Chennai concert was the first concert to be organised by Indian Whistlers' Association(IWA). I started it on 18th Sept, 2004 to get all whistlers of India on a single platform. The vision has come true on the 18th of June, 2006
This concert was the brainchild of Jagat Tarkas, fondly called Jagat uncle.
Chetan & Me are from Pune, Aditya from Mumbai, Jagat uncle, Kruti, Ankit, & Amit are from Chennai.
We were 6 whistlers that evening, though IWA had 19 then. A good start!
Kruti & Ankit were the master comperers.
Doesnt ankit look like "Kashid Khan", of Karachi from "THE GREAT INDIAN LAUGHTER CHALLENGE 2"? The one who speaks very fast & has a great command over language. He even looks like him.
I was the first to perform on "pukarta Chala hoon main" with karaoke, followed by others.(i forgot the sequence)
Drum solo perfomance was given by Siddharth Nagarajan(8yrs)-said to be the youngest drummer in India.
Can be seen in the photos, Aditya, Chetan, Amit, Kruti, Jagat Uncle & me-whistling & receiving mementos.
Also can be seen-the "Indian Express" reporter,in yellow, on the right-when the drummer arrives with all "band baja".
The logo for the badges, banner(background) & mementos was designed by me
& the badges & mementos were made by Jagat uncle, who happens to own a big business of sport trophies & shields.
The memento is made of acrylic. Jagat uncle also happens to be the first in India to manufacture acrylic trophies.
Aditya's solos left the crowd mesmerised and Chetan just enjoyed his whistling.
"Kajra re" was to be a solo by Aditya, but transformed into a chorus, with all joining in for "Kajra ra, kajra re, tere kale kale naina".
The crowd simply loved our performance & kept congrulating each one of us, over and over again.
We loved being presented the mementos. Aditya looks soo happy, as if presenter has given his daughter's hand in marraige to him.
Chetan looks like an elf.
The show ended with all the whistlers joining in for the National Anthem, on whistle.
Well, this is just the beginning of a long journey for IWA, whose end will be "Whistling idol"-my vision for next 10 yrs.
Rigveda Deshpandey,
Founder, IWA |
