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The Rising Popularity of Mantra Band
Mantra is a Nepali rock band that had its roots fromDarjeeling. It comprised initially of four members. It has released many popular songs including Bir Gorkhali, Sanskriti and Ekantama and Timi bina.
Formation of Band
The band took it shape in the year 1999 and during its early years, it had just four members. They included Vaskar, Praggya, Pravash, and Bishal. It rose to fame outside the hilly region early on when it performed in IIT Kharagpur. The band produced many more well received songs. In the year 2002, the band came out with its first song Timi Bina as part of the compilation album named Gorkha Rocks.
Concerts done by the Band
The first major concert done by the band was at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. This performance had a new member, Manish joining the team. He played the keyboard. The band also won the Gangtok Rock contest and Praggya won the best guitarist award. For nearly two years, the band was on tour giving concerts all aroundDarjeeling.
Popular Songs by the Band
The band released its first album in the year 2003. Titled Mantra, the album had eight songs. It was distributed byIndreniAudioCassetteCenterinKathmandu. The songs in the album namely Bir Gorkhali, Timi Bina, and Ekantama became big hits inDarjeelingandSikkim. The second album released in 2004 had a folk theme in its music and was dominated by flute. Bidhan, a flute and saxophone player joined the band through this album.
Awards
After their second album, the band became quite popular among people and they were soon giving concerts in many places. At the Annual Hits FM awards, the song Sanskriti by the band won the best rock composition. The band also won the Rock O’ Phonix Alcheringa at the cultural festival of IIT Guwahati inAssam.
They toured many places including Mizoram,Calcutta, Doars, Siliguri,Arunachal Pradesh,Bhutan, and Nagaland. The band also performed at the Darjeeling Carnival and in many engineering institutes ofIndia.