Moving on

The band has made it clear that the vacuum left by Chakravarty cannot be easily filled. “There’s no question of replacing Asheem,” Sen says,when we meet him backstage before the concert. “With his passing,the identity of the band needs to change. That’s what we’re looking for,a new identity.”

The show was dedicated to Chakravarty,as will be the forthcoming ones. “But we’re looking at organising a proper tribute concert sometime in March before we leave for the US. We still need to figure out a lot of details — sponsorship,location,the final dates and which of our musician friends will be playing with us. But we’re quite sure that this is something we want to do.”

The group will,of course,continue to make music but,Sen reiterates,they can’t be sure what direction the music will take. “We will have an album out this year. It’s 90 percent done and it does have Asheem’s vocals,” he says.

When Indian Ocean finally takes the stage,the crowd screams in anticipation. Already they’re yelling out the names of their favourite songs which they want the band to play and when the musicians begin,the applause is wild and practically everyone is singing along with the familiar tunes. On the face of it,everything seems normal — Kilam energetically pounds away at the drums,Ram’s head is still cocked in that familiar sideways position and Sen looks as phlegmatic as he always does on stage. Then the guitarist dedicates a new song,Bandhu,to Chakravarty — it is greeted with as much enthusiasm as old hits like Kya Maloom and Jhini. Before he goes on stage,Sen adds,“We can tell that our audience feels sympathy for our loss. They’re here to support us and we’re glad for that. We can feel their love.” We can see what he means.