It's such a joy to be back in Delhi: Anoushka Shankar

Performing against a striking yellow backlight which highlighted her black brocade dress and her sitar, Anoushka Shankar took Delhiites through a sensory experience. "I'm so excited to be back in Delhi, one of my favourite cities in the world. And also, in a new venue I’ve never played in before, which looks incredible," she noted.

‘An allegory for an emotional journey’

As she began, Anoushka unpacked the inspiration that shaped her trilogy of mini albums. "The story is connected across the three albums," she said, explaining how the trilogy follows the rhythm of a day – from afternoon to evening in chapter one, through the night in chapter two, and into morning in the final chapter. "I was doing this as an allegory for a deeper emotional journey, which was about how we move through difficulty, and hard times, how we cope and how we heal." Engaging with the audience, Anoushka added, "We’re playing a song called Hiraeth, a Welsh word for a type of nostalgia, usually for a place, a longing for a home, or a memory of home. I always felt the word beautifully captures that longing you experience when you live away from home or grow up away from it."

Loved how Anoushka honoured her band members, say fans

Braving the chill, Delhiites arrived draped in pherans and stylish Kashmiri capes. Camini Kumar, 48, a lawyer visiting from England, shared a special connection with the artiste. "I recently discovered that my late mother met Pt Ravi Shankar and he signed a one-rupee note for her dated February 19, 1966. Although I have been listening to her music for decades, this is my first time seeing Anoushka live and she is absolutely amazing."

Ananya Tripathi, 31, who travelled from Lucknow for the concert, said, "I've been trying to catch her live for three years now and this night has been mesmerising.I loved that she danced and enjoyed her own show, and how she honoured her band members."

'I loved performing with my father'

In a nod to her late father, the legendary Pt Ravi Shankar, she described the inspiration behind We Return to Love, "It is inspired by my favourite evening raga, Manj Khamaj. I grew up listening to my father play it and loved performing it with him."

Talking about Fire Night, which is composed by Pt Ravi Shankar, she shared, "Fire Night, which is the only one tonight that isn’t one of mine or something I’ve co-written with people. It's actually a song of my father's. It's a beautiful old piece that was on a record of his called The Improvisations, that was released in the late 60s. I grew up loving this piece of music. It was very unusual in his early catalogue. It was on an album full of hymns performing – sarod, tabla, with tanpura accompaniment. And then in the middle of that was this song that he wasn’t even playing on. It was all these jazz legends with drums and bass, and it just was so different. I always enjoyed it. And when I got together with my co-writers, Alam Khan and Sarathy Korwar, it felt like we could really play this piece, and so we’ve developed it a little bit and made it into our own."Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”