Our First Concert at Manchester.

Hey Everyone!

I’m back as promised with the details of the tour. I will break up this up into 4 or 5 different posts detailing each concert separately.
It was the evening of the 11th of September, as we boarded the Emirates flight from Kolkata to Dubai onto London, Heathrow. I was in my best travel attire (meaning – fashion faux pas ) all set to tackle this long (yawn!) Journey westwards. Luckily the flight was as eventful as a day in an Indian Government post office, only cooler, and with better food

Photo : A section of The Dubai International Airport Duty Free Lounge

Photo : That’s me and the Harley

It was a comparatively short 3 hour stop over at Dubai’s international airport. Let me tell you, it’s my second time here and I still haven’t been able to go through all the counters at the gargantuan duty free lounge which in itself can give any small town, a run for its money. I was planning to hold on to that lovely Harley Davidson bike till I got back to Kolkata, but the sense of self preservation kicked in at the sight of the 6 and a half foot security guard looking at me none too appreciatively. Alas that gorgeous Harley and I had to part ways . It isn’t a good idea to frequent this city that is if you want to hold on to your retirement money, get what I’m saying?

Photo : At the Heathrow Central Bus Terminal.

After the 7 hour connecting flight to Heathrow, it was another mind numbing 3 hour wait at the bus terminal for our coach to Wolverhampton. Yes the expression says it all, every fiber of my being was threatening to sue me for human rights violation or was it cruel and unusual punishment? I keep forgetting. Boy was I glad to finally get on the coach! 3 and a half hours and some much needed “shut eye” later we landed up at Wolverhampton which was going to be home base for the next 17 days. The fact that our hotel “The Britannia” was across the street from the bus terminal didn’t do us any harm either. And as with the many small ironies in life, we entered our room at 4 in the morning (if you can call it morning that is!), settled down on to our five star bed only to figure out that we weren’t sleepy anymore.

Photo : Putting Jenny’s Resaurant out of business, oops!

We decided to make good of the time and get unpacked. Breakfast was at 7 a.m. sharp and Jenny’s Restaurant didn’t disappoint. We treated ourselves to sausages, roast mushroom, scrambled eggs, fried potato wedges, three types of cornflakes, milk, toast and a cup of tea. Having almost put Jenny’s out of business in a single sitting, we retired to our room where sleep put out her merciful arms and took us in for the next 13 hours.
The 14th of September went in clearing our jetlag and getting in some valuable pre concert practice. We prepared raga Yaman for Manchester’s 15th September concert. We were to play at “The Lowry Salford Quays” which was as breath taking as it was radical in its architectural beauty. You can check out details about “The Quays” here (Wikipedia link).

Photo : “The Lowry Salford Quays” (Copyright Information)

We played at one of the halls and I’d be lying if I said I had seen anything prettier. The entire upholstery, carpeting as well as wall contouring was the loveliest shade of rose petal pink I’ve ever seen. The sound system was equally fabulous and I thank Steve (I hope I got your name right!), our sound engineer for being so helpful and understanding in doing the sound settings. The audio requirements for Indian Classical Music and especially Sitar are quite unique and he was up to the challenge. Thank You Steve once again.
Our duet started with Raga Yaman and ended with my father playing a solo piece in raga Tilak Kamod, and what a soul filling rendition it was. Simply marvelous!! A written description of the concert will just not be enough so I’m planning to post video as well as audio on you tube as soon as I get copies of the concert recording. I must confess that there was a little scare when we came on to the stage to find out that they had turned on really hot lights and that our instruments had been exposed to such a drastic temperature fluctuation. But in the end it wasn’t an issue as the instruments remained in tune. You see, the Sitar, because of its long string length, is very sensitive to any changes in temperature. So the excessive heat of the lights and cooling of the air conditioning results in the de-tuning of the instrument. This can be quite a distraction and believe me, you don’t want any distractions on stage!

The hearty applause at the end of the concert was just what we needed to work up a great appetite. We were treated to some great Indian food, courtesy of Respected Sistachar Sarcar ji who took great care of us every step of the way.

Well, that’s it for our experience at Manchester. Tune in next time for what happened in London.