In 1940s Calcutta (now Kolkata), as Japanese air raids rattled the city, a group of musicians travelled by horse carriage to a recording studio, dodging sirens.
The building was exposed, its only defence hand-dug trenches. At each siren wail, the musicians were trained to dive for cover - sometimes mid-session.
At the centre of it all was Kumar Chunder, or KC, Sen.
He would go on to become one of the city's most influential - and largely forgotten - cultural figures: a war correspondent, jazz bandleader and, most notably, the founder of Band Wagon, a pioneering talent agency that helped shape modern Kolkata's music scene.
That wartime recording, whose proceeds went to the East India War Fund, reflected Sen's defining instinct - making and managing music amid chaos. Pressed as a 78 rpm disc, it featured songs like The Good Ship Victory and There Comes a Time. It was a commercial and philanthropic success, earning official praise and continuing to raise funds for years - a lasting testament to his refusal to let war silence music.
