There is a singer in everyone of us, we all have that urge to sing and to hear others sing!!
Some are bathroom singers, some sing while cooking, some sing at parties, some take training to make it their profession and some are too shy, they just keep humming their favourite numbers when alone.
Well, I used to belong to the shy category as a kid, when I hummed songs at school, while travelling, etc. I used to listen to my father sing at family get togethers but never tried to sing. I was a very naughty kid but that was at home, I used to be too modest and shy when I went out.
As I grew up, I had memories of my grandfather singing too at family parties but I can't recollect his voice cause I was a six year old when he passed away and didn't get to hear those cassettes which were recorded when he sang. My grandad used to sing songs of mostly Mukesh and Mohd. Rafi. My dad sings hits of Rafi and Kishore da and as a kid I used to hear most of the old hindi and telugu songs played on the radio, Vividh Bharathi.
My mom works as a pharmacist and one of her patients was an old lady who was brought to the hospital by her daughter who is a music teacher. When me and my sister were toddlers, the music teacher used to prompt my mom to send us to her music classes. I remember we were sent for one or two weeks when it was difficult for us to manage studies, so parents decided to not burden us, so that was the end of music learning.
I remember, the first time I experimented to record something was in early 1995. My father had a Panasonic 2 in 1 tape recorder and radio which looked very much like this (below image was sourced from the internet)
It was the cassette of Premikudu ( tamil movie 'Kadhalan' was dubbed into telugu as Premikudu which stars Prabudeva) the music, composed by A R Rahman was a big hit, we had that cassette at home being played on weekends along with some other hits.
On a Sunday, I climbed onto the stool (those days I was short and couldn't reach the upper shelf ) and the song, "Urvasi Urvasi take it easy urvasi" was being played, when I pressed the red record button on the tape recorder and I sang couple of lines. I then stopped it, re-winded and played it to check my voice, "Wow!!" I thought. I was happy to hear my own voice. But I feared of getting a scolding when dad finds it out. Cause dad was the strict parent in the house, my mom is a very soft spoken person, she never scolds no matter what I do.
So, it was about a week later when that cassette was played again and this time it was noticed - the song suddenly stops and my voice pops up. Dad asked me about it and I immediately apologised to have spoilt the cassette, but I wished to try out how the record button works. To my surprise, my dad never said anything, he said its alright, not a problem.
Years passed as life got busy with academics, exams, preparation, tuition, life turned busy. But I used to hum my favourite songs and slowly became a bathroom singer.
In 2002, when I was studying my intermediate 2nd year, there was pressure of scoring well in the engineering entrance exam as well. At that time, I purchased an empty recordable cassette and wished to sing and record my favourite telugu song, "Aamani padave haayiga" from Mani Ratnam's movie Geethanjali music was composed by maestro Ilaiyaraaja - but if I sing loudly I'll be caught, cause my exams were just few weeks away and I should be studying rather than singing. I was desperate to sing and record that song so don't laugh at me, but its true that I sang and recorded that song in the bathroom, trust me it came out really good. We had a sony cassette corder at home and I used that to record my first song.
I liked my mom and sister Shilpa to listen to the song, but was afraid of getting a scolding. I did take the courage to tell Shilpa about it and I told her that I wish to become a singer by profession and I want to join for formal training.
Shilpa was in her first year of engineering and was also under the pressure of her exams. I offered her to listen to how well the song came but she refused to listen to it. She didn't know what to say about it, she told me, "It takes a lot of risk to choose such a profession. We come from middle class family background, such professions wouldn't suit us cause they need more investment than academics and its not a western country where you can win with talent, its India where talent doesn't count, such profession demands money and family background. We don't have any singers in our family, our dad sings but thats just a hobby, so you too make it a hobby and don't waste your career, study and get a job".
I later told my mom about my wish to sing more and be a singer, she didn't say anything against it but said more or less the same what Shilpa told. But shes a very kind woman, she listened to my song and appreciated me that I sound close to the original.
2002 was the year when singing shows/competitions on the TV weren't that popular yet. There was no Indian Idol at that time nor were they any such prominent regional singing shows.
I gave up my dream to become a singer cause I had no other option but to join engineering and life just went on and on. While I was studying engineering 2nd year, slowly I started to sing in the bus just to the friend sitting next to me. I used to sing some melody songs from telugu films.
I was told by my friends to participate in college annual singing competitions, but I was still shy, I feared the stage and didn't dare to enrol my name in it. I started to sing more often when I was with my best friends, just casual songs and they liked it, they encouraged me to sing more, they said its never late and I can learn music.
It was in 2006 when I was studying my 3rd year of engineering when my mom was planning to join for evening classes to learn Sangeetham (classical music). She isn't a singer but she always loved humming to the raagas and wanted to learn it as a hobby. I said I'd join too.
I used to go to classes with my mom thrice every week but my father was worried if I'd neglect my academics cause 3rd of engineering needs more attention to studies. My grandmother wasn't too happy about me learning classical music, according to her such art is meant for girls and not boys.
After about a month, I was still trying to catch up the basics, when I was told to stop cause exams were fast approaching and unable to bear the pressure from all corners, I gave it up. My mom continued to learn but very soon she too was unable to manage her office work cause she was the store in-charge pharmacist at her hospital and had to maintain store registers to update the stock of medicines.
My wish to make singing as a hobby wasn't fulfilled cause all the doors were closed and I could see no light.
They say, with age and experience comes maturity and you drive away that painful shyness you had as a child. Yes that happened in my case, I slowly overcame stage fear and I started to sing more at family gatherings and parties - people started to record on their mobile phones, handycams when I sang on certain occasions.
We had our college Alumni meet in January 2010 when I was encouraged by my friends to sing in the mike in the gathering of about 150 to 200 people. I somehow took the courage but my hands were shaking and I had a shiver down my spine when I was facing so many people for the first time. I sang the song, "Tere Jaisa Yaar Kahan" from the film 'Yaarana'. And I was appreciated by our principal for bringing energy into the function which till then had lots of speeches.
From then on, I never feared public singing, I always wish to practice more and give my best.
I have a dream to sing on a big stage once in life - where there'll be lots audience and huge applause. And part of that dream got fulfilled when I sang at Coventry University Cultural event. There were around 400 people in the auditorium at The Hub building located in Coventry University Campus. Here is the video of that song, it isn't good in quality, but will be a nice memory --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQmsEH-DM8
Over the months, I recorded songs on my laptop. But my first song recorded with a karaoke was "Meri Maa" from the film Taare Zameen Par. I sang and recorded some hits of Kishore da like 'Chukar mere manko', 'Mere sapnon ki rani'.
I teamed up with my friend GD Prasad who studied MA in Advertising at Coventry Uni and he composes music for advertisements as a hobby. I sang the old song, "Kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar" for an advertisement of "Car pool and Safe Driving Campaign" organised by an NGO. He even mixed the song "Meri Maa" which I sang and recorded on my laptop. You can listen to the song on my facebook page --> https://www.facebook.com/saicharanlive
My dream to sing on a bigger stage still remains and hope that comes true some day soon...
So, there you go, I've introduced you to the singer in me, please do leave a comment below telling me about the singing experiences in your life!!
Have a lovely day, take care :)
