Music band rings in new dawn for ex-prisoners

Three musicians formed a band. They named it Naya Savera or new dawn.

The name could not have been more apt. It definitely was a new beginning for the three.

Set free after varying periods of forced confinement in Udaipur Central jail, the trio – Ashish Sharma, Sunil Maida, and Shoeb Khan – are taking tentative steps to rebuild their lives again. They are seeking redemption and the musical band is their vehicle for regaining the social acceptance they lost while in jail.

Ashish, 29, plays the piano and harmonium. Sunil, 24, is adept in tabla while Shoeb is an expert in strumming the guitar.

Together, the three have managed to hit the right notes. The music they produce may not be top quality, but it has still managed to strike a chord among the audience who watch their regular performances.

That three former prisoners are the performers is unmistakably the band’s biggest novelty.

The reputation that Naya Savera has already built for itself is naturally remarkable. Besides local shows across Rajasthan, the trio performed at a recent film festival in Nashik. They have also performed alongside the Roohani sisters – a famed pair of Sufi vocalists.

All three are overjoyed with the reception they have received. “Crime has never been our hobby,” explained Ashish. “Music was, and we are musicians now,” he added.

Crafting a new identity for themselves is the motto of their musical band. And the band is steadily growing bigger with more inmates with a penchant for music joining it as and when they are freed. Formed just about a year ago, Ashish, Sunil, and Shoeb have been joined by five more former prisoners. More are likely to join in the coming days.

“Music is what bound us together, though we came from different backgrounds and had different experiences before we all landed up in jail,” pointed out Sunil.

Facing the music

Ashish, for that matter, got into regular trouble with the police since he left home while studying in the tenth standard. Hailing from Shamshabad in Agra district of Uttar Pradesh, he became a scrap dealer. It meant dealing in goods discarded or stolen. With that began periodic visits by the police and his intermittent detentions.

“My father wanted me to be a businessman. I became a criminal instead,” rued Ashish.

The frequent trips to jails hardened him further. He graduated to kidnapping, landing up in jail again.

He found himself in Udaipur jail finally, where he met up with the other budding musicians.

Among the very many vocational trainings available for inmates at the Udaipur jail, music was one of them. The jail had a group called ‘Out of the Box’ that allowed prisoners – convicts and under-trials – to try their hand at musical instruments.

Ashish took to it as a duck would take to water.

“Pyar Hua Chupke Se,” (Love happened silently), he recollected the Bollywood song he would sing in jail. He began to play the piano and harmonium. Ashish struck up friendships with others too such as Sunil and Shoeb.

“In the packed jail, there wasn’t enough room even to sleep. I missed my mother. But as the love for music grew, I missed her less,” he said.

Though confined within the four walls, his mind became free. “The walls seemed to become brittle and danced to the tunes we created,” Ashish – who also memorised the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit during his stay in the jail – said.

The others in the ‘Out of the Box’ group also felt likewise with music giving their imagination and creativity wings. It liberated them.

Striking a chord

Sunil hailed from Umarda of Rajasthan and had landed up in jail for having beaten up his employer who refused to pay him for his work.

“I didn’t do any wrong. I was wronged first,” he insisted.

However, his protestations about his innocence evoked little sympathy, and he became increasingly suffocated in the crowded jail. Then music happened.

“The tabla I played transcended the high walls of the jail. I got so invested in it that I forgot all my miseries,” he said.

Soon, the realisation dawned that music, and not anger, ought to be his response to everyday injustices. “Revenge is not the way to seek justice,” Ashish would tell him.

I realised my calling was to be a guitarist and not a gangster.

Like Ashish, Sunil too felt free by focusing on his tabla. “The roof became invisible, the sky met my eyes and the earth kissed my feet,” he fondly remembered.

Music is exhilarating and it swept even Shoeb off his feet.

Sent to jail in 2017 after being accused of looting someone, the Out of the Box group in prison gave him the opportunity to master guitar.

“I realised my calling was to be a guitarist and not a gangster,” he said.

In their new avatars as musicians, the three – Ashish, Sunil and Shoeb – are in love with their newfound freedom and identities.

‘Pyar Hua Chupke Se’, reminded Ashish with a glint in his eyes, as he went back to practising on his piano. Their music is sweet indeed.

The lead image at the top shows Shoeb and Sunil performing (Photo by Amir Malik)

Amir Malik is a freelance journalist based in Bihar. He writes about health, women and children and their interaction with nature. He is a Rural Media Fellow 2022 at Youth Hub, Village Square.