All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
Anyone growing up in the late 1980s or the 1990s in India would know about a mega rock band called Guns N’ Roses or GNR, are they are popularly known amongst the fans. I have been a big rock n roll fan since 1996 when my elder brother and my uncle introduced me to this genre of music. Prior to that it was all Michael Jackson and there is no doubt that the ‘King of Pop’ was an icon too, but after hearing Bruce Springsteen and later Guns N’ Roses, I solemnly joined the ‘school of rock’.
Looking back, the first time that I got hooked to rock n roll was when I heard Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ from his ‘Greatest Hits’ album and a year later when I got my hands on GNR’s ‘Use Your Illusion’ double album. It is around this time that I got into writing poetry too, which perhaps was my way to express pent up feelings since my voice and my guitar skills were best kept secret (not best kept secrets). My own folks would keep their ear plugs handy, just in case they sensed a rock n roll outburst coming from their offspring.
As the years went by, I fell deeply in love with the written word and moved further away from any dreams of playing music or forming a rock band (many of us in the 1990s dreamed of having our own rock n roll outfit). But even though I ended up becoming a writer and an extreme world traveller, I did manage to see many major rock bands play around the world, such as Deep Purple, Rolling Stones, Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Joe Satriani, Pearl Jam, Megadeth, Ryan (not Bryan) Adams and others. But the last 1 year has been different since I finally ended up seeing the 2 artistes that impacted me really deeply. Bruce Springsteen gave me the words from which my poetry was born and Guns N’ Roses gave me an outlet during my teenage years.
So let me take you back to the start of 2024. Richa and I had returned from Antarctica and within a fortnight I had a terrible back spasm that made me bed ridden for 5 days. I started walking properly again post some major rounds of physiotherapy and during that time a lot of thoughts ran through my head. I have always done what I wanted to do and during that time in bed I wanted to do what was left really fast, before time ran out. The first thoughts were of the countries, the deserts and the forests around the world that were between me and my world travel record.
But then in my crestfallen state, I randomly Googled upcoming major rock concerts and realized that the 75 year old Springsteen (not a ‘spring’ chicken by any means) was to be on a world tour. With these artistes a world tour is not quite the same as my world tour but you get what I mean. So I called up Amit (my elder brother living in London) and swiftly a plan was made to see my hero in Stockholm on 15th July’24. And with me being me, right after realizing that the tickets were booked, I started planning my own tour around the concert date. In that tour even though I visited the Russian border area, the Baltics and Scandinavian states (where the clouds of Russia-Ukraine war were hanging low), for me the highlight yet remained the scintillating Springsteen concert.
And boy did he rock the nearly 110,000 fans that came to see the legend live over 2 nights (15th and 18th July) in Stockholm. Springsteen’s energy at 75 was hard to fathom as he sang his heart and guts out and rocked the house. He has lost not one bit of his voice and his ability to take the crowd on a mystery ride. Hits after hits were belted out with the final songs being his biggest hits – like Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark and Glory Days. But what got the crowd swaying and sentimental was when Bruce and the E-Street Band sang ‘Bobby Jean’, a song about friendship lost. After performing 30 classics, it all ended with ‘I’ll see you in my dreams’. It really was a dream come true and seeing the show with my elder brother was the icing on the cake. Amit really made it happen.
And now less than a year later, just the previous Saturday on 17th May, I witnessed rock history in Mumbai when Axl Rose and Slash of GNR set the stage on fire when they started the set with ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. It was pure nostalgia for me and my childhood friend, Kanishka who had flown in from Delhi to see GNR live. Neither of us was going to miss this one since we had somehow missed the first GNR concert in India in 2012. Looking back, I wish I had seen the 2012 one with both Kanishka and Abhi (from my childhood days) since we lost Abhi in 2021 and now all 3 can’t be together again. So this time an imaginary candle was also lit in Abhi’s memory as Axl sang ‘It’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November Rain’.
In fact we narrowly missed the rains in Mumbai since there was quite a bit of it (out of season) on Saturday morning. But by afternoon it was dry, although terribly humid. We were drenched in sweat from 3 pm when we arrived to 11 pm when we left Mahalaxmi Race Course. GNR wowed us all with 25+ stadium anthems, so saying that all the sweat was worth it is an understatement. One of the best moments was of course when ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ was played and Axl Rose (singer) and Slash (lead guitarist) shared the stage together. I got a snap of them that looks like its right out of a rock band wall poster.
For me personally my favourite moment was when Axl sang ‘Estranged’. It is a 10 minute masterpiece and although it is not as popular or catchy as Sweet Child o Mine and November Rain, it is right up there as a timeless epic. And aptly it all ended with ‘Paradise City’, one of the greatest stadium rock song videos of all time and a tribute to Mumbai, which for many is a Paradise City as well. After watching Guns N’ Roses I feel all my rock n’ roll dreams have come true. But it is never that easy, is it? Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd) and Bon Jovi are still left and while my world tour is more important for me, I somehow need to catch Roger and Jon Bon Jovi during theirs. I guess at times I need to remember this line of Axl Rose – ‘All we need is just a little Patience….’
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. More than anything else, he loves his Himalayan home. Reach him at: www.facebook.com/nitingairola/; www.facebook.com/MostTravelledIndian/
