Emaho Travellers Meet, Café 1947, Old Manali
1st October, 2011
Imagine the beautiful valleys and mountains of Manali, the serenity and clarity of the surroundings, and then imagine a massive Beer, Bullets and Live Music party at a cafe within this breathtaking environment. Yes, that’s right, it’s exactly what our Manali Travellers Meet, October 2011, was like. When Emaho Magazine promises to keep you entertained and completely occupied for every minute through their event, they really live up to their word.Everytime you turned your head, there was something new to see: New people, new talent, new sounds, and new art. There was a world of creativity and excitement under one roof. Not to mention a whole load of beer, live music and happiness!Let me give you a small account of what was there, step by step:
Like I implied before, when Emaho does something, we do it big. We featured the talent of 8 photographers from across the country. Mind you, they’re not just people with expensive cameras; they’re some of the countries (and the world’s) most creative photographers and that was evident by the pictures they had on show. The photographers were:
Rohit Lal (New Delhi)
Murtaza Shah (Kathmandu, Nepal)
Bodhisattva Sen Roy (Siliguri)
Kannagi Khanna (Ahmedabad)
Sudhir Chandra (Uttrakhand)
Jaun Rizvi (Bhopal)
Puneet Paliwal (New Delhi)
Live Music:
If you’re happy and you know it, sing a song! With the beers flowing, the bikers bustling and creative people collecting under one roof, you just cannot go on without some snazzy tunes.
With music, we didn’t limit ourselves to India at all.
Qhwan from South America, who plays the Sitar (and has done so with Eric Clapton!), used his hard-hitting (yet) soulful notes to completely lift everyone’s spirits. He dedicated most of his music that night to his son, who was all the way in California at the time.
We had Ankit and Aasheesh on guitars, strumming to compliment all the ethnic, traditional sounds with their contrasting clean chords and riffs.
There were djembe’s that were passed around, to put in a little percussion; and Pooja Pao Lee stretching the smiles on everyone’s face with her sweet Flute.
A little Reggae by Rohantha Dissanayake of Sri Lanka and some progressive chill out by Noor Kadiwala from Mumbai was also key to the spectacle.
If this wasn’t enough, we had a star group perform for us: The Wet Mans, with Leo and Burdy from the UK. Leo, the guitarist, is one of the descendants of the royal family and (much to my surprise) is also Mischa Barton’s boyfriend!
On The Spot Art:
We thought we’d get a little more unique, and a little more creative. Mallika – an artist who’s already had a row of exhibitions, who’s done a lot of art for our Travelling Shiva section on the website, and our very own Art Director at Emaho Magazine – showed us, in the flesh, what canvas and colour means to her. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but worth truly lies within the creator.
Bulletwalla Award:
This was something we’ve been meaning to feature for a long time, and when we planned this event, it was the one part that we all were really rooting for. The Craziest Bulletwalla award (sponsored by Chris Harlen) was presented on the terrace of the cafe, where we also met Moksha Jaitley, India’s first woman biker, who graced us all with her presence to show her support. If our meet was a movie, I’d say we had one big star cast, dont you think?
Himalayan Caravan Adventures:
Himalayan Caravan Adventures is an adventure company (of course) who not only supported us, but made the meet so much more interesting by getting all their trekking gear with them to put on display. I would love to sit here and use mellifluous words to tell you about them, but let them do that for you. Here’s the first paragraph on their homepage, which I think stays completely true to their identity: “Adrenalin pumping through your body! Every sense heightened to the point of ecstatic delight! A feeling of complete and absolute freedom! Ah! The sweet intoxication of adventure!” They’re based in Manali and shared a number of stories with us about their treks and state-of-the-art equipment.
Custom Bullets:
Hardev motors had their custom Bullet machines on display, which were nothing short of some of the finest creativity with bikes that you can ever imagine.
The success of our event could not have been possible without the efforts and help of a number of individuals, including:
Photographers covering the event: Amanpreet Kaur, Rohan Kumar Verma, Aasheesh Mehta.
Venue Management: Ankit Sharma, Cafe 1947, Old Manali
We would also like to thank all the performers for creating the energy we wished to showcase, and the travellers who made it to Old Manali.
