new delhi musician hitesh madan is used to playing for large audiences across the globe but perhaps he had one of his most meaningful performances recently when he and his two sons held a concert for their neighbours from the balcony of their home in west delhis rajouri gardensince i am a former member of the band euphoria the crowd was excited particularly because i was singing maeri one of the bands top hits said madan he was accompanied by son ariv 12 on the guitar and advay 11 on the drums keeping the stircrazy audience in mind the trio presented songs ranging from punjabi folk to indipopa lot of people thanked us for making them feel less lonely and we have held such concerts twice madan said they plan to continue with their effort at entertaining their housebound neighbours till the lockdown is lifted the kids are both exhilarated the balcony concerts being their most attended stage performances till datethe novel coronavirus has moved performances from thronging halls to tiny balconies from madrid to mumbai and from toronto to zhejiang balconies offer a structural distancing of the musicians and the members of their audiences for the performers their cramped balconies with space for just a set of drums and some amps have taken on dimensions that are measured in happiness rather than square feetbalcony concerts strike a chord help residents hum away bluesrahul sharma a guitaristcumsinger from b block of swasthya vihar in east delhi said he first performed on march 22 when the janata curfew closed india down for a day when everyone came to their balconies to beat utensils as per the prime ministers request i saw a wave of happiness ripple across the neighbourhood and realised that little things done with a common purpose can light up everyones mood sharma said i immediately posted a message on the rwa group informing them about a small gig id like to organise on the balcony it proved a hit and i have performed two more times sincein indirapurams ashiana greens captain ranbir the rwa president accepted musics capacity to light up peoples mood when the lockdown was announced i had this idea of performing for the people in my colony to make things less gloomy its been almost a fortnight that we have been performing every day ranbir said brightly the neighbours get their cups of tea to the balconies recline and cheer along as we sing we sing bollywood classics because both the young and the old enjoy such songsranbir said it was sad that it took a pandemic to bring all the residents together but now everyone is glad that they are together ensuring their spirits are kept high despite being confined to homesjaideep singh of e block kalkaji claimed to have performed for a cumulative 50 hours in his colony some days are sufi nights some are bollywood nights while others are ghazal and retro nights singh said we have also celebrated six birthdays in