This year also Namaste Indiia 2006 was held in the huge Tokyo Yoyogi Park Event Area. It is the biggest festival of India in Japan. This is hosted by The NPO of Mithila Museum. There were large number of crowds hanging around in the park around various stalls and events related to India. It was said that in two days about 80,000 people visited here.
There were shops selling 'anything and everything' Indian. We found that the stall where recruitment for Indian company in India was being carried out was over crowded!. The host of the stall was overwhelmed with the response of Japanse people to work in India.
Septmber is just beginning of Autumn in Japan. I went near at half past 6 in the evening, but many people froze, and the stage still looked happy. Despite an organization supporting by a volunteer there was considerably good staff organizing the events.
Before Dr. Chandrakant's concert, the leaflets for the concert on Dec. 15 were distributed.
Concert Leaflet is here.
Most of the audience was looking forward to the concert and willingly accepted the leaflets. Perhaps many of his fans were there in the audience. It was getting darker and the strong winds started blowing. This was supposed to be the last event of the 2 days of the Festival.
Sakasegawa Kenji san was on Tabla with Tabe Kumiko on Tanpura. Dr. Chandrakant had to literally fight with the wind to tune the Sitar. The winds were not only affecting the tuning, but also the sound was affected at the same time. Audience was very patient to wait till all settled down and the beautiful melodies were heard. The harmony of the spiritual sound of Sitar wiped off the modern dance atmosphere on the stage. All including the stage director were very impressed to listen to this wonderful music.
