Search - Alms for Shanti :: Kashmakash

...and so the question is often put forth to us: what are these songs about? what's the philosophy of the band? have you found, as yet, the recipe for the perfect prawn curry? the songs on this album can best be described as the culmination of our confusions over a number of years. they deal with personal searches, journeys and the quest for that coy and elusive goal - happiness. jayesh and i grew up in bombay, a city that apparently represented india, but really did not. we imagined that we were enjoying a 'regular' indian upbringing - listening to western rock bands of the '60s and '70s, watching hollywood films and reading british and american writers. this, even as we were exposed to the likes of pandit bhimsen joshi, as well as bollywood's inimitable cinema. as we were to discover, regular it certainly wasn't but fascinating and highly enriching, undoubtedly so. we met in a band called rock machine (which we renamed indus creed in a fit of indian pride). an undiluted sense of conviction in the music, a little hard work (and a whole lot of fun!), and a dictat issued by the one that determines fate, ensured that we got popular. with the band we travelled throughout india, paying obeisance to her real self - the little cities and towns. we began to rediscover ourselves as indians in a very different india than we thought we were a part of, thanks to a totally westernised cultural form - rock music. the ironies continued unrelentingly to chase us through our wanderings, musical and geographical. they haven't stopped. 15 years into the fun, indus creed ended (as friends) and jayesh and i decided to go the new path together. we'd always believed in exploring the multiple dimensions of indian music in conjunction with western kinds, and the fact that the indian sound need not remain solely in india. we had a bunch of songs, ideas and tiny voices in our heads that refused to let us stop doing what we loved to do. we wanted to work our philosophies into a new sound and founded alms for shanti, recorded an album and left for new york. ok, more irony: no sooner had we reached those shores than plans were afoot to record and release hindi versions for india and the rest of the world. our philosophies? good question. perhaps that in this large but ever shrinking world each of us is finally alone. that every individual walks a unique path that only she/he can learn from. that this world has gone nuts. there's too much religion and not enough god. what better time than now to transcend those misconstrued and misguided doctrines and dogmas and really start thinking about the self. there is no utopia. everyone wants to be somewhere else - anywhere but here, wherever that here is. that few things are easier to do than justifying one's actions, whatever they are. and the consequences of what we do are suffered not by us alone. that the balance between the spiritual and material has to be the toughest tightrope they made. and despite all they say idealism is alive, principles are a good thing and you really can change the world. but finally this is about the music and whether it touches you. because that's the way we express ourselves and how we feel. and we can only hope that it makes sense to you. and makes you want to move. -- Uday Benegal