Parikrama’s Subir Malik: Best Campus Gigs In India

College festivals have been the most popular platform for young Indian bands to play their first gigs or for older acts to reach out to a younger audience. Perhaps no one knows this more than Delhi-based rock legends Parikrama, whose 3000-plus shows over their almost 25-year career have included gigs in colleges all across the country. Keyboardist Subir Malik talked to ROLLING STONE INDIA about some of their most memorable college performances, right from their start in the early 90s to the past decade.

 

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

We won our very first band competition in this college in 1991. We even recorded a live version of our first original song “Xerox” here. You can still listen to it from our Facebook page. [Stream the track below]

 

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

This was way back in 1992. It was our first show in Lucknow, and there was a bar right next to the stage! [Rock Street Journal founder] Amit Saigal came to our gig all the way from Allahabad and jammed with us as well.

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

After we won the rock competition in BITS-Pilani in 1993, we stopped taking part in competitions. There was nothing bigger to win than that, way back then.

 

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

This was our first show in Mumbai back in 1995, and I think this was the gig that got us recognized all over India. We’re still very close to the institute.

 

Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai

This is a favorite of ours, which we played in 2002. This was the first college from which we travelled to the airport in a fleet of auto-rickshaws! We were drinking with the organizers until morning, and they just fell asleep after that and forgot to send for our cabs. We headed to the main gate of the campus and looked for some cabs, but there were none around. So we hailed down a bunch of auto-rickshaws to take us and our gear to the airport. It was the best fun we ever had!

 

Vellore Institute of Technology

We played to a huge and amazing crowd there in 2007. This is probably the only college campus in the world with a commercial train track running through it.