It is late in the evening and, after a mini odyssey through Delhi’s hellish traffic, we finally arrive at our guesthouse. The auto rickshaw drivers don’t seem to know their way around any better than we do, and we only arrived yesterday. Anyway, everything is different here in the Far East, but then we all knew that: on Saturday, November 7, 12:50 a.m. ETH Zurich’s Big Band touches down in Delhi, only to find to their great dismay that the pilots had not been exaggerating when they radioed through the weather. It came as quite a shock to us anyway, and some people were already reaching for their asthma sprays and co. no sooner had their feet touched Indian soil. However, in no time we had forgotten all about the weather, or rather the air; throngs of people – old and young, wearing turbans, saris and silk shirts or in designer jeans, on crutches or with prams – were all there in the middle of the night waiting for their friends and relatives – or indeed the customers they had been sent to pick up. Sure enough, a three-member delegation holding up signs saying “ETH Big Band – Teri University” was there waiting for us. As soon as we had loaded all of our luggage onto the bus like true pros, we set off for the guest house. The journey gave us our first taste of Indian roads – quite an adventure to say the least!

Great atmosphere

After a brief snooze and a bite to eat, it was off to the Swiss embassy on Saturday afternoon, where we received a hearty welcome. A stage that, even by big band standards, was nothing short of enormous had been erected for us in the grounds with all the frills. We even had a team of about a hundred technicians! Our first concert was a suitably big success. Our trumpet soloist even managed to coax the Swiss ambassador, Philippe Welti, into performing an impromptu duet, which neither we nor the countless guests are likely to forget in a hurry. The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic; the audience was in raptures and we humble musicians were totally overwhelmed by the fuss that was made over us during the dinner that followed.

The ambassador was also extremely enthusiastic and took great delight in the fact that our concert had managed to draw more people than the Swedes, who were throwing a big party two blocks away in honor of the Nobel Prize. 220 guests had signed up; over 400 turned up. You couldn’t have dreamt a better start to the tour. But the night was still young: after some highly stimulating conversations with people from all over the world, an exquisite meal and mouth-watering drinks, we headed back to the guesthouse, where we continued to toast our success well into the wee hours.

Extreme poverty and smiley faces

The next day, it was time for some sightseeing. We were given the option of taking the bus to the Taj Mahal in Agra or downtown Delhi. Huge historic buildings, fascinating parks, narrow streets, hellish traffic, extreme poverty, smiley faces, wonderful and not-quite-so-wonderful smells, and wires everywhere were just some of the things that struck us during our excursion. Despite the obvious and ubiquitous poverty, the people here are more than friendly and only too willing to help. Some other clichés also turned out to be true: to everyone back home, yes, cows really do roam around the streets of India, along with dogs and pigs and monkeys and vultures and camels. And if you wait long enough, you’ll probably see elephants, too. And yes, you can buy delicious-smelling food on every corner, even if we Europeans should steer well clear of it. And yes, they do have people here that charm venomous cobras with their wooden flutes in plain view of everyone.

India, we’ve come to town!

Big Band on Indian tour

Margrith Leuthold, Anders Hagström and Gabriela Blatter from International Institutional Affairs (IAA) from ETH Zurich are touring India from November 6 – 16 on a quest to find new cooperative partners for scientific collaborations and student exchanges. The delegation is accompanied by the ETH Big Band with the aim of encouraging cultural dialog with their music – which also features interpretations of well-known Indian songs.