I've been Joshied...

Prem Joshua - ever heard of him? I hadn't until I saw a zillion posters around Varkala announcing his open air concert. I'd been in Varkala for a few weeks and by that time had heard every single playlist in the area. Prem Joshua was one of them and his 'hit' Shiva Moon is literally played to death in Varkala so I thought I'd go along.

Prem Joshua or 'Joshi' as his groupies refer to him is viewed by many - again, manly by his followers - as a 'guru'. Personally I'm not convinced about the 'guru' reference mainly due to the fact he's musician so in my opinion this doesn't mean you get to graduate to 'guru' status. But then I like Phil Collins so what do I know. However, Joshi has very successfully infused Indian with contemporary music and it is good. At least I think so but again I ref Phill so you may not believe me!

The open air concert was interesting to day the least. The setting was gorgeous; we were perched on a the edge of a cliff, surrounded by coconut trees and of course it was a gorgeous evening.

First of all I thought it was slightly strange the tickets were, by Indian standards, pretty expensive. This meant that Indians couldn't attend as generally non of them could afford it. Bit of a shame really especially as he's so popular over here plus I didn't really think it was in keeping with the 'one religion, one god, one love, everyone is equal' blah blah blah that appears to be the essence surrounding Joshi.

The second thing that occurred to me was the number of groupies wearing tees with 'I've been joshied' on the back, strategically cut-up (assume this is some sort of fashion statement) - it made me smile. Maybe it's me but the strap line 'I've been joshied' conjured all manner of images in my mind - most of them not that clean either...

The highlight of the evening for me, aside from the performance which was excellent, was when Joshi mentioned love. He started talking about his philosophy on love, how we should love more people etc. He was half way through his 'sermon' when a rather over zealous woman (sporting a 'I've been joshied tee) jumped up, yelled 'we should all love more, yes to love, love, love, love...', did a star jump and started gyrating against a coconut tree...priceless!