Against the backdrop of the charming Kia cars that were displayed in India for the first time at the Auto Expo this year, a band of Russian women -- all clad in lustrous silver and white costumes -- took the exciting experience of watching the car models of the South Korean company to another level.
The all-girls Russian band "Silver Strings" has been performing in India for several years.
Since the usual is to have all-boys' bands performing everywhere all the time, entry of "Silver Strings" on the expo stage certainly took many by surprise.
Apart from soft sounds of the violin and the cello -- instruments that have found to be perceived as feminine -- the band also boasts of strong beats with drums that are considered to be masculine.
Many people, during Silver Strings' performance at auto-expo, saw a female playing the drums for the first time.
The drummer, Katrin Lipisin, said girls playing drums in Russia is "more common" than in India. "The trend should come to India as well and I am sure that it will in few years."
From vintage cars to electric vehicles -- the expo was a major crowd-puller and music just added more energy to it. The 6-day event began on February 9.
For as long as the band was performing, visitors stayed glued to the stage. They were clicking pictures, making videos, cheering them on, singing along -- specially when the girls ventured into Hindi film lyrics and Bollywood music.
The musicians were themselves dancing along with the music.
Lipisin spoke about the experience of treating Indian audience with their performances as "great".
"We spend nearly half a year in India and the rest of it back in Russia. This is like our second home. We use lyrics from Hindi songs in between and that gets a really nice response from the listeners," Lipisin said.
"We just love the audience in India. When some western melody comes along with something Bollywood, they sing along, they scream...there is so much of love that we cannot stop coming here," she said.
"The Indian songs we present are popular but the rhythm and melody is different (from the music in our country). We take a lot of time to learn them," she added.
Indian classical music, she said, is "too complicated" for her and the girls in the band. That's why, they never venture into it.
Describing her love for the country, Lipisin said: "India is really deep. Every year, we discover something new about the country. There is never too much of it."
She touched upon the uniqueness of female bands and their struggles, saying that women in the business should be taken seriously.
"Most of the musicians are men in Russia. All girls' band is a very rare thing for the audiences. Sometimes, they don't take us seriously. They say -- they are just girls, they just play."
"We are serious musicians. We have education. We have been learning music since our childhood. We want to be taken to be seriously," she stressed.
