Reminiscing 2000's যাযাবর (Jajabor); One of the first rock bands of Silchar

Do you remember the times when Barak Valley got its first rock band? Well, to remind you of the good old times we are here to walk down memory lane. When ‘Fossils’ used to be on loop, a group of youngsters here on the land of Silchar too aspired to form a band. That marked the beginning of one of the very first rock bands in Silchar, Jajabor (যাযাবর.)

Five students of GC college then geared up to break the existing path and create a new one. “It wasn’t that easy. But we were determined,” says Abhijit Nag, the lead vocalist of the band. With their meagre pocket money, they bought the musical instruments.

Pradyut Kumar Nath, popularly known as ‘Mithu da’ recalled, “We bought old guitars and sound systems on our own fund. We had so much dedication and that was our main strength.”

 

 

On questions of what genres they covered, soft rock, blues and hard rock were listed in the reply. We got to hear stories on how they converted a cowbarn to a jamming room. In the initial days, affording a jamming room was tough. Also, the electric drum was more noise and less music for the people living around.

“People weren’t used to accepting this new form of music and the way it is practiced,” said Nath. With time, they started getting recognition. The guitarist added, “We have done a lot of shows. That was a real good time. We have even composed our own songs.”

 

 

Abhijit Nag says, “Our first show was on May 5, 2005, in District Library. You won’t believe how huge the response from the audience was!” While narrating this, the eyes of the lead vocalist glowed with a hint of nostalgia and pride. They had their best shows in Kailasahar, Silchar Tarapur, District Library, NIT Silchar, Assam University.

We were very much keen on knowing how the band got split. But according to যাযাবর, the band never broke, they just took a break. Rather the founder members are still into the music along with their respective professions. We couldn’t miss grabbing this opportunity to convince them to share a few of their compositions. One of those is attached to this article.

Listen to the song below:

 

Equally and more delightful is যাযাবর announcing the news of their regrouping soon. They have been caught up in their demanding careers but now it’s time to restart with the band. They are busy gathering up the team and soon to rock the stage.

 

 

When asked if they would want to give any message on the band culture, Sanjay Debroy replied, “This valley is yet far away from encouraging local artists. If half the respect was given to the local artists as they give to the artists of other regions, the picture would be different.” He added, “People here still aren’t aware of Mohiner Ghoraguli songs. We need to develop our taste and know about different genres of music. Only then, we shall be able to respect the artists.”

While interviewing them, we spent a wonderful evening amidst songs and music. The band that started a new music culture on this land is an inspiration to many. Several bands have later come up following their trails and we are very much hopeful to buy tickets to their shows again.