The Hindu : New Delhi News : Rocking all the way from Russia

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Saturday, Mar 15, 2008
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Rocking all the way from Russia

Madhur Tankha

Rock star BG’s passion for India is 40 years old

Mesmerised: Boris Grebenshchikov, leader of ‘Aquarium Rock ‘N’ Roll Band’, in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Affectionately known as “BG” to his Russian fans, Boris Grebenshchikov is synonymous with Soviet rock of the 1980s and has been a role model since then.

Boris, who performed with his “Aquarium Rock ‘N’ Roll Band” at Siri Fort Auditorium here on Friday, is fascinated by India. “Everyone says Indian culture and religion is the oldest. I have had the most charming experience in your country. India is a source of my inspiration. Only here can I find my bearings and sort things out,” he says.

Love for Indian music

“For the past 30 to 40 years I have been listening to Indian classical musicians like Pandit Ravi Shankar. If given a chance, I would like to collaborate with an eminent Indian musician,” says Boris, an expert on Indian history, philosophy and culture.

Passionate about the Upanishads, Boris is busy translating them into Russian. “If you translate philosophical things in a scientific language then it becomes harder for the layman to understand. So I want to make it easier for the Russian people to comprehend the exact meaning of the Upanishads. I have had an enlightening experience reading the

Upanishads and I want to share this experience with other readers. When you have done 12 to 15 translations, you are competent enough to translate the Upanishads word by word,” he says.

With as many as 70 albums to his name, Boris was in Bangalore on Thursday for a concert. “I liked the Garden City. Before arriving in Bangalore, I was at Puttaparthi for a week to stay at Sathya Sai Baba’s Ashram. Every second person there was a Russian,” says Boris.

Musical band

Poet-cum-musician, Boris is the leader of the Aquarium group that started as a post-modernist music and poetry project in 1972. He disbanded his group in 1991 to establish the BG band. Aquarium rose again a year later.

BG says his passion for India dates back to 1968 – a full 40 years. He first developed an interest in Indian music and later on studied Indian religions, mythology and history.

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