Ray of hope on the horizon

every saturday, moeinuk sengupta updates you on what's rocking the kolkata scene. this week he talks about the band, ishan. in 1997, when band music was slowly gathering tempo in kolkata, ranaghat rabindra bhavan heard a slice of it on july 19. in the annual programme of a local cultural organization. shankha, sanat, sugata and anupam presented their original compositions anmona and swapno along with three songs of miles — phirie dao, chand tara and hridayhina.the applause from the audience encouraged them to from a band. and thus was formed ishan, the band that competed in the plug 'n' play competition at nazrul manch on december 1, 2001 organised by cactus. the story of how the band was formed is interesting. during their schooldays sanat, sugata and anupam was involved in the cultural activities of shankha. they organised an annual function and released a monthly little magazine called jachhetai. "though we hardly knew what a band is, we decided to write and compose on our own," says sanat, percussionist of the band. and it was a tough job to make people understand what is band music. "all that the people out here have listened to so far, was hindi film songs," said kris, guiarist of the band. "even a couple of years back cassettes of various kolkata based bands weren't available in the shops," he added. but now one will get any such album in a jiffy. mind you this transition didn't happen in a day. it was the adamant attitude of ishan that parash pathar performed in ranaghat in 1998. rishi, guitarist of the parash pathar, recalled, "we charged a nominal amount for lights and sound. though band members usually hire a car, we travelled by train to attend the show." ishan had to literally push-sale tickets. and the show was a gala success. parash pathar performed again the next year, followed by fossils on august 15, 2000. finally when chandrabindoo went to perform at the nadia mela in december last year they faced an overwhelming audience. records say that the previous two days when indrani sen and indranil sen had performed, the number of tickets sold was around 12,000 to 13,000. but during chandrabindoo's performance it went up to 19,000. "at 10 in the night, the ground was full," said upal, "and interestingly they knew our songs." pleased with their enthusiasm, pariksit, band manager of fossils, helped them to buy a second hand sound system comprising a 12 channel mixer, 15 inch speakers with twitters and a 350 watt amplifier. though rupam, lyricist and singer of fossils, feels that ishan has a lot more to learn, he was pleased by their rendition of some of the songs from his solo album, tor bharshate. "at least they have the attitude," he said, adding, "if not the proficiency." he had also written a lyric for ishan haoto bojhate parchhina tomae. even sibaji, drummer of cactus, has played at a gig with them in bahrampur engineering college when their drummer was sick. "it's a common feeling of camaraderie among musicians," said sibaji. "whenever anyone asks me to play for them, i never turn them down if i'm free." however, ishan feels that they are handicapped since they are based so far away from town. "for anything we need to rush to kolkata," said bappa, the drummer of ishan. but sibaji has an optimistic logic. "the major music industry is in mumbai," he said, adding, "but had it been any hindrance for euphoria?" sounds perfectly logical. "they are still slogging," said rupam. and once the band matures the place won't matter. and ishan has the determination. "since we've decided to be in band music," said prasenjit, bassist, "we'll fight till the end." corporates unite for fa femina miss india karishma upadhyay times news network over the years, the femina miss india contest has become an institution in its own right, and like every year, this year too there are a host of corporates sponsoring the pageant. for the second year in a row, fa is the title sponsor, while both royal le meridian and fiat palio have associated themselves with the beauty pageant for the first time. for sponsors this association is a chance to reach out to a more or less common target audience. "and also to further strengthen our relationship with a premier publication house," said vijay chandorikar, director-commercial, fiat palio, about their new association with the contest. ranju mohan, general manager-cosmetics, henkel spic india (fa) added, "the event promotes values, which are in perfect synergy with the fa brand values of freedom, confidence, sensuality and joy. today, the indian woman is more liberated, expressive and savvy than ever before. the event helps the brand build on its international imagery, while also building a relationship with the new indian woman." through their association with the fa femina miss india 2002, brands have managed to generate a lot of brand awareness. "we have gained a lot of publicity nation-wide. our association has also been educative as we have been hosts, to not just the contestants, but also well-known personalities like shobhaa de, lubna adams and sabira merchant. we provided 24 rooms for a month for all the 40 participants and it was a pleasure to be host to them," said shahid balwa, managing director, royal le meridian.