hr drive to UK's 2nd largest city Birmingham, thanks to Srinjoy. Well in time for the Sarod-maestro Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan concert at 7:30 in Symphony Hall.
Though the possibility of a Friday evening traffic snarls on M25,'the London ring road' and then M40 was bugging us, it wasn't all that bad- just slow, a few initial miles. It was a cruise on M40 north via Oxford and 'Warwickshire, Shakespeare's county'. Signs showed Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace.. ~100m north of London.
The concert was organised by Sampad South Asian Arts.
The ensemble included Amjad Ali Khan, his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash with UK based Talvin singh and Sandip Das on Tabla.
By the time we came out of the Symphony Hall after 10, the maestros had really struck a chord.. it was uplifting, soul-filling sounds of the strings with some inspiring and truly enrapturing spells, an intense experience with the sounds..
The acoustics of the hall was also amazing.
(Having said that, as an overall experience, I liked Zakir Hussain's concert back in Bangalore on Jan 8, as a very very charming and witty Ustaad impressed all the more with his words as with his mind-blowing repertoire ! )
Srinjoy had told me about the concert there and asked me about joining. He's got his buddy from Calcutta days (Srinjoy's family shifted to Oz from Calcutta), Visha working in B'ham, who's arranging for the tickets.. She had earlier worked for Sampad
His pal Damien came down to join us at Staines, en route B'ham. Damien is doin a career switch from computers to medicine, about to quit his job and join the Univ. A Punjabi who's nevr been to India.
Had dinner at and 'Indian' restaurant (most Indian restaurants arnd here are owned by Bangladeshis) with Visha and David, her English boyfrnd and stayed over at their place. They've been eagerly waiting some weeks for that Saturday to come, where both of em were invited for her friend's Punjabi wedding at a Gurdwara in Coventry an industrial town nearby. By noon we parted our ways, they heading for the wedding. Eventually David never made it- as Srinjoy's driving back home with me, finding our way outa B'ham, he got an SOS call from Visha- David's car broke down and they r stranded! Srinjoy had to do a detour, pick Visha wanting to be dropped off at the wedding at Coventry, but had to leave David with his car waiting for the service mechanic to arrive. . poor chap, definitely not his day !.
Some parts of B'ham, it's difficult to find non-asians and there were lots of people around, in Pakistani traditional wears. We concurred- it looks more like Delhi marketplace than an english town!
Though the possibility of a Friday evening traffic snarls on M25,'the London ring road' and then M40 was bugging us, it wasn't all that bad- just slow, a few initial miles. It was a cruise on M40 north via Oxford and 'Warwickshire, Shakespeare's county'. Signs showed Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace.. ~100m north of London.
The concert was organised by Sampad South Asian Arts.
The ensemble included Amjad Ali Khan, his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash with UK based Talvin singh and Sandip Das on Tabla.
By the time we came out of the Symphony Hall after 10, the maestros had really struck a chord.. it was uplifting, soul-filling sounds of the strings with some inspiring and truly enrapturing spells, an intense experience with the sounds..
The acoustics of the hall was also amazing.
(Having said that, as an overall experience, I liked Zakir Hussain's concert back in Bangalore on Jan 8, as a very very charming and witty Ustaad impressed all the more with his words as with his mind-blowing repertoire ! )
Srinjoy had told me about the concert there and asked me about joining. He's got his buddy from Calcutta days (Srinjoy's family shifted to Oz from Calcutta), Visha working in B'ham, who's arranging for the tickets.. She had earlier worked for Sampad
His pal Damien came down to join us at Staines, en route B'ham. Damien is doin a career switch from computers to medicine, about to quit his job and join the Univ. A Punjabi who's nevr been to India.
Had dinner at and 'Indian' restaurant (most Indian restaurants arnd here are owned by Bangladeshis) with Visha and David, her English boyfrnd and stayed over at their place. They've been eagerly waiting some weeks for that Saturday to come, where both of em were invited for her friend's Punjabi wedding at a Gurdwara in Coventry an industrial town nearby. By noon we parted our ways, they heading for the wedding. Eventually David never made it- as Srinjoy's driving back home with me, finding our way outa B'ham, he got an SOS call from Visha- David's car broke down and they r stranded! Srinjoy had to do a detour, pick Visha wanting to be dropped off at the wedding at Coventry, but had to leave David with his car waiting for the service mechanic to arrive. . poor chap, definitely not his day !.
Some parts of B'ham, it's difficult to find non-asians and there were lots of people around, in Pakistani traditional wears. We concurred- it looks more like Delhi marketplace than an english town!
posted by Sujith at 2:19 AM
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