Personal Notes

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been born in a highly culturally enlightened environment. All these years, I grew up seeing a unique mix of finer streams flowing in my family, cutting across divergent domains as academics, sports , painting and music.

Since my very childhood, thus, I have always felt drawn towards some form of creative practice or the other. However, it was more of fun and much less of rigor at that tender age, to try out something, which I would see others around me pursuing with so much sincerity and diligence. Indian classical music and painting drew me the most. I started taking music lessons from my revered Guru Gaan Saraswati Shreela Bandyopadhyay under the guru-shishya tradition.

Thanks to my Guru's blessings and the constant support of my family, that what started as a curious tread at the age of 5, slowly turned into a philosophical refuge with a deeper meaning. Today, I am a performing Indian classical vocalist. I love academics and look up to it as the medium of my creative expression, but nevertheless, music will always be there to help me connect to the self within. In the words of the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the legendary instrumentalist, music is perhaps " the shortest route to God ...a means of purifying one's soul..." . A philosophy so very close to my heart. But to tack on, here's sharing something on the practical and a-not-so-heavier side too. A little bit of practice squeezed into a hectic grad schedule, before exams or presentation deadlines, and music does me wonders .....often a slide-up on grades !! So, Economics-Music is hardly a face-off, at least, re-assuredly till date :)