Whirling Kalapas

Photograph by Bajirao Pawar

Kurt Cobain once said, ”˜It’s better to burn out than to fade away.’ I respectfully and vehemently disagree. I prefer to say, ”˜Rockers never die, they keep rolling on”¦’ and this has never been truer than of Uday Benegal (vocals) and Mahesh Tinaikar (guitars), the founding members of one of India’s premier independent rock bands, Whirling Kalapas. Uday and Mahesh are living proof of the fact that as long as the music is in you, one is always hopeful. As a young lad I spent many years were screaming my lungs out to the first avatar of Uday and the boys, then called Rock Machine. Post the internet onslaught, a global spirit began to permeate the band and Indus Creed was born, but, alas, Bollywood began to slither into our lives. So yet another avatar was born: Uday and former member Jayesh Gandhi brought about Alms for Shanti, a fusion-rock collaboration that brought an evolved musical thought to the listeners in their own language, Hindi. But yet again that dream got lost. But the 21^st century has given birth to another dream, and Uday and his rock & roll brother, Mahesh, along with inspired second-generation stellar players like Kenneth Rebello, Sankarshan Kini and Jai Row Kavi, are keeping that dream alive. The dream in question being the very aspiring reality that, “Rockers never die, they just keep ”˜whirling’ along.”

By Luke Kenny