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MUSIC li
A
Keeping the
By Nakul Abhyankar
I
Nakul Abhyankar graduated from NITK
in 2012 with an undergraduate degree
in Mechanical Engineering. He was an
active member of the NITK Music
Club and has represented the college
at numerous musical festivals. Nakul
has also taken part in music shows,
winning SaReGaMaPa (Kannada),
and is an upcoming playback singer in
the Sandalwood industry. Currently,
he is a student of music at the KM
Conservatory, Chennai.
20
The Shoreline
had a passion for music right from childhood. I participated in a few reality shows,
and along with the amazing four years of jamming with our NITK Music Club, this
experience made me what I am today and choose music as a serious pursuit.
After my graduation, I joined Bosch and worked in Bangalore for a year. Life there, for
me, was boring - though the salary was decent! It was then that I took the best decision of
my life – the decision to join the only music conservatory in India - the KM Conservatory
at Chennai. My life took a completely new turn as I moved towards a professional life in
music.
Thereafter, a trip to Scotland was one of the most memorable events that I was a part
of. I was one of the 20 students who was chosen to perform at two concerts; one witha
Dr. A.R. Rahman (yes, him!) and the famous BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the second
concert by the KM Hindustani Ensemble. The Scotland tour happened under the banner
of Celtic Connections, one of the biggest folk festivals in the world.
The first concert was performed at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow. I was part of
the 40-piece choir and an 80-piece orchestra that was conducted by the very popular Matt
Dunkley. We performed movie soundtracks like the themes from movies like Lagaan,
Bombay, Warriors of Heaven and Earth, Roja, Slumdog Millionaire and many more. It was
an amazing experience to be part of such a prestigious concert and to be performing with
one of the greatest artists of our time.
The second concert was performed in the great hallway of the Kalvingrove Art Gallery.
The ceiling was so high and the hall so long that the reverb time was 6 seconds! It was like
singing in a huge cathedral! It was an enthralling experience which transcended me to a
world of joy and happiness. Gosh! It is so difficult to describe this experience in words…
All of you need to go there and experience the feelings I felt!
There was another surprise for me when I had to sing a classical piece for Dr. A.R.
Rahman in my college; after I finished my piece, he said, “Well, a few of you guys should
perform this in Coke Studio!” I was dumbfounded! We will be performing in Coke Studio
in April (2014) and I am super excited about it!
To conclude this article, I would like to urge that if you are good at something and you
feel that you are made for it, quit engineering and just go do what you want! I see a few of
my friends, who are incredible musicians, wasting time in front of their computers in some
random IT companies just for the money. Don’t you think you would be living like zombies
if you go to the office at 8 in the morning and come back at 10 in the night for the rest of
your lives? Artists are meant to do what they want to do and what they have to do. God will
take care of the rest
.