Sunaad.....

A turning point in my life.......

2004 - I saw a call for singers in the yahoogroup culturecafe. Tara Kini, a musician and a trainer was the person who was my first contact at Sunaad, a group of singers who were aiming at promoting Hindustani classical music and reaching it to common people in a simpler and theatrical format. Aditi Upadhya and Tara Kini were the gurus for this team.

I was quite worried when I went to Aditi's house Abhiram in Malleshwara. Rehearsals were on for Bhaav Yaatra - a performance which has a blend of classical music and story telling and play which is based on Krishna's life interspersed with Meera Bai. I was dumb and shocked after listening to the entire team as they were at far higher standard from where I was. It was mind blowing rehearsal. Not sure how much I listened to their singing in my shock. After everyone left, I was asked by Tara and Aditi who sat opposite to me to sing a song. I was worried whether I will be thrown out after they listen to me. I sang one of the kannada song, which I composed some years back. I passed the exam. I started coming into the rehearsals for the show which was scheduled in Chowdaiah Memorial Hall. We had rehearsals in Aditi's house, Indira Bharadwaj's Rightlines Art Gallery, Nandini Kamat's house, Geetika's house, Chandavarkar's house.....

From then onwards, Sunaad changed my life forever. It gave an opportunity for me to get an insight into my life in a different way.

One of the rehearsals, Tara and Aditi sang their solo numbers which were part of the show. I was totally blown out... It was a different world for me.

Aditi used to explain how dhrupad singing is how the notes are and mentioning that dhrupads have notes which are gol gol... very rounded. Each note, Tara and Aditi explained the chalans and pakads (as my friend Shabnam Virmani tells, "the way we walk between the notes").

First show, with me sitting right in the front (may be because I was short :-)) and facing the audience, singing kaalia pe thaade aave mohan with Aditi and Ashok Dharbal, Revathi Upadhya singing Nahin Maane along with other singers, Kannika enacting the kaali mardhan, Shabnam narrating the story of Meera Bai and her ultra-pure devotion to Krishna, wav... an entirely dffferent world was created on stage.

Icing on the cake was when Aditi sang the meera bhajan. I just could not control my tears joy... I just cried after the show. You feel optimistic with these kind of things in a world where people are heavily into kiiling each other, harming each other and hurting each other.

Sunaad just purified my innerself and I am indebted to Tara and Aditi for being catalysts for this.