India’s first underground success, Indian Ocean, performed to a jam-packed Kresge Auditorium at MIT on Friday, Sept 18th. More than 1100 people swayed to the music which is best described by music critics as “Indo-rock fusion with jazz-spiced rhythms that integrates shlokas, sufism, environmentalism, mythology and revolution". The concert was jointly organised by the Boston and MIT chapters of Association for India’s Development (AID) and Sangam, the Indian Students’ Association at MIT.

People from all kinds of backgrounds enjoyed the concert thoroughly. “I have been following the band since more than 15 years ago, when it looked very different (only 2 members in the current band were also there 15 years ago) and I absolutely loved the concert”, said one member from the audience. Her friend chimed in, “This is the first time I am listening to Indian Ocean but I really enjoyed the concert.” The powerful music coupled with the very real social causes that most songs were about left a very deep impression on many music-lovers.

The concert started on time at 8 PM with inauguration by Ankur Gupta from AID-MIT and Ranjitha Shivaram, president of Sangam, Indian Students’ Association at MIT. This was the first ever fund-raising concert organized by the newly founded AID-MIT chapter and the excitement of a sold-out concert could be seen in the volunteers’ energy.

Every song was preceded by a story told by Rahul Ram, singer, guitarist and one of the oldest members of the band, about how the band came across that song. Most of their songs have been taken from Indian folk songs and are deeply connected to the people and culture they belong to. The first song was ‘Tandanu’ which was a Kannada folk song that Rahul Ram heard from his Chikkamma (Chachi or aunt) when he was 4. This was followed by the popular ‘Jhini Re’. “In this song, Kabirdas compares life to a light woven cloth (jhini chadariya). Most people make it dirty in their lifetime, but Kabir wants to return it to God as it was given to him,” said Rahul.

Another song called ‘Roday’ was about displaced people all over India. The drummer Amit Kilam, had himself left Kashmir many years ago and could personally relate to the song. “This song has lines from 5 different languages including Sindhi added by Vishal Dadlani and Kashmiri added by Amit Kilam. The Kashmiri line talks about a tree that cannot grow anywhere other than its native place.” The first half of the concert ended with their most recent famous song ‘Are ruk ja re bandeh’ from the Bollywood movie Black Friday. 

The song ‘Chitu kahe..’ which means ‘Chitu, your house has been stolen by the government, how can you stay silent?’ was first sung by Rahul when he was a social activist protesting against the Narmada valley dam. Incidentally, Rahul was arrested for singing this song, but he continued to sing in the lockup. As it turns out, the thanedaar (jailer) was very pleased to hear the song and he brought them food.  â€˜Ma rewa’ was another song about the Narmada river, which is also known as ‘Rewa’.

The concert ended by another popular number ‘Kandisa’ which is a 2000 year old song that came from the Syrian Christians settled in Kerala. The song was written in a language called ‘Aramic’ in which kandisa means praise (the Lord). 

Indian Ocean as a band stands out for their really long songs, and their use of folk instruments such as gabgubi and new ways of playing the guitar and drums that go very well with Indian music.The audience really enjoyed the variety of jugalbandis in the concert - between the clarinet (by Amit Kilam) and guitars (by Nikhil Rao and Rahul Ram), between the vocals (by Rahul Ram and Himanshu Joshi) and clarinet, and between the tabla (by Tuheen Chakravorty) and gabgubi (by Amit Kilam). They cheered the artists with their claps and whistles throughout the concert, and a standing ovation at the end.

“Indian Ocean has been associated with AID for a long time, and we deeply appreciate the selfless work done by the volunteers here.”, said Amit Kilam urging the audience to donate their time and money for the hundreds of social development projects that AID carries out in India. MIT’s mascot, Tim the beaver, made a special appearance at the beginning and the end of the concert, clicking pictures with the audience members and thanking the artists with gifts of appreciation.