Bobby Ghosh has performed songs in Hindi—without understanding a word.
“But I’m taking a Hindi class now,” the sophomore says, to razzing laughter from his three harmonizing buddies.
The students are members of Raagapella, the first South Asian a cappella group on campus. An all-male ensemble that performs in khaki pants and black Nehru-collared shirts, the 12 undergraduate and graduate students come from seven countries—Canada, Italy, Kenya, Nepal, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States—and speak some 10 languages. Listen to a Raagapella foursome blend on “Oh! Carol,” Neil Sedaka’s 1959 hit, and you’ll hear Western and Asian melodies intertwining in the background as a compelling mix of English, Hindi and Punjabi lyrics punctuates the chorus.
The founding four musicians gathered on a whim, just nights before the 2002 Diwali festival of lights sponsored by Sanskriti, the South Asian student cultural group. “We decided a couple of days before the show that we wanted to go onstage and sing,” says Jay Pandit, a sophomore who sings lead tenor.
The men tried out several names—Browntown, NAAM (Not Another Arranged Marriage) and Lightly Toasted—before settling on Raagapella, derived from the Hindi word for classical singing, raaga. They practice several times a week—often in a parking lot—and are preparing for a Memorial Day concert in Memorial Auditorium. They arrange their own songs, thanks largely to junior Sanjay Kairam, a symbolic systems major who fine-tunes the pieces with the software programs Cakewalk and Finale.
Mehul Trivedi, a baritone who plays guitar and tabla, an Indian percussion instrument, speaks for many in the group when he says he grew up listening to Hindi music at home. “But when I got older and got my own car, I could control the radio and switch to American pop music.” Although he doesn’t speak Hindi, the junior is now marrying the melodies of his childhood with romantic lyrics of the West. “Don’t ever leave me/Say you’ll never go” may never sound the same again.
