Gauri : Welcome to Foundations TV everybody. Our guests today are two lovely women of New England. We are actually doing two beautiful women at the same time. Anuradha Palkurthi who is a beautiful singer, and Sunayana Kachroo who is a beautiful poetess. And they both are here to share something very special with us today. So before we go to that special thing, let’s talk about you, Anuradha, as a singer. Tell us something about your journey, when did you start? We would love to hear about it.
Anuradha : Sure. Music was all around me, so my journey really started young. I started learning music when I was six. My mother would play Pakeeza songs at home, and my father would play Carnatic music at home, and my brother would come up with new tapes of Floyd, and Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. So I grew up with music. And I was always on stage. In school I was always pushed forward as Bharat Mata, because of my big hair and big eyes and lal bindi. So I was dancing and singing, very happily.
Gauri : Always comfortable on stage (smiling).
Anuradha : Yes. I learnt music from a very young age. I hated it then. But I’m very grateful for my mother for pushing me into that. And in high school and then in college. In college within 10 days somebody ragged me to sing. And that person turned out to be my husband.
Gauri : Really, so Prashant ragged you. J (chuckles)
Anuradha : Ya and I married him. He was the senior most guy and I was a freshmen.
Sunayana : Which college was that?
Anuradha : BITS Pilani. And even today he says if you hadn’t sung for me, I don’t think I would’ve looked at you again. So that’s on record now.
Gauri : Till date it shows how much he loves you and you are singing.
Anuradha : Yes, I think it was meant to be. And in college too for all the Music Festivals of BITS Pilani, I was always there. I sang for dances, I use to sing Floyd’s ‘Great Gig in the Sky’. And Prashant also performed. He and his friends performed at one point, and we were thrown off the stage. They wanted to be part of Music Club. (Chuckles) So that was a fun thing. And then we got married.
Gauri : So when did you got married?
Anuradha : We got married in ’87 , and we were in Bangalore after marriage. And that’s when I met Shiv RajKumar, who is a leading actor. And he wanted me to sing with him. He actually was not supposed to sing, SPB was supposed to sing. But he was like “I want to sing with JuJu”. And that was my first playback exposure. I sang for a Kannada movie called ‘Ranaranga’. And then we left India, and that was the end of my music (sort of) career. And then I was singing socially everywhere. And at one point I sang for the Ambassador in Jamaica. And we travelled the world, I had three children. Prashant is an entrepreneur, so it’s very demanding. He is always travelling. And motherhood is challenging and if you have an extra challenge, it’s more challenging than ever.
Gauri : Yes. I’m sure.
Anuradha : But I had a ball, to travel everywhere. And then when I came to United States, I wanted to reconnect. That was when it was kind of biting me.
Sunayana : After the pause.
Anuradha : Yes, ‘After the pause’, the pause button was jumping up. And then I reconnected. I met Gita Murali, who’s a local teacher and fabulous singer. She was very encouraging, and she was like “Anu you have to do this, at least come to the lessons.” And then I continued my tutelage with her.
Gauri : Excellent.
Anuradha : And then it carried on.
Gauri : So when was the breakthrough? When did you go back on stage here?
Anuradha : Back-on-stage happened for my friend Manisha’s daughter Supriya’s dance. She came to me and said, “Anu Aunty you are so good, I want you to sing for my dance.” And then she went up to her teacher Neena Gulati. And Neena Ji was very sweet. She is a wonderful person. And I sang for Supriya, for her dance performance, in Philips Andover. And then my brother-in-law, Prasad made sing for IANH. And that’s why IANH is very close to my heart. This was 2010, and that was it, after that there was no stopping. I met fabulous people in the community. I met you both. And I’m here now.
Gauri : Lovely.
Anuradha : And I recorded another song for a Telugu movie, called ‘Golconda High School’. And that was in 2011.
Gauri : Wow, so I’m hearing Kannada, Telugu, Hindi of course and English. That’s four languages. How many languages do you speak?
Anuradha : I speak seven.
Gauri : Seven Languages, wow!
Aunradha : But I’m sure you speak at least three and so does Sunayana.
Sunayana : Five.
Gauri : Five, Wow. That is brilliant. So now coming to ‘Barasjaa’. Which is where Sunayana comes in. Sunayana has written this beautiful song ‘Barasjaa’, and Anuradha has sung it in her lovely voice. And I’ve heard it. J And I absolutely love that song. So I want to hear more about that journey, what does ‘Barasjaa’ mean to you Sunayana?
