The Association for India’s Development (AID) hosted their third annual fundraiser Roobaroo 2011 with plenty of fanfare and aplomb on September 24th 2011 at Chabot College Theater in Hayward, California.
Headlining the event were Indian Ocean, a famous rock band from New Delhi, India. They are very popular for their fusion music, drawing influences from all over the world.AID’s association with the band goes a way back. For years Indian Ocean has been supporting their work and actively participating in campaigns like Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) etc.
The band strongly believes in the causes promoted by AID.Rahul Ram, Amit Kilam, Susmit Sen, and newcomers Himanshu Joshi and Tuheen Chakravorty are the key members of the band. At first glance, you cannot but be amazed at their down-to-earth and endearing nature. They are affable, funny, crazy at times (they have to be if they are doing back-to-back concerts in Chicago and Bay Area on just two hours of sleep !) and are refreshingly down to earth.
For this concert, Rahul and Himanshu were the lead vocalists, with Susmit at the guitar and Amit and Tuheen at the percussions. The concert started with a fully packed auditorium. The band played their popular songs from all their albums. The audience had a great time dancing to “Des Mera” (from movie Peepli Live) and they were left mesmerized after the final song with the band’s rendition of “Kandisa.” Clearly, even after 11 years of release of their album, “Kandisa” continues to be the favorite for audiences.
AID volunteers kept the proceedings humming along, be it ticketing, ushering or managing paper and food waste. Credit must go to Srikanth Jandhyala(President of Bay Area chapter) and his team of volunteers who pulled this off.