Tech Geeks Belt Out Hip-Hop Numbers

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: India's Silicon Valley Bangalore is home to a host of tech companies and geeks. Geeks, as we all know, are good at gulping down endless cups of coffee and writing codes. But despite their long working hours, frequent transfers and movements to onsite locations, they find time to keep their fingers busy beyond the computer keyboard. Armed with many musical instruments and a tune on their lips, they perform as musical bands in various shows within and outside their office premises.

All this just to give them that extra spirit and drive for a richer, fuller life. Says Anil Kakde, a software engineer at Wipro Technologies, “Our seven-band members are like-minded and felt that life is not just sitting in front of the computer monitor for 12 hours a day. There is more to it. We all are very passionate about music and decided to get involved with it seriously.”

The band Trad Scabrous includes three guitarists, a drummer, a bass player and a keyboard player, besides Mr Kakde, himself a vocalist. Six of them are still with Wipro while the seventh has recently joined Nokia, but the band still plays together. Trad Scabrous literally means traditionally rough, that also reflects on the kind of music it plays—hard rock.

Similarly, Symphony as well as Elements are music groups at Infosys Technologies in Bangalore that love to play popular Western, Hindi pop and Bollywood music while the latter prefers hard rock. Says Akhil Sharma, a software professional at Infosys currently located in Hyderabad and also a drummer for Symphony, “Music is a way of life. It keeps us going. It’s a huge equaliser too.”

Many other corporates like Hewlett Packard, Hughes Software, Msource and 24/7 Customer also boast of music bands formed by their employees.

Some of the groups have even got offers to play in colleges, entertainment zones and for other companies that would like to set the cultural precedence amongst their employees.

Says Aditya Vikram Mukherjee, a software professional at Infosys and vocalist with Symphony, “We have been invited by ABB to give a performance in its campus in order to initiate a cultural trend in the company.”