Sunayana : ‘Barasjaa’ has a very interesting journey, and a very long one too. Usually what happens as a writer you get inspired to write. And sometimes it happens immediately, you see something, you get inspired and you write. But what happened with ‘Barasjaa’ is something else. I went on a trek with my friends in 1997. And during the trek we got caught in a cloud burst. At that time I was also going through many changes in my life, and somehow that cloud burst, that we got caught in, the rain, meant a lot more to me. It probably meant, bring it on, I’m ready to turn the leaf in my life. I had that feeling, but not the words. So after a long time, may be in 2012.
Anuradha : So you didn’t not write then.
Sunayana : I did not write then. And I started to write in 2010, you know how I was talking to her (Anuradha). I started writing again around that time. Then a lot of people said that I should have a book now. And I was trying to select different poems from what I’ve written. And ‘Barasjaa’ is probably one of the last ones that I decided to put in the book. The thing is that words were not there, and finally when I found the write words, I always say that, words found me….
Gauri : How lovely is that.
Sunayana : …Words found me. And I had the right words. I was able to wrap the emotions, in words. And that’s how I wrote ‘Barasjaa’, and it found its way in the book too.
Gauri : I love the way you said, “words found you”. So you were holding onto the emotions.
Anuradha : And you know when she says cloud burst, she has put that in the poem, ‘ Badal Todkar’. And that is my favorite line.
Gauri : Really? So, is that what struck a chord with you right away?
Anuradha : Oh yes. It was like if, somebody was trying to come out. Actually I felt mostly for that ‘Badal Todke’. And every time it comes out, I want to sing it differently, because I feel differently.
Sunayana : For me the favorite line is ‘Sab peeche chode kar, main khadi hun mord par, Barasjaa’.
Gauri : Wow.
Anuradha : Love the way she says it.
Gauri : Yes, because it comes from the heart. We can absolutely feel it. I’m sure it meant a lot to you when you heard it, so what did it mean to you?
Anuradha : Pretty much the same thing. For me it was more about fulfillment. You leave aspirations behind, and life pulls you in so many directions. All of us has been through that, and keep going through that every day. So for me it was more about attaining something, when it say ‘mord par main kahdi hun’, for me at that point I felt like I can go forth and make rain. We can, when I say ‘I’, I always mean ‘we’. And nothing is done individually, for me it was more about shower of happiness, of creation, fulfillment, attainment, you can say anything you want. I’m sure it means differently to you.
Gauri : It does. As a listener, it meant a lot to me, and I was able to connect which is a whole different off camera discussion, which we will have later. But definitely I’m sure everybody who listens to this song can connect to certain pieces of it, or resonate with the feeling and emotions that are flowing through that song. It is absolutely beautiful. And like you kind of touched upon it, it is ‘we’, it’s a team that brings this together. So I’d love to hear more about the team Sunayana. Who all are involved with the production of this song?
Sunayana : As its said earlier, Anuradha Ji said that it’s a team always. I believe if you ever want to do something great in life you cannot do it alone. You need a team. And sometimes you see a face of a team, but there are lot of other people who are involved in that. So we have Girija Marathe, she is based in Mumbai, and she’s a wonderful composer. And she comes from a great lineage, she’s the great granddaughter of Dada Saheb Phalke Ji. She’s the one who composed the tune. In fact a day before I was going to meet them (Anuradha) she sent me the Q track. I had been talking to her for a long time. We were exchanging a lot of songs, and we were looking at the potential of different songs. Somehow this is the one that resonated with her. So she came up with the Q track, and just a day before that, before I was going to meet them, she sent it to me. When I went and met them we were talking about a lot of other projects, and just before I was about to leave, I said ‘by the way I have a Q track of a different song, do you want to hear it’. I just played that, and it was amazing the way how Anuradha Ji responded. It was almost like love- at-first sight. She was not willing to part with that song. She wanted it.
Anuradha : I wanted it, I wanted to own it. And I made it my own I think in many ways.
Gauri : And it shows.
Anuradha : And I have to say when you talk of a team, I cannot say team without mentioning my mother-in-law. My darling mother-in-law, who is the biggest team player, she in fact gave me the confidence to go forth, go forward and pursue my dreams. And she’s a very talented woman, she could’ve been a singer, an athlete and sportsperson, anything. So she is one of the people of ‘Barasjaa’. She never got an opportunity to ‘Barasjaa’.
Gauri : She is doing it through you.
Anuradha : Exactly, you are right. That’s how she sees it. And she is says, It’s your time to make rain. And she gave me a fabulous person, his son. I’m forever grateful for that. My kids, my family, my sister-in-laws, I cannot do without them, they are me.
Sunayana : And it was recorded internationally, because she’s here, I’m here. But the composer is in India, the mixing and the mastering team is in Mumbai.
Anuradha : I got caught up in that team, my family. My husband recorded this song in Boston, in my studio, professional studio he built for me.
Sunayana : Susmit Limaye, Varad Kathapurkar, Aditya V. Oke, they did a work.
Anuradha : They make me sound phenomenal.
Gauri : You are phenomenal. It’s the song, the emotions, the voice, and the music everything coming together so beautifully. Creating absolutely a loveable product.
Anuradha : Thank you Gauri.
Sunayana: I hope people like it too.
Gauri : Yes of course. I have heard, and I was humming it for few days after I heard it for the first time. Hopefully we’ll be able to share it with our audiences, I know they can download it from few places. What are the sites they can downloaded from?
Anuradha : I can say 3 words, cd baby, itunes and google, and that’s it.
Gauri : So people can download it from these three sites. So that’s excellent. And we have something exciting, something else that we would like to talk about is the Anuradha Palkurthi Foundation, which is being recently formed. So Anuradha would you like to tell us something about the foundation, what the mission is?
Aunradha : Sure. The foundation simply supports local culture and arts, that’s my mission. I feel very strongly about culture, I feel having come so far away from our roots, it’s very important that we preserve and cherish it, and nurture it. That’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to support all activities, all organizations that need my support. And through culture, I met you, I met you (Sunayana), I met these fabulous people in the community. Artists, musicians, professionals who are doing this as a hobby. And I salute parents who push their kids to learn, our culture, the teachers who are still imparting that knowledge to everybody. And I see Ansh performing. Sahana, Nalini, Aarya, my daughter and so many kids, culturally involved. It’s just so heartwarming to see that. And I’m doing my little bit.
Gauri : I’m sure, that’s a huge lot. Doing every little thing makes a difference and contributes towards the growth and development of the community. So Kudos to you for that. And we hear there’s a nice show coming up.
Anuradha : Right. This is the first ever that the foundation is putting up. It’s a charity event, it’s a ticketless event. This was not how it was planned. It was planned as very small private event to be done in my house or in a big hall. My husband wanted to do this, because lot of our friends and family have not seen me perform, so we thought why not, let’s do this. But then the Madan Mohan music is so phenomenal, that we decided that it needs to go out to more people. More people love it, more people want to see it, and I think it’s only fair that it deserves that kind of attention. So we decided to turn it into a charity event. And now hopefully people will come and contribute to the armed forces, where the retired and returning soldiers are going to be present. I think the non-profit is for using their services for local disaster etc. I’ll be putting up more information about that surely. That’s what we are doing.
Gauri : We are looking forward to it.
Sunayana : It’s amazing how Madan Mohan Ji is how we connected too. I was thinking about it while she was speaking. Because Madan Mohan Ji’s son Sanjeev Kohli Ji has been a great inspiration and guide for me through my journey, of my book and my poetry as well. So last year I was talking to him, and he said, ‘you should connect with Anuradha and Parshant. Even though we were in Boston I didn’t know about them. So he’s the one who actually connected me with them. So indirectly we are connected to Madan Mohan Ji.
Anuradha : His family is travelling. And I have to mention, I’m being coached by this phenomenal artist called Arti Ankalikar-Tikekar. She’s from Pune, she’s a Hindustani vocalist. And she’s a beautiful Guru, she’s my second Guru. She has lead me through this, and every time I see her on Skype.
Gauri : Oh, so it’s all the way from India.
Anuradha : All the way from India, ‘dant pitati hai’ ( I’m scolded). It’s a big switch for me, from Carnatic to Hindustani. And I have so much respect for her. It is challenging, but I’m trying my best. So she will be here, Madan Mohan Ji’s family and the director of the Telugu movie he is going to be here too, so some very good people to meet.
Gauri : Wonderful. So we look forward to this fantastic event coming up, sounds really good.
Anuradha : Thank you Gauri.
Gauri : Such an honor to have both of you here, sharing your journey of ‘Barasjaa’ and your foundation.
Anuradha : Thank you for having us.
Sunayana : Thank you for having us.
Anuradha : And congratulations to you for creating this beautiful thing, giving knowledge to kids. I don’t know how many things you do Gauri, you are a fantastic person.
Gauri : Thank you very much, pleasure to have you.
