Date: 11^th January 2020
Venue: Sundar Nursery, Delhi

Sundar Nursery in Nizamuddin, Delhi NCR is fast emerging as a venue for cultural programs and it is not difficult to see why.  The alfresco amphitheatre in the beautifully done up park would organically stoke art and creativity. Sundar Nursery was recently the setting for Amarrass Nights, an evening of traditional music. Rajasthani folk artists Ghewar and Feroze Khan, and Qawwali group Rehmat-e-Nusrat from Uttarakhand performed at the Bagh-e-Azeem in Sunder Nursery this late winter evening.

Given that the chill just refuses to go from Delhi, the torches they had lit around the area not only provided warmth but also an earthy illumination to the place. The ambience was just right for the first performance by the Rajasthani folk artists. Ghewar and Feroze Khan, aided with their dhol  drums and the string instrument Khamaicha, performed a variety of numbers. Starting from train sounds till bhajans, they had the audience hooked on to their rustic tunes. No matter where you go in Rajasthan, be it desert Bikaner or hilly Mount Abu or even colourful Jaipur, or the majestic Neemrana, you are never far away from sand and soil. We could sense such earthy tones of Rajasthan in the music of the Khan duo.

The soulful notes of Rajasthan led to another form of soulful music – Qawwali. Qawwali is a traditional take to what we call band music today. Rehmat-e-Nusrat, the Qawwali group from Uttarakhand was a 6 man show. They had Sarvjeet Tamta leading the band on vocals and Harmonium, Sanjay Kumar on Tabla, Dhruv Pandey on Guitar and chorus, Sahil Arya , Bhanu Pratap Arya and  Avinash Kumar on clap and chorus. During the course of their performance, they paid tribute to the Qawwali legend Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. They sang his Sufi numbers as well as vintage Sufiana Kalams by Amir Khusru. We were expecting our much loved number Chhap Tilak and were happy to have got that as well. This made our evening as they say!

With IshqFM as the radio partner and our favourite RJ Sarthak as the host, the evening was as mesmerising as it could get. We forgot we were sitting in the humdrum of Delhi, such was the impact of the traditional music lingering around us. Amarrass Nights was curated by Amarrass Records. Their aim is to bring folk and traditional artists to the forefront. To this end, they are arranging monthly series of such concerts at Sunder Nursery. Given the first one that we attended, their endeavour looks most promising. We look forward to spending many more such melodious Amarrass Nights.