Music pushes Irom’s cause

[1]

Outside the Patiala House Court, a group recently got together for a musical satyagraha to take up Irom Sharmila’s cause. The two-hour long protest brought together jazz singers, rock bands and hip-hop artists from the city. It was organised by a citizen warden community called Delhi Polite. The open community was conceived last year by a close group of friends around the time Nirbhaya case rocked the capital. While lamenting about the rise in aggression among Delhiwallas, one of them created a doodle that used the logo of Delhi Police but just wrote Delhi Polite instead.
“The pun was quite unintended. But it led to the birth of an open community, that intends to restore peace and politeness amongst the citizens of Delhi,” explains Chintan Kalra, member of the citizen warden organisation, Delhi Polite and a bassist with the band, Mob Marley Inc.
The group has musicians, filmmakers, artists and designers on board. They distribute interesting stickers that say, ‘Smile Ahead’, ‘Ladies First’ and ‘Don’t Hurry, be happy’ among the Delhiwallas, come up with happy, positive music and even create films to put across their point.
“There is too much aggression and angst among the city dwellers. Road rage, littering the streets and all forms of crimes are a repurcussion of the repressed anger. Through our small endeavour, we are trying to restore sanity,” says Rishabh Parmar, another member of the group.
Talking about the community, Chintan says, “There is a lack of interpersonal communication and connect among Delhiwallas. As a result, most tend to get inconsiderate and break norms. We have just started taking baby steps towards changing the scenario.”
To this Rishab adds, “We believe in crowdsourcing solutions at ground level for making Delhi safer.”