Desi twist to African safari

Desi twist to African safari
- The popularity of Bollywood music awes singer

Voice of India Debojit Saha writes about his experiences during a recent tour to South Africa...For the footloose, the term African safari would immediately conjure up images of an adventure in the wild. For me, however, it was an awesome musical journ ey.

On a sultry Sunday, just a week ago, I performed to a packed audience at Johannesburg, one of the biggest cities in South Africa. I was invited to perform for the desi community settled there. In fact, they even have an organisation of their own called India Club.Interestingly, my trip to South Africa was organised by a Silchar-born NRI who also happens to be a Debojit.

Needless to say, the show was great — for me as well as the music lovers there. Besides Indians, there was a fair number of local people among the audience. I learnt that Hindi films and music are very popular among the South African people. But the biggest surprise came when two South African girls belted out Bollywood numbers at the show.

I was told that playback singer Sonu Nigam, too, had performed at the same hall a few years ago and that the people were dying for another show by an Indian singer. Though I had little time to travel after the show, I managed to meet Kirti Menon, the great-granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. The respect the people of South Africa have for Gandhi is unbelievable. And the respect trickles down to anyone who is from India.

I had a great desire to meet Nelson Mandela, who I admire. So I landed at Mandela’s home but was told that he was out on an engagement and would not be back within a few hours.
The officials wanted to fix and appointment for a later date, but I had to decline, as I had to return. But I promised myself that the next time I am in South Africa, my first engagement will be a meeting with Mandela. source: telegraph india