I found out that Anoushka Shankar was performing in Delhi yesterday quite fortuitously, during a conversation with Ishan on Friday. I hastily formed plans with a couple of friends to attend the gig, including Ishan. I’ve been a fan of Anoushka Shankar’s sister Norah Jones for a long time, but I hadn’t paid much attention to Shankar herself till now.
The venue was Talkatora Stadium, which brought back memories of going there so many years during high school for HT’s InQuizitive Quiz. Shankar’s gig was breathtaking. It was a medley of her centerpiece sitar play, with shehnai, tabla, piano, cello, drums / hang drums. The set list primarily drew upon her 2013 album Traces of You, with a song called In Jyoti’s Name dedicated to the 2012 Delhi gangrape victim. Something that clearly touched Anoushka Shankar, because she got quite choked up when introducing the premise of the song. An emotional moment for the audience.
My favourite track out of the entire show was her opening track (also, the opening track for the same album) called The Sun Won’t Set, featuring Norah Jones.