Shabnam Virmani at the Ramkrishna Math in Khar.
Still echoing
**

Before I lose the essence, let me put this in clumsy words.

On Sat I trekked through the urban village shortcut and reached Khar in time for Shabnam Virmani’s concert. Accompanied by one back up vocalist and one percussionist, she held the standing room-only audience enthralled for two hours.

Her repertoire of Kabir bhajans crisscrossed the country. The Baul ballads of West Bengal where despite the language gap the meaning made you cry—and I don’t cry easily, not anymore. The songs of Malwa and Rajasthan’s hamlets carried with them the fragrance of the tilled soil and endless horizon. After the performance and the standing ovation, and past the notes of the music, there was a soundless place she took us all to, a place of silent echoes where words are immaterial