YEH DOSTI... Pakistan's Strings and India's Euphoria erase boundaries as they sing in unison at the Aman Ki Asha concert in Kolkata on Wednesday

There was a nip in the air and Kolkata was still shrouded in grief. A little more than 24 hours ago, the city had paid its last respects to its dear departed leader. Lacs and lacs of people had waited patiently in serpentine queues and dotted every inch of space on the roads where Basu’s last journey had meandered through. It was an emotional connect that hadn’t resulted out of being shepherded by any diktat. In many ways, it was a similar kind of an emotional connect on Saraswati Puja that got a huge crowd to gather on the Nicco Park Big Lawns to witness yet another historic venture — the Aman Ki Asha project — a move towards peace between India and Pakistan that has been initiated by The Times of India and the Jang Group of Pakistan. As band members of Euphoria and Strings together took the stage, the frenzied crowd knew that their spontaneous turnout was an indication of being on the right side of history


Friday, January 22, 2010

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