Kol musicians return from Tel Aviv, recount war horror
Times of India | 24 June 2025
123 Kolkata: What appeared like shooting stars in the night sky to Kolkata-based sarod player Arnab Bhattacharya, when he was sitting on a terrace of a house in Tel Aviv with tabla player Nilimesh Chakraborty on June 13, turned out to be waves of Iranian drones raining in on Israel."We were shocked when our host told us they were drones, 300-400 of them lighting up the night sky. My heart skipped a beat, but she was unperturbed. 'All of them will be intercepted, relax,' she told us. Then we spotted a pencil-like glow, and her demeanour changed as she rushed us to a fortified bunker below the house. Even as we were heading in, a siren rang out. Inside the bunker, I learnt what we saw up there was a missile," recounted Bhattacharya on Monday, a day after he and Chakraborty returned to Kolkata after being holed up in Israel for nine days.The two musicians went to Israel to perform at four concerts between June 9 and 12. They were scheduled to return to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem after the final concert and fly out on June 13 to reach Kolkata via Abu Dhabi and Mumbai when Israel launched the strikes in Iran in the early hours of June 12. Though they managed to travel to Tel Aviv on June 12, they were stuck there till June 21 as flights into and out of Israel were suspended after the closure of its airspace following Iran's counterattack. The duo travelled to Jordan by road and then flew from Amman to Abu Dhabi and Mumbai on Saturday and finally reached Kolkata on Sunday."An Iranian missile hit a road on which we travelled to Amman barely 90 minutes after we passed. That was scary. But the scariest experience was when an Iranian missile penetrated Israel's air defence and struck a hospital barely 1.5 km away. The sound was deafening. We were actually in a bunker minutes earlier and had just got out after receiving an all-clear signal when the missile hit the hospital with a deafening noise. The earth shook. I was absolutely shaken," he recounted.During the extended stay, the duo had to take shelter in the concrete bunker over a dozen times. "We had to rush for cover three-four times a day: at 2 am, 4 am, 6 am, 9.30 pm. Initially, it was rattling. But after a couple of days, even we got used to it. When a missile would land, the concrete and steel-reinforced bunker would shake. It is an experience that I will never forget," said Bhattacharya.During the time they stayed holed in, the Indian embassy was constantly in touch. Embassy officials also helped them with the transport to Jordan. "They were very helpful. They were also planning an evacuation flight for Indians," said Bhattacharya.