Floods in Assam are an annual feature for people living in its valleys. However, this year, these areas were caught completely unprepared as an unprecedented amount of rainfall caused the rivers to swell to extraordinary levels, much like what happened in Kashmir. The resultant floods were a disaster — scores of people lost their lives, thousands of houses were washed away and crores of rupees worth of property was damaged.
However, unlike Kashmir, these floods got little or no coverage in the national media. Seeing this, musician Angaraag Mahanta, better known by his stage-name Papon, along with singer Vishal Dadlani of Vishal-Shekhar fame, organised a fundraiser concert, #ForAssam, in the National Capital last Sunday evening.
“Assam is traditionally a high rainfall area. Over the years, the Government has poured a lot of money to ensure that the State is not flooded. However, there has never been any change. Thus, when there was incessant rainfall this year, the damage was great. I pitched in with help personally, and various NGOs were also trying to help out, but alone I could not do much,” said Papon.
“However, a brief conversation with Vishal Dadlani, who is a good friend of mine, soon paid dividends. He came up with the idea of a concert, which I liked immediately. Thus, we decided to make some noise, raise awareness for the damage in Assam and raise funds for its victims,” he added.
Soon, the duo contacted six other artistes, who were quickly on board, and thus the #ForAssam concert was born. The intention, he says, was to generate awareness and draw attention to the flood situation in Assan abd generate as much money as possible. “The funds that we collected will be handed over to the Chief Minister’s fund soon,” said Papon.
The concert took place in a packed Blue Flog. The audience was regaled by performances of eight popular acts — Papon, Vishal-Shekhar, Arijit Singh, Benny Dayal, Shilpa Rao, Indian Ocean, Neeti Mohan and Harshdeep Kaur.
Rahul Ram, bassist for Indian Ocean, said, “Nobody talks of Assam. It is typical of the neglect that the North East faces. When Papon started the initiative, we were glad to be on board, and whoever came on board, has come on their own steam. Nobody took any money.”
However, Blue Flog was not the original choice for the concert. Initially, Papon and Dadlani were looking at a larger area so that more people could come in.
“Our initial choice was either Zorba (near the Sultanpur Metro Station) or the NSIC grounds (at Okhla), but we were not given the requisite permissions. Finally, we decided on Blue Frog, and the response we got was much more than we expected. The crowd was fantastic and the show was very, very good,” added Papon.
“This is probably the biggest concert in Indian music history where the music fraternity has come forward for a cause. Flood is an annual phenomenon in Assam, but due to some reasons, it doesn’t get properly highlighted to be considered a national calamity,” commented Dadlani.
