Rocking the Fort

We set off for the Purana Qila (the Old Fort) in the early afternoon. The sun has burnt through the morning mist in Shahjahanabad, and the crowds are out in force, the women wrapped in bright saris and even brighter cardigans.

In Chandni Chowk – where once there stood a pond of perfect stillness to reflect the moon for a langorous princess – is a bustling clothes market through which my driver gamely tries to navigate. The wing mirror of the taxi clips the arm of a child, and we judder to a halt. The girl glares at us with an unblinking ferocity, too stunned to cry, while her mother harangues the driver. Heated words are exchanged. I am beginning to squirm in my seat when, suddenly, the engine roars to life again and we move off – the driver honking impatiently to part the crowd, but advancing more cautiously this time. By a jumble of jackets and jeans, a scrawny man half-heartedly hoists against the window a bottle of bright yellow liquid with sickly pallid fish in it, which I decline to buy.

We arrive at the Purana Qila to find it hosting the South Asian Bands Festival. Organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations to showcase 'high-profile music bands' from South Asia, the line-up for this evening – the finale of a three-day programme – includes 'Emperor' (from Myanmar); 'Who's Your Daddy' (from Bhutan); '1974 AD' (from Nepal); and 'Avial' (from Trivandrum). Rock fans who attended over the previous two days would have been treated to performances by 'Kabul Dreams' (from Afghanistan), 'Strings' (from Pakistan!), and 'Afflatus' (who turn out to be an all-girl band from Shillong, and whose rather inspired name I misread with a schoolboy snigger the first time around).

Approaching the Qala-i-Kuhna Masjid within the Fort, I hear a loud jangle of chords that neither Humayun nor Sher Shah Suri would have recognised. As one of the bands rehearses, a team of assistants is being given a pep talk behind the Sher Mandal. 'Back home,' the young manager explains, 'many of them don't have the freedoms that we have here in India. Let's give them a good concert...'

And I was certain they would.