Steps of 391 Hope

I sat down on the cement front steps of 391 Hope Street and breathed in the fresh air and blinked at the warm afternoon sun. I looked at my watch, was it already 6:00 PM? How had I missed the whole beautiful day? I thought back through the weekend. Fuwad picked me up at 6:30 PM last night from my Boston apartment, and there I was 24 hours later, with about 4 hours of sleep, ears drumming and blood pulsing in Bangla music and the Amra Kojon spirit. I even smelled like Amra Kojon. Don't ask me- I can't describe it... but there is a smell to the hours of keyboards, harmoniums, tabla powder, people singing into reverbing mikes and Indian food all meshing together. Where did the time go?

Others slowly followed me outside, blinking into the sunlight and plopping down onto the steps in exhaustion. It was beautiful. Everyone was happy to be there... to feel exhausted from playing music. And Naina was happy to be snapping away at us with her camera outside and not have to worry about the flash! It's nice to feel like we've used all of our senses for hours and hours at a time. It made us feel alive until we were tired but proud of what we had accomplished. Yet, there is an antsy feeling in the air as well. The show is exactly one week away and there is still much to be done. Everyone feels like a little more effort would allow for even more quality, but we also know we've done our best for now. We know that we still have a week to make everything perfect for the show- and it is so nice to know how many people are invested. It's sold out and even more are wanting tickets!

- Jhilam Biswas
on behalf of Amra Kojon