If you head out at night for an indie gig in Mumbai, the chances of finding a punk band are as slim as those of the Indian cricket team winning the ongoing Test series in England. What you might find instead is an accessible alternative rock band. Or, a crowd-pleasing electronic producer. Yes, there might also be a metal act creating mayhem on occasion. But the thing with punk is that as a genre, it falls in a sort of no-man's land within the indie spectrum — neither does it have the bread-and-butter simplicity of rock, pop and electronica, nor is it loud enough for those fed on a diet of heavy metal.

Which is a shame really, since the ethos of the music is such that it can serve as a valuable form of dissent at a time when freedom of speech seems to be getting increasingly muzzled (news of Umar Khalid being allegedly shot at, for example, filtered in at the time of writing this article). The very idea of the word "punk" is anti-establishment in nature. And the musicians thus rake up lyrics in their songs that point a direct finger at corrupt bureaucrats, greedy suits and self-serving politicians.