The unique 'Meri Zindagi' band is known for its soul-stirring songs centering around issues such as female education, gender justice and equality.
What makes this six-member band extraordinary is that it comprises only women who play on the electric guitar, the synthesiser and the drums.
Keeping away from Bollywood singles, the band focuses on songs that address social issues and advocate women empowerment.
While performing at 'Kumbh Mela' this year, the band highlighted the malpractice of child marriage.
“One out of every five girls in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is a child bride. All her aspirations and dreams die the moment she gets married. With our songs, we wanted to question the relevance of this practice. The audience understands, interacts and appreciates when they listen to such songs. Many people inspired by the lyrics met me after the performance and showered praises on us,” says band's founder and lead singer-songwriter Jaya Tiwari.
In 2010, when they had just begun, getting the audience was a hard task. The number of people who turned up in their shows was quite discouraging. The band could not even afford to buy basic musical instruments. But this did not deter them from their ambition to perform.
Today, 'Meri Zindagi' is UP's first and only rock band that sings melodious songs about equality, girl education, male dominance, justice, female foeticide and domestic violence.
Tiwari came up with the idea of forming the band after noticing how baby boys at an orphanage were adopted immediately while girls had no takers.
“Over a period of time, I realised that the only babies left at the orphanage were girls. Depressed, I began to think about how I could bring change in the people's attitude,” recollects Tiwari.
The best way to empower these girls was to form a band and make some of them part of it. Unfortunately, it did not work out.
She then started looking for like-minded instrumentalists to form the band. The first to be auditioned was Tiwari's own student Niharika Dubey.
"Jaya knew me but that gave me no added advantage and to pass the audition was mandatory", says Dubey who plays synthesiser.
Later more girls joined the band. At that time, the band owned no musical instrument other than a guitar. Having no money, they picked up whatever they could find to create some music — spoons, glasses, plates, bowls and tongs. In order to ensure that some of the band members who happened to be college students did not miss classes, they would practice in the parks early in the morning.
Gradually, people started taking notice of this women-only band. Youtube and Facebook took the fame of songs such as ‘mai ri mera byah na rachana’ to another level. The song asks mothers to give girls a chance to live their dreams instead of getting them married at a young age. The motive is to encourage girls to believe in themselves and not be merely confined to the kitchen.
The band's gut-wrenching song on female foeticide ‘teri galiyon mein na aayenge kabhi is raat ke baad, maa, meri maa’ went viral to the extent that they started receiving invitations from organisations such as UNICEF, Breakthrough, BBC Media Action, WaterAid India and State unit of Mahila Samakhya - the autonomous government organisation working for women’s empowerment.
So far, the band has composed over 70 songs for women helpline 1090 and UP Women Police. Besides, they also support the education of needy and poor girls in UP's capital Lucknow.
“I feel proud to be associated with this band because I have not seen any band that practises what it preaches,” says Anamika Jhunjhunwala, 17, the youngest member at the drums.
Interestingly, some young members of the band had to leave because of academic compulsions. They were replaced by other ambitious musicians like guitarist Poorvi Malviya, and vocalists Swastika and Saubhagya.
Though the trio has now moved out of Lucknow to complete their post-graduation, they still continue to be a part of the band because for them music is their life and only with this can they bring a change in the society.
