Sunday, February 9, 2014

Ruhaniyat - Annual All India Sufi and Mystic Music Festival in Ahmedabad - February 8, 2014

For the second year in a row, Ahmedabad was one of the venues for the Annual All India Sufi and Mystic Music Festival - Ruhaniyat conducted by the Banyan Tree (although this is its 13th edition)

Held at the Vastrapur Amphitheatre (near Vastrapur Lake), the acts that came to Ahmedabad were:

Mahesharam & Group from Rajasthan who sang the bhajans of Meera dedicated to Lord Krishna

Mystic Pathways : an Indo Bulgarian production featuring Vaya Group from Bulgaria that sang acapella and the Kalbeliya women of Rajasthan. Their jugalbandi of two completely different styles was a pleasure to listen to.


There were Tannoura Dervish Dancers from Egypt, but the star of the evening for us was the Sufi Qawwali Nizami Brothers from Delhi who being the last performers, went on until 10:30 at night. But were completely worth ignoring the freezing temperatures of the cold evening for.

I first heard them in January 2010 at Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, on the occasion of Basant Panchami and they sang some of the Basant Panchami special songs again which brought back such wonderful memories.


We really look forward to witnessing more such performances in Ahmedabad in the future too.