Siblings being in one band is no unusual phenomenon. Some of the biggest bands in rock history had siblings as their founders — the Young brothers of AC/DC, the Wilson sisters of Heart, Greenwood brothers of Radiohead, just to name a few. That way, Delhi-based band, Minute of Decay, which consists of the Muivah sisters from Manipur, has a rich tradition of sibling bond to create music from.
“When we started off, we had no name for our band. We used to play at our church and at various functions. People used to ask what we called ourselves and we never had any name to give them. Once, at the spur of the moment, I said that our band’s name was Minute of Decay, and that was that. The name stuck,” laughs Worshon, the vocalist of the band.
But the name isn’t something that the band has plucked out of thin air. “The phrase ‘minute of decay’ refers to the suddenness of life, where each moment is precious and thus must be cherished,” explains Worshon. “This was a moral that our parents instilled in us from a very early age. Plus, when we had just started off, before we had named our band, I wrote a song with the same title.”
Formed in 2011, the band consists of Worshon, who also plays the guitar and keyboard, Singchon on bass and Thotyaphy on drums. The Muivah sisters, originally from Imphal, play Classic Rock and Indie folk music. They usually play covers, but have a number of compositions that they perform as well, which will form the EP that the band is hoping to release soon, titled ‘Finding Betty’.
“When people see three girls on the stage, people usually have two reactions. They either automatically tend to think less of us, as if we could not produce music comparable to male musicians, or they think that we are trying to prove a point by having only female members. The reality is far from it — we just want to be known for the quality of our music, not for the fact that we are an all-girl band,” says Worshon.
Tolerance in the cityMinute of Decay, which recently performed at the North-East cultural fest organised by the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, Jamia Millia Islamia, feels that Delhi, being the National Capital where people from all parts come to live and work, needs to learn more tolerance towards others. “We face discrimination on an everyday basis. Worse than the big things, it is the small ways that we are discriminated against that really hurts,” says Worshon.
In light of the racial bigotry faced by people from the North East, culminating in the recent death of Nido Taniam from Arunachal Pradesh in the city, the sisters have nothing but sadness. “These incidents are very disturbing. Delhi is our city too,” says Worshon. “We want to live normal lives. We don’t want to live in fear.”
(The band played at the just-concluded international conference “Eastern Himalaya: Gender, Poverty and Livelihood” organised by Jamia Millia Islamia)
