Who is rahul ram
It is a part of me that I cannot do in Indian Ocean.. In the band, I am switched on from the time we get on stage till we get off stage, fully.
And in Aisi Taisi , the duration of the songs are less, so I can actually sit back and relax and enjoy the whole thing a lot more. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Friday, November 12, Contact Advertising Editorial Calendar Subscribe to newsletters. Sign in. Forgot your password?
A generation younger, Munaf Luhar, a year old independent singer, song writer and composer from Ahmedabad, likes the band for another reason. If the Indian Ocean band has been reflecting environmental and social issues in their songs, Aisi Taisi Democracy goes a step forward and bases itself as a satire on contemporary political, social and environmental developments.
Rahul Ram is the musician in the Aisi Taisi Democracy team, singing new songs in the tunes of popular Hindi film music.
After this introduction with village level environmentalism, he joined Kalpavriksh, a student action group and worked on issues in protected areas and a tannery cluster in Tamil Nadu. From to in the Narmada valley, working with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Ram learnt about environmentalism in India from the bottom upwards. All of it is fascinating for a city boy. Ram travelled between the Narmada valley and Delhi, where he sang and played the guitar with a band to earn some money.
The band — Indian Ocean — went on to become popular as the s progressed, and continued to build on its successes in the first two decades of the 21st Century.
Ram brought music from the Narmada valley into some of the songs of the band, for instance, Ma Rewa and Cheetu. The s was also a period when environmentalism was changing in India. Economic reforms were strengthening the hands of the consuming urban middle class in the country. In the national consciousness, environment and livelihood issues of the tribal communities in the Narmada valley was becoming less important.
The consumers wanted good and different kind of music. Don't miss hearing him sing a stanza from Indian Ocean's much beloved ballad Kandisa from his drawing room:. Please click here to see the FightInequality Anthem. Sign in Create a Rediffmail account. Last updated on: February 25, IST. Get Rediff News in your Inbox: email.
Thoughtful too. Being an artiste, he speaks with his heart. It's what has made him the voice of injustice. And Rahul Ram with his little ladies, right -- he titled the photo: Jealousy. His wife, Ayesha runs a trust that works with street strays, sterilising them.
Photographs: Kind courtesy Rahul Ram. I guess they were perplexed. You have a PhD from Cornell. Why would you want to teach here? After a month, he returned to Delhi, then went off to Anjanvara, a remote village where his wife was doing fieldwork.
Really, really remote: It took two days to get there; the last part a 20 km walk. No piped water, no electricity, no school, no shop, forget health care. This was a completely different vision of life. For instance, those guys never hit their kids. He had this band, and wanted Rahul to play bass guitar. I started playing with Susmit. And playing at service sector shaadis! They could put you in jail for no fault of yours. Rahul was also doing research into data around the Narmada project.
This story appears in the 26 July, issue of Forbes India. You can buy our tablet version from Magzter.