From studying in a remote village to performing with Grammy award winners – my journey has been one of struggle, persistence, hard work and success.
I come from a middle-class agricultural family of Uttar Kannada. We were a self-sufficient family- from arecanut to paddy to pepper to cardamom – we grew almost everything.
Appa would always joke that we needed only a matchbox and salt, rest everything we could find in our land. My 3 siblings and I studied in the government school and though our schools weraghe not well equipped in infrastructure, our teachers were the best task masters and always encouraged us. I grew up in the midst of nature. Soil, sand, trees, rain and water were my playmates, which later influenced my art.
Appa always wanted me to quit studies and join agriculture. But I went on to pursue sculpting and did my Master’s in Fine Arts in Bangalore. Post my Masters, I became a visiting faculty in RV College of Engineering, Wigan and Leigh, Garden City College and dabbled in various forms of performing arts.
It was in early 2010 when a friend shared a video of an Ukrainian artist making live sand art, and I got hooked. Over the next six months I got all the equipment ready like suitable glass for the canvas, bulbs, camera, a frame, a stand, projection system etc. A lot of trial and error happened before I went live on 6th June 2010 and I was stunned to receive a standing ovation. In 2011, I got a chance to perform in Bangalore Ganesha Utsava in front of 80000 people. Though I knew they were there mainly to watch Kareena Kapoor, Govinda etc, I jumped at the opportunity and later, got goosebumps hearing the crowd cheer for me!
From performing for free to charging minimal amount to cover costs, the initial years were a struggle but I never gave up. Today, I have done over 600 shows, travelled across the globe, and performed in front of dignitaries like the late Dr. Abdul Kalam, Bharatha Ratna CNR Rao, Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, and others.
During my journey, there were times when I felt nervous and even now I still do, because I do not speak fluent English. People in the entertainment industry are expected to be good in English but many artists from smaller towns are not fluent in English.
Unfortunately, people judge you for that.
Like this one time when I was performing for BCCI and there were technical glitches and the production manager kept pointing out to me. Imagine an artist being held responsible for technical glitches? Finