How well do you really know your neighbour? You live near them, you see them go about their routine. Dinners with family, gatherings with friends. Tradition. You see it, and think you know it, but do you— really?

Knowing comes with presence. If you’re a neighbour that doesn’t say “hello,” how can you hope to learn that which you don’t know? I think a lot of us are those neighbours, unknowingly, that have yet to ask and enquire instead of just experiencing from a distance.

South Africa is one of the most diverse, culturally rich countries on Earth. We literally live amongst people who have roots in every corner of the globe. From Africa to the Americas, Europe to the Middle East and Asia, there’s so much spirit here, and yet, it feels like we know nothing at all. When it comes to cultures and heritage we don’t understand, we become those idle neighbours, convinced differences in language and culture are barriers, and not what they really are. Opportunities.

As one of those neighbours, I was told about a performance at the Baxter Theatre. It was Ragas Beyond Borders, an installment in a series of live performances by Esha Parbhoo — a phenomenally talented Indian Classical Musician. The problem was, as one of those neighbours, I had never experienced that sound. That culture. That energy. It was completely foreign to me, but when I went to watch her perform live, it somehow all made sense. It made me want to learn more, to say '“hello.” To learn and connect in conversation. And so I did.

Esha Parbhoo // Captured by Jonathan Inglis (@jojosph0tos)

To start off, who is Esha, and how would you describe yourself and the music?

I was born in Durban in a place called Chatsworth. It’s basically a place where all the Indians were moved to during Apartheid. It’s relatively big but everyone knows each other. The community is huge, but really special and close-knit. I ended up going to a Catholic school for basically my whole school career. I moved to Johannesburg years later, around 2015, and from there found myself in Cape Town for University after matric.

I was born into a very mixed family. My dad is Gujarati, which is a name for the people who come from or live in Gujarat in India. My mom is Christian. They’re both Indian but because of that difference and obviously the Catholicism that came from school, my brother and I grew up exposed to so much and so many different viewpoints on religion and culture.

I remember when I was young, maybe around 7, Hannah Montana used to be on TV and I used to love her. I used to absolutely dream of becoming like her and so I asked my parents to enroll me in guitar lessons. This was still in Durban, and I found that I was required to do classical guitar and that I wasn’t getting anywhere close to being a superstar like her. So, I stopped playing the guitar and then moved over to piano. I think it was sort of meant to be because I fell in love with the piano. That was the instrument I formally took right until the end of Matric. I also started classically training my voice when I was sixteen. On the other hand, Indian music was something I was exposed to from when I was a baby.

As a baby I really struggled to sleep, and my dad would put me in a pram right in front of the TV and put on a guy called Jagjit Singh. He is a Ghazal singer, which is a very beautiful form of Indian music that focuses on the meaning, the words, and the lyrics of the music. But it’s beautiful and that was the only thing that used to calm me down and put me to sleep. I grew up being exposed to that, but my mom also used to play Bryan Adams, The Beatles, and the Bee Gees in the car. My ear was used to listening to a bunch of things, but my passion truly laid in Indian culture and heritage in those forms of expression. I used to do Indian dancing while I was still in Durban. Music and dance go hand in hand which I think is really nice.

Ragas Beyond Borders, hosted at The Baxter Theatre by Esha Parbhoo and the South African College of Music (UCT)

When I came to Cape Town to study at UCT, they told me that they knew I wanted to do musical theatre but they didn’t have the department so they told me to just apply for opera. I love the degree and the technique that it gives me. But I soon realised that there was such a big space and so many people of the Indian community and I just felt like they weren't being represented. I looked at UCT and in all of its history, it never had one Indian musical concert. That was wild to me, and I had gone to the concert coordinator, and I asked if I could put a concert on. Because it was never done before, I think they were a little bit skeptical. But they gave me a lunch hour slot and I ended up getting a band together. I had never been trained in Indian Classical music; I had only just been exposed to it. I loved it and sort of taught and practiced myself with what I think it is. I’ve read a lot and have actively made choices that exposed myself to this music and this culture. To be able to represent and to give the community something to enjoy.

And that conviction is what lead to Ragas Beyond Borders. Let’s take it to your performance on the evening. I hadn’t seen the theatre filled like that. It was literally packed. And the first thing I noticed in your performance was that your work has this nostalgia about it. Your performance referenced a lot of Indian movies or shows. Where do you draw your inspirations from?

I think for me, music has always been something that I’ve seen makes people happy and makes people feel a range of emotions. It’s the one thing that somehow everyone can connect with. I was exposed to a lot of that growing up, especially the Indian stuff.

For me, Bollywood movies were the thing. Like the Hindi TV series. At my grandmother's house in Durban, that’s what they used to watch, and they still do. It’s something that I grew to love, not only because of the absurdity and how far-fetched it is, but because there’s such a beautiful quality to it. A sort of hopeless romance that comes from it.

I think the soundtracks are the best part about Bollywood movies. They’re so seamlessly integrated sometimes. I’ve never heard music composed so beautifully. The way Indian composers would now take like a sixty-piece orchestra and create the most magical sounds that you’ve ever heard is baffling to me. And so, a lot of my inspirations comes from that.

*Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara* promotional media // © Excel Entertainment

What’s your favourite Bollywood movie?

It’s called ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. I spoke about it in my show and that is my go-to movie. That’s like a modern one though. If you had to ask me about an older movie, I’d probably say Veer Zaara.

But like I said, because my mother exposed me to more Western sounds, I also drew inspiration from that. On that side of life, people were writing and making music about different things than the Indian people were. I think all these things are very big pinnacles for me to look up to. Especially when I spoke about Ghazal earlier and the use of words, lyrics, and meanings in those songs to convey things. It’s something that I’ve taken in my stride to incorporate in my original music.

What do you see as the role of song and dance, but also the culture in general, in breaking down those barriers and introducing us to the world of Indian culture.

You know, there’s revolutions that happen in this world because of music. I mean look at Bob Marley and what he did. He made such a big impact on society through his music. And that man lived a pretty wild life. But his music was so genuine and pure while having a message that resonated with the entire world. It’s why it’s still played today. I think that is a prime example of the power of music. For me to use my talent or gift to break the barriers, not only in the music world but in a societal context is a dream that’s unfolding for me. Because I can see it.

Indian music wasn’t even thought about at UCT. At college they teach one module on Indian music, during ‘Worlds Of Music’. But it’s not specific. It’s this thing of, you live in a country that is filled with culture, beyond just Indian music. There are so many different and beautiful heritages and cultures in this country people don’t know anything about it.

Because music is something that is familiar to people, using that as a driving force and introducing people to new sounds is really important and I think it can be really useful.

Aside from the fact that we had a Tabla and Dhol, the Indian percussion, we didn’t have Indian instruments. We used a full Jazz band. Indian classical music can be quite difficult for people to hear for the first time if you’re not used to it, so we had to strike a balance. Not diluting Indian music with all its beauty, but also to present it in a way that people are going to be comfortable hearing and experiencing enough for them to want to know more and learn more about this. Because that’s my vision for this, for people to learn more about this. About us. To be able to make it easy enough for people to understand it, sonically. I think the biggest thing through that is to show that I am able to share and let you experience my culture through my music. So you should do the same thing for yours.

Lilavan Gangen // Captured by Jonathan Inglis (@jojosph0tos)

When I did my first Indian concert back in 2023 in the lunch hour, that one was called “A Journey Through The Music Of India”. I basically took a song from each region or various regions of India and I performed that. All the music that was in that was literally just to evoke joy. The vision for that concert was joy and peace, that was it. And then at the end of last year, I started to have this shift in me. In vision, my purpose and drive. I was telling myself to keep doing these Indian music concerts but what is the big picture here? Then this whole thing came about identity and breaking boundaries between music and people came to the surface.

Often, musicians in Cape Town don’t create positive spaces for other sounds to be incorporated, and if they do, they appropriate it. So, it was a thing of me wanting to create a project that was able to incorporate these sounds without diluting my own. The two questions are: how Indian do I have to make my music to be accepted, and how white do I have to make my music to be accepted? Eastern verses Western. Where’s the balance, the centre, between appreciating my culture and diluting it?

Hmmm. Like asking “how much do you want me to shrink myself to make you comfortable?” But also “how much do you want me to show myself to make me marketable?”

Exactly. Absolutely!

And that’s a problem that the entire music industry is facing. Especially artists who are doing cross-genre things. I try to stay away from fusion because I think fusion is a misaligned word. You’re just taking two different things and putting them together instead of integrating them together and having a connection and communication between them.

So then what is an ideal with your art? Is it the fusion, integration, or something deeper in your music?

My ideal is having people take away the message that you shouldn’t shy away from showing off something that you’re passionate about, and to show off something that is yours and you belong to. To put out a message there and inspire someone to not have to shut this part of themselves away and lock it up in a box, and to rather show it to the world in the way that they want to show it. Whether it’s speaking about it to people, whether it’s creating something in art or music, I feel like that is my job. I feel like that is the most important aspiration for me and I’ll do whatever it takes to get to that and to make sure that that happens.

Jason Hammond // Captured by Jonathan Inglis (@jojosph0tos)

For example, your heritage and your culture. I think people have spent too long in the dark worrying about being judged or not being accepted for being themselves. Culture and heritage hold such an important place in the world. It’s what makes every person unique and the globe special, you know?

It’s not about money or status. If I can make an impact in one person's life regarding this vision, then I’ll feel like as a creative, my job has been done. We don’t just make sounds. That’s not something I just want to be doing. My music really needs to have a purpose and the purpose is this.

Is that why you seem to have this genuine connection with the audience? How do you view that connection that you have with your audience? And how do you think that shapes what or how your sound evolves?

Like I said before, I have a passion and a drive to make music for the people. Not for a certain group, but for everyone who wants to listen. And seeing how the crowd has grown over the years and seeing the demand for it, in Cape Town and especially at the college of music, I’ve realised that these people are looking for something fresh to hear and to latch on to.

And they’ve really been enjoying what I’ve been putting out for them. But I’ve also been very conscious of the people that have been coming and what they’re into. I realised that I can put out as much Indian music that I want, and it can be heavily classical, but not everyone is going to come and appreciate it if they don’t understand it.

From left to right: Michael Raven, Rouxne Schutte, Esha Parbhoo, Jason Hammond, Lilavan Gangen, Anwar Hassan.

I told my band this: we don’t perform, we aren’t performers. We are people who are driving an engagement: between the audience, and us, who are giving them a gift. We have this beautiful music, and we’ve worked on this music, and we are giving it to them as a gift. Because this is a part of me that I’m sharing with you, but I want you to experience it.

Performing somewhere like the Commons, where the space is so small, it was very easy to interact with the audience. Whereas the Baxter is a more formal space, so it changes that vibe a little. At Commons, it was a thing of us talking to the audience— they were asking us questions, and we were giving out answers. That engagement from the audience and the willingness to learn about it is beautiful. I think it’s really important for me to never feel like I’m performing. If someone’s coming to watch, then I want them to take something from it. I can’t be a little puppet on stage, just dancing and singing away. I really need to be tapping into a more human thing. To give them an experience to share with me.

Michael Raven // Captured by Jonathan Inglis (@jojosph0tos)

When it comes to your audience at home, how does your family see what you’re doing?

They’ve all seen the way that this has happened and the way that Indian music has been presented. For them it’s a point of pride and joy. A lot of my dad’s side of the family, the Gujarati side, is still in Durban. I was very fortunate enough last year for my grandmother in Durban to come up and for my entire family to see. My brother was here for the Commons, and my mom was at the show at Baxter.

They also feel like that they aren’t going or seeing this type of thing being performed or being put on for people to experience. So, for them to be able to see that someone is actively choosing to make a space for Indian culture and heritage in the country and these cities is such a point of pride for them. They feel like they’re being seen.

And there are tons of other people like that. There was a person who came to the concert at Baxter, who is an exchange student from Houston, and he was saying that he felt at home in the concert and he felt that he was seen. And that felt like exactly what I’m doing.

For my family it’s that thing of, yes they’re super excited about the fact that I as an artist can grow and I’m gaining a following. People are reaching out, seeing my projects, and the work that I do. But it’s also a much bigger thing of, this is something that we’re deeply connected to. It is a defining point in our identity, and it is being showcased and celebrated.

That’s really beautiful. For my last question I want to find out: how do you see the current cultural landscape in Cape Town, and South Africa as a whole? Where do you see yourself fitting in there, and how do you hope you can shift it?

In Cape Town… there’s not enough. It’s lacking. People aren’t actively choosing to make space for it or to create in that way because they feel that they’re not going to be supported. Very often what happens is if there’s a big cultural vision for a project and they put it out somewhere, they find that they’re not bringing in a crowd. It takes a lot out of a person to be able to put something out there that is so deeply connected to them and then no-one shows up.

Rouxne Schutte // Captured by Jonathan Inglis (@jojosph0tos)

The cultural landscape here is lacking; it can feel like appropriation. Some will claim they’re making South African Jazz or creating South African music but then they’ll just be using a beat that is South African. And it’s like, what else? But they’ll think they are making music, but it really isn’t that. I think there’s a lack of willingness of people trying to learn about different cultures and to integrate them properly in their music.

And I think this goes for the whole of South Africa. But you’ll find that different cities have different musical cultures and scenes. It’s hard for me to talk about my experience in Joburg and Durban because I haven’t truly experienced the music scenes there very much. But speaking as someone who has been on this project and journey in Cape Town, I can say that only now this year in Cape Town have I seen people start to come in masses to the projects that I put out.

The audience was trickling in because it was something new in the last two years, but now they find it really cool and they want to go and learn more about it. So, I think resilience and perseverance in the music community needs to be forming a lot more. If you are playing at a concert and only ten people come and you were hoping for a hundred, so what? There are ten people there who want to learn from you, who want to see you, and to experience something with you. So give them something. And give them something special. It doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter if it’s what you love.

Being in that packed auditorium, seeing people of all walks of life stomping and clapping to the beats of Tabla and Dhol percussion, I felt I had been missing something until that moment.

Maybe it was the lack of exposure to Indian culture and its beautiful influences, or perhaps it was a fresh perspective. No matter what it was, one thing remained clear after the final round of applause: that there is always going to be so much I don’t know, and so much more I have yet to experience and discover.

Reach out. Say hello. If you’re brave, you’ll be welcomed and meet someone new. If you’re fortunate, you’ll experience something you never would have otherwise. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get to enter yet another world that has so much to offer. Take it from me.

Balancing Culture with Esha Parbhoo

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