*Solar-powered band rocks for a green earth* New Delhi (IANS): Armed with solar panels, rechargeable batteries, specially designed gizmo guitars and a unique drum kit, they are no cyborgs from the future, but the world's only solar-powered music band, Solar Punch. They play songs of "peaceful activism" to spread environment awareness.
The New York-based band enthralled the audiences on their India tour by playing popular A.R. Rahman's numbers. The band also believes in striking a chord with the people of the country it visits by crooning hits in the local language. In India it chose music maestro A.R. Rahman compositions like "Ghanan ghanan", "Yuhin chala chal" and "Ru ba ru". "It took a couple of months to understand the Hindi lyrics. They didn't come naturally to us as we speak English. It took a lot of memorisation and practice but the music part of it came together pretty easy as we are musicians," explained Conklin. The band was also upbeat about Rahman's conquest at the Golden Globes for the best original score for Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millioanire" and his three Oscar nominations for the same. "We're honoured that we are even able to get through our version of Rahman's songs. I think it's absolutely delightful that we came over here and got through his songs in broken Hindi as well as we could and still managed to entertain people," Conklin said. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200902090921.htm -- regards, Vithur
