Bob Dylan: Visions of India

Dear Mr. Dylan,

India is a land of contrasts, no doubt. Quite similar to some of the contrasts that you bring out in your songs so starkly. There would be millions of Indians who probably wouldn’t even be able to spell Bob correctly, yet there would be a few thousands who would probably own each and every Dylan CD and who could probably even quote passages from Tarantula, a feat that I bet even you would find hard pressed to accomplish!


To celebrate your 60th birthday, we had a Dylan 60th Anniversary Concert in Mumbai. It was a sponsored concert. Tickets were quite cheap but the costs were borne by a few corporate houses who found it worth their while to sponsor a Bob Dylan concert. Well, the set list of the concert could have been a straight lift from on of your 60s concert – LARS, Rainy Day Women, All Along the Watchtower, TUIB, Its all over now, Tambourine Man. One lady even sang Diamonds and Rust beautifully (please don’t get pissed off, she meant well!)


You even sent a thank you note to us that was read aloud to an 1,000 plus audience averaging 35 years. You have little idea what that Thank You note meant to us. The media, unreliable as usual, carried out front page headlines in 42 point bold Bob Dylan to Tour India …


When Chris Ricks releases Visions of Sin, it makes it to the papers out here. When Joan Baez releases her new album, the Indian media carries it solely for her association with you. When Wallflowers does a concert, it makes news out here more because jakob is your son. When the copy-editor gets a writer’s block, your songs come to the rescue in inspiring yet another Times are a-changing headline. “So easy to look at and so hard to define” is still a foolproof line to take a woman home. Your tribute to Johnny Cash is quoted verbatim out here, while your media shyness has become legendary, exemplary and almost generic in nature.


I reckon I’ve established by now that India has some loyal Dylan fans. The universality of your songs has been talked about ad nauseum and I don’t want to repeat any of it except to say that Mumbai (India) perhaps would appreciate a concert perhaps as much as Budokan, if not more!


I have no clue how much a Bob Dylan Tour costs. But if we could have a Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Sting concert to full houses out here, a Dylan concert would be a greater event than Halley’s comet (14 more years)!


So without further ado, will you come here please. You don’t know hospitality till you have tasted Indian hospitality. And for good measure, could you also include some BD.com fans as a part of your entourage (it would be easier then for us to get air travel and hotel sponsorships)! You could do an ASEAN or an ASIAPAC tour that covers the entire south east and Australasia.


We look forward to seeing you soon.


Thanks and regards