Strings Concerts Knock Barricades in India

A crowd of about 400 girls and boys went wild chanting the band’s name as the charismatic pair from Pakistan led them to the land of musical bliss. This was the scene on Thursday evening at the Gargi College fest, where Strings gave a rousing performance. As soon as the concert began, the barricades were knocked down and the crowd rushed forward towards the stage.

Camera phones and digicams were up in the air in the hundreds of hands that swayed to their beat. For the Strings concert, tickets cost Rs 200, very high for a college event. The size of the audience suggested that there was more to this performance than just music — it was a breaking down of barriers in a figurative sense, too. The frenzied requests to the band to play on and on appeared to be an expression of a long suppressed need for unity…