From a small village in Tuscany to the stages of the planet, the success story of Andrea Bocelli is solely the story of courage and determination. Despite being blind, he has gone on to become one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. This Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist has been wowing legions of fans worldwide for decades with his mesmerizing and beautiful voice.

Andrea was born to Alessandro and Edi Bocelli on 22 September 1958 in Tuscany, Italy. His family lived on a farm, selling farm machinery and making wine for a living. No one in his family had a musical or performance background. But Andrea was fascinated by music, and at the age of six, he started piano lessons, and later learned to play the flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar and drums.

Andrea had poor eyesight from birth and was diagnosed with glaucoma at an early age. To make matters worse, he became completely blind after a football accident when he was just 12 years old.

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Great songs are always created by a combination of great melody and great writing — a piece of poetry. But in this day and age, it is difficult to hear this great, meaningful poetry in popular music and film music barring a few exceptions, although there is a large volume of great poetry, classic writings by famous poets in our country. This gap was identified by Chinmayi Tripathi, an entrepreneur and singer-songwriter-poet who started off a unique initiative — Music and Poetry Project — in association with her partner and producer-composer Joell Mukherjii. Their band, Music and Poetry Collective, is an attempt at reclaiming classical compositions through contemporary music.

VERUS FERREIRA met the band to find out how they take poetry and fuse songs into them, and what made them leave their regular jobs to make music their full-time job.

Verus Ferreira: How did your journey in music begin?
Chinmayi Tripathi: I trained in Hindustani classical music as a child. Honestly, I did not have a great inclination towards learning music, but music came intuitively to me. Poetry came naturally to me, coming from a family of writers and scholars. As I grew up, I started writing my own songs and poems. However, I had no clue what I wanted to do in life, and if at all music would fit into the larger picture.

VF: How did you come up with Music and Poetry Collective?
CT: Since we have such a rich heritage of literature, then why can’t we loop in great poetry into contemporary music? Hence, I decided to create an album based on classical Chhayawadi (Hindi) poetry that I found beautiful. I did a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for this album, and hundreds of people from all over the world contributed funds to help me achieve this dream. This gave me the confidence to think bigger and form a band — Music and Poetry Collective.

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I was 4 years old when I sang and played my first notes: “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa”. It didn’t feel like an achievement back then. It was only natural for me being born into a family of singers and musicians. But that marked the beginning of my musical journey. It took me a considerable amount of time to realize the value of what I was learning. My parents told me that one day I would appreciate it and to stick to what I was doing. I was 10 when I realized what an amazing art form I had taken to and ever since I have found that the expanse and depth of Indian classical music seem to be wider than the sky and deeper than the ocean! There’s always something new to learn, some innovation to know of, something to get amazed with or curious about. That was when my true journey began.

My younger sister belonging to Gen-Y embarked upon her musical journey even before the age of 2! As she grows into a fine young lady, I feel proud to see her expand her horizons and feel encouraged to keep up with her enthusiasm to learn more. I may know more about classical music but her energy is what keeps me going to keep discovering new facets of this ancient art form.

A major benefit of starting out young is that we developed a keen sense of tone quality. In simpler words, our ears and brain became sensitive to the quality of voices, pitch and musical sounds. It’s easier to pick out the off-key notes/swars. Believe me when I say that witnessing a laryngitis theme music competition was not a pleasant experience! Jokes apart, for anyone who wishes to pursue music either as a hobby or career, it becomes increasingly important to first tune the ears to tone qualities. Other than having it as an innate ability, it also becomes possible when one is formally trained in classical music. The emphasis laid on singing only with the support of a Drone or Tanpura (musical instrument) enhances the natural understanding of swars for a singer. This is called swargyaan in classical terminology.

Isn’t it easier to write essays and stories once we have mastered the alphabets, spellings, grammar and, at least, a decent level of vocabulary, i.e., when our foundation is set? The same logic applies to learning Indian classical music. If you have swargyaan, you can experiment with any genre of music and instrument. It widens your understanding and knowledge of classical music and helps you appreciate other kinds of music as well. If you can figure out swars, it’s a great help in remembering or reproducing the tune. The best part about Indian classical music is its dynamicity and the immense degrees of freedom. I certainly enjoy playing the guitar and am more receptive towards the nuances of western music because of my classical background. I’m sure you enjoy listening to the Wake Up Sid title track or Desi Girl from Dostana composed by Shankar Mahadevan. Did you know that along with being one of the most popular singers and composers in Bollywood, he is also a classically trained singer and musician? His musical works also include being a part of the fusion jazz band Silk along with other accomplished musicians.

Aside from the musically related benefits of Indian classical music, let me take you through some of the other advantages of learning it.

The greatest bond that we share on planet Earth is unarguably with our parents. And in my sister’s and my case, our parents were our gurus, too. A guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship is one which requires an emotional connect between the two and also for the shishya to have complete faith in one’s guru. In ancient India, pupils who decided to dedicate their lives to music lived in their guru’s home for the entire learning phase. The process of acquiring vidya (knowledge) and kala (art) was a 24×7 set-up, unlike today’s hourly sessions.

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I’m sure most of you guys and girls are YouTube junkies. Who doesn’t enjoy watching all the latest videos and uploads? And what a variety we’ve got, too. There’s something on every topic under the sun. And one of the most popular topics under that sun is music — shining brightly on every laptop, computer, iPad and mobile’s ‘sky’ (read ‘screen’). I’m pretty sure you’ll have come across a number of bands and solo artists on YouTube who have gained immense popularity by creating Indian classical adaptations of Hollywood and Bollywood songs. Of the many, a group that calls itself the Indian Jam Project, scaling YouTube views and likes, uploads videos of classical versions of Hollywood movie/television theme songs that they create using melodious and awe-inspiring music instrumentation. Ranging from Game Of Thrones to Harry Potter themes, their innovative take has been highly appreciated. Toronto-based artist Shobhit Bhanwait recently sent social media into a frenzy when he uploaded an amazing tabla cover of Calvin Harris and Disciples’ How Deep Is Your Love.

So what does this tell us? Perhaps that these artists feel it’s cool to dabble in classical music and present it to the world. Give popular tracks an interesting twist and create something incredible. Showcase what’s natural to us, our heritage, and make a mark for ourselves on global platforms. And they most definitely are receiving a great response from all around the globe! (Psst! Have you seen the number of shares and likes they have?!).

What I’d like to point out is that these singers and musicians wouldn’t take to classical music if they thought it was outdated or only for our beloved grandparents to listen to. The best way to stand out is to do what you do best and not ape another. For example, being born and brought up in London, it would have been so easy for youth icon Anoushka Shankar, world-renowned sitar artist and exponent, and daughter of the legendary late Pandit Ravi Shankar, to take up any other genre of music. But she chose to stick to her roots and propagate Indian classical music universally. She was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2003 in the World Music category for her third album Live At Carnegie Hall and was the youngest-ever and first woman nominee in this category.

Classical music isn’t restricted to the virtual platforms and stage performers. Ever noticed while playing the all-time favourite game Antakshari, we easily remember and sing all the old Hindi film songs in an instant and not the recent churn-outs of the industry? Well, that’s probably because a majority of those old numbers were set in beautiful and versatile classical ragas that gave each song a strong foundation for it to grow in our minds and last for decades. Evergreen classics like Naino Mai Badara Chayi (Mera Saaya) and Khilte Hai Gul Yaha (Sharmilee) have glimpses of the Raag Bhimpalasi while the R. D. Burman classics like Mere Naina Sawan Bhado (Kudrat) is set in Raag Shivranjani and Kyu Nayi Lag Rahi (1942-A Love Story) in Raag Khamaj.

Some of the recent movies have lovely compositions based on classical music as well. For example, Tauba Tera Jalwa from Dev D., which is in Raga Bageshri and Shankar Mahadevan’s Sapnon Se Bhare Naina in Raga Bhairavi. More recent films like the Marathi movie Katyar Kaljat Ghusli and the Hindi blockbuster Bajirao Mastani were widely appreciated for their music. With tracks set in ragas like Raag Kedar, Raag Puriya Dhanashri and Raag Bhupali, the songs develop a taste for classical music in the common man.

Many of our schools have our national song included in the assembly period. Here is an interesting trivia about this milestone composition — of the many versions , one of the most popular which was telecast on Doordarshan and had maestros like Pandit Ravi Shankar on sitar, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma playing santoor, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi for vocals, Ustad Zakhir Hussain playing the tabla, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia for the flute among many others, was set in Raag Des.

Did the names of the ragas baffle your mind? That would perhaps also happen if I wrote this article in Greek or Latin. An unknown language is always confusing. Understanding classical music is as cool as knowing an exotic foreign language and being able to converse with those who speak it. It has been a long-held notion that classical music is for the classes and not for the masses. Only a select few know of and understand Shastriya Sangeet while the rest remain blissfully oblivious to the various facets of this ancient form. While a part of this theory is true, I cannot wholeheartedly agree that the common man (and woman) remain entirely secluded from classical music.

The reach of Indian classical music has defied international boundaries and limitations. The allure of the celestial feeling of Indian classical music has drawn a number of foreigners to the country to learn and pursue this art form. These artists did the reverse of what usually happens in India — Indians going in search of opportunities to foreign lands. They were fascinated by what our country and culture had to offer, they dedicated their lives to learning these (alien) art forms and their lives are now success stories. Saskia Rao-de Haas, a Danish cello artiste, has achieved playing the intricate nuances of Indian classical music on her modified cello. Her performances are known to be endearing and sincere. Shankar Tucker, of American origin, is another popular name in the world of music. He plays Hindustani music Swars on the clarinet instead of chords and is a disciple of maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. His claim to fame is the popular online music series on YouTube and Soundcloud called The ShrutiBox that was launched by him. His videos have over 12 million views and 1,00,000 fans.

We are surrounded by classical music everywhere. It just needs you to tune into it. It’s an opportunity to create moments of bonding and exhilaration by connecting with another person on a musical level. .It’s an opportunity to reconnect with our heritage. It’s the opportunity to connect with the ‘U’ through ‘Music’!

In the coming issues, I will take you on a heritage tour of classical music.  I hope my insights and experiences, opinions, trivia and GK keeps you musically enriched and happy always. Do write in if you wish to read about anything in particular about Indian classical music.

Musically yours… Ashwini.

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