Dhol-Tasha-Lezim on Ice
ISW Symphony at Worcester Railers

by Rajesh Khare

Thanks to ISW veteran Mr. Satya Mitra, the ISW Symphony Dhol-Tasha-Lezim team received a unique invitation to perform at the intermission of the Worcester Railers Ice Hockey game at DCU Center!

It was challenging for the team on multiple fronts. ISW Symphony organizers were short-staffed due to family situations and there was not much time for practice. This was going to be a new setting for the group and the audience was expected to be the broader community not familiar with Indian culture. The team was going to have to walk on ice with the instruments to reach the center and was given only 5 minutes to perform.

But the group members stepped up like never before! The Dhol-Tasha performers came up with a new compact sequence of beats that appealed to the crowd and showcased the Indian culture. They started with the “We will, we will, rock you” beat familiar to the sports crowd, evolved into the traditional Marathi Lezim beat, then played the classic Punjabi Dhol beats and ended with the thunderous signature beats of the Symphony team. The Lezim team had its own challenges. They had to come up with matching dance steps in a short timeframe and minimal practice sessions. And they did such a fabulous job that the Railers mascot also joined in with them!

Performance Team Roster:

• Dhol: Abhijeet Kaulgud, Rajesh Khare, Ranjit Mulay, Atharva Kamble, Prasanna Pawar
• Tasha: Arvind Kinhikar, Aditya Nene
• Zanja: Sharat Amin
• Tol: Sanket Gurao
• Lezim: Anjali Kinhikar, Anuradha Bhogle, Sarita Deshpande, Madhu Thube, Arti Khare, Saanvi Khare
• Abdagiri: Harsh Deshpande, Shaarav Khare

Team members in their own words:

Arvind Kinhikar:

Big thanks to ISW for creating this today’s unique opportunity and giving us this great platform “Symphony” to perform!  We are blessed with excellent leadership team and awesome team members loving music!  Enjoyed working with each team member!  Superb Tasha by Aditya!  Ranjit and Atharva brought a synchronized revolving dance while playing big dhol that to balancing on ice! great dance by Sharatji while playing Janz bringing huge energy, very synchronized rhythm dhol beats by Abhi, Ranjit, Rajesh, Atharva and Prasanna ,  very refreshing beats by Sanket who performed on a “Tol”…..and hats off to Lezim team (Anjali, Anu, Sarita, Madhu, Arti and Saanvi) who got ready on a very short notice. Saying here unique opportunity as we were pressure tested to perform in a shortest performance period of 4-5min against 20-30min that we typically perform! And to perform on ice!

Sharat Amin:

Loved it today with you all. Almost broke the ice in DCU center with our performance. It's a pleasure to be a part of this talented ISW Symphony team. Also welcome our new and young talented members. You all rock.

Ranjit Mulay:

This definitely was one of my favorite DTL experiences… thanks for the teamwork .. Arvind thanks for your guidance to get all the beats setup in the tight time frame… also want to thank our latest members Atharva and Aditya .. looking forward to learn more new beats from you both….

Prasanna Pawar:

So grateful to be part of Symphony DTL team. It was mesmerizing experience…

Abhijeet Kaulgud:

Tremendous experience. Thanks everyone as always

Aditya Nene:

Glad to be a part of symphony!

Sarita Deshpande:

Great teamwork by our Symphony DTL team!! It was fantastic experience to perform on the rink!!

Rajesh Khare:

What a wonderful experience for the Dhol-Tasha-Lezim team to represent ISW at the Worcester Railers game at DCU Center! Kudos to our fearless leaders Sanket Gurao, Arvind Kinhikar and Anjali Kinhikar and the entire team