Sa Re Ga Ma!

Music plays a big role in almost all our lives. It has the power to take us back in time to look back at our cherished memories, to cheer us up when we are sad, to encourage us when we feel depressed or to inspire us when we feel discouraged. Many of us wake up to the sound of music, get ready while listening to music, tune in when we travel, continue listening even while we work , turn up the volume while cooking or doing other chores and some of us are even lulled to sleep by music. We have specific songs for our friends, for special occasions, for our better half and even for ourselves!We often feel possessive about it thinking, "Hey that's MY song or Our song!", no matter that we had no part whatsoever in creating the song in the first place!

But how many of us have actually attended an Indian Classical Music concert? Do we even watch or listen to such concerts without changing the channel? Indian Classical Music has such deep roots and a strong history backing it and yet not many of us are enamored by it. Why? Is it not packaged and marketed well enough? I remember that Doordarshan always used to carry some sad music performance all day through if there was any kind of national tragedy. Or during festivals, a classical music program would get slotted to be aired very early in the day, when quite predictably viewership would be pretty low.

Are Indian Classical Musicians getting the recognition and respect that they deserve? Is Indian Classical Music reaching the youngsters of today and making an impression in their lives? Ms.Aishwarya Natarajan, Director of Indianuance - an artiste management and concert programming company as well as the proud recipient of the British Council's Young Creative Entrepreneur Award in the field of Music shares her thoughts on all these and more. Read my interview with this star newsmaker at Women's Web over here!

Image Courtesy: Dreamstime