This One’s For You!

That, essentially, sums up how Arya lives life; akin to a bird in full flight. She is carefree, happy and has an infectiously lovable quality about her. She lives each day to the fullest – an essential component of each day being Music.

While she goes through the motions in doing all her daily chores, Music is an extra. It is a rare embodiment of her soul, not a mere condition required to be fulfilled. She absorbs music, wallows in it, remembers and recites it to near perfection.

Music sets her free. It lets her be.

Her mind – otherwise trapped in the humdrum of everyday life – finds a perfect escape in the musical universe. With nothing to hold it back, the mind breaks its shackles to create a symphony orchestra on the panorama of the virtual stage.

Arya’s singing is like an open sky – clear and boundless. There’s a Bindaas quality in her rendition, which is what she brought to the fore in her recent Jam event.

And yet, something was different.

Usually Arya’s singing is accompanied by lot of restless movements, but this time she brought a lot of poise, grace and steadiness in her voice, that won her the accolades. It was as if the swish of a wand had magically transformed the bubbly child into a poised young girl.

It is very difficult to restrain Arya. Especially when it is anything to do with music. She is constantly excited – largely because she is very happy and in no mood to follow the rules. Which is all fine. Only it affects her performance, or at least it used to. Until Shagrieka Chakraborty happened.

Shagrieka is one of the teachers (and co-owner) at Shagota Music Academy, where Arya has been training for the past 2 years. Shagrieka is an extremely talented singer and a wonderful teacher, apart from being an amazing human being.

Like her mother (Shagota), Shagrieka too has the ability and patience to teach singing to a log of wood, if need be. But what she has done with Arya is beyond words. It’s sheer magic!

To nurture a young soul, and one as restless as Arya, takes enormous patience and perseverance. To understand Arya, to believe in her talent and then to make her achieve her potential requires an innate love for music and a desire to nurture.

While it is still early days and Arya still has a long way to go, we are forever indebted to Shagrieka & Shagota ma’am for taking Arya under their tutelage.

Take a bow, Shagrieka!

A number of people keep Arya motivated and don different hats to help her.
Her Aaji, who takes her to her class to Matunga every week.
Rajesh – the ubiquitous mama – always around and amongst other things, gets Arya back from her class.
Archana – mom – the central figure around whom Arya’s day revolves.
Rest of the Rest of us – Star Yaar Parivar – who contribute in our own small ways to make Arya’s day.