Suraj's music tales: Me, my guitar and the Israeli friends

Suraj (second from left) with his friends

By: Sayed Adi Shah Ashraf

With stoopy shoulders and a child-like grin, Suraj Thapa is like any other vendor in Mcleodganj who sells curios to tourists. He owns a small music store here and in the day to day grind of running a store, would sing in the free time. What makes him a tad different from other vendors are his dreams. He wants to buy an electric guitar and become a singer.

Suraj is naturally shy. He pauses for a second when he talks about his dream. He mentions he would have to help out his family regardless of whether he likes it or not. "Guitar or no guitar, I love my family and they love me and I want them to share what I can earn from this small shop ", he says.  “But someday, I will become a singer and will lead my music band. That’s for sure”, tells Suraj as he prepares to close down the shop for the day.

Pursuing the dream full time is not an option affordable to him. Suraj who is the only earning member in the family presently runs the musical store which was earlier owned by his father. His father passed away when Suraj was around 6 years old. So he had to look after his family.
His electric guitar dream stayed a dream until he happened to cross paths with a couple of music loving Israelites. On Off-days, Suraj also juggles the hat of the local tourist guide, especially for foreign tourists interested in exploring Dharamkot. Being a local boy from Dharamkot, he knows the hillocks around like his palm. That’s how he met Yaniv, Julia, and Gilhi hailing from Tel Aviv,spending their vacation in Dharamkot.

Yaniv performing music for the event

During the sight-seeing trips, Yaniv learned about Suraj’s ‘electric guitar situation’. Though an engineer by profession, Yaniv occasionally writes songs and sings them for an audience. The group then decided to organize shows to raise funds for Suraj.

Days passed and then they held their first fundraising performance, ‘Once in a Nature’ at a cafe in Dharamkot. Suraj joined as the guitarist, Yugive from Israel as the drummer, Buzzy and Rifca also from Isreal as singers, accompanied by Frankie from Chandigarh. Around 100 people attended the show and Yaniv and Suraj managed to collect Rs 3000.

“We were so much inspired by the response to ‘Once in a Nature’. However, we needed to hold more performances to meet our target”, says Yaniv. The price range for an electronic guitar starts from around Rs 10000 in the Indian market.

After 3 days, they managed their second show, ‘Jungle Calling’. But it was not a cakewalk. Only 40 people attended the show. The event failed to raise even Rs 1000. But they didn't lose their hope and started to prepare for a third show.

In a week, they again held a third show but this time tried their luck with Welcome Cafe in upper Bhagsu. Some 200 people including locals and foreign tourists attended the show. “Most of my audience has been Israelis in the past. Dharamkot is a kind of hub for Israelis, so we obviously expected them as audience. But even local people joined the show. That was inspiring”, says Yaniv. So they performed special Hindi songs for the local audience.

The third event was a success and the group was able to raise Rs 5000 from the audience. Yaniv collected the funds and with his mates, bought an electric guitar for Suraj.

Suraj is in high spirits with his guitar now. He believes that it was music that cut across the geographical and cultural barriers to help him find a friend like Yaniv and to fulfill his guitar dream too.