Aradhna

If you come to London to experience the true English culture, hear the British Language and make some British friends, you are in the wrong place. London is about a multi-cultural experience. You meet people here from every corner of the world and everytime you get onto a bus you will hear a different language or accent. You will hear music and sounds from all over the world, and there is a neighbourhood, a pub and a church for almost every nationality under the sun.

Yesterday Danie and I went to Streatham. It is far South on the Northern Line and quite a travel from Canada Water. By the look of it, I would guess that it is the Indian part of London. I heard about a band called Aradhna, making their tour through London and thought that it would be an interesting experience to see them. They are three white Americans, who spent most of their lives in India. They sing Khrist-bhajans or Yeshu bahjans, which are Indian devotional songs to Jesus - an interesting blend of East and West. The four instruments on stage was a guitar, a violin a sitar and Tablas (indian drums). Although we couldn't understand the lyrics of the songs, they handed out the words and translation and we could sing along to some worship songs if you can manage to pick up the strange indian melody and hindi language.

And so we traveled all the way to the Streatham Baptist Church in the Indian community, a long walk from Tooting Bec station, to see Aradhna, and we enjoyed it so much that we ended up buying two cd's, having some indian food, talking to some of the band members and I even got to play (or tried to play) the sitar. What a great musical, cultural and spiritual experience.

1 "Gaao gaao re ambar dharti, gaao gaao re, gaao mere sang. Aaj Prabhu aagaman huaa hai, Yeshu ji sang milan huaa hai, Aaj honth ruk na paaye"

Sing, oh Sky, sing, oh Earth, sing with me. My Lord Jesus has come today and I am united with him. I cannot stop my lips from singing, sing you angels and birds of the sky."

2 "Bhajo re mana Yeshu ka naama bhajo re"

Worship, oh my soul, oh worship the name of Jesus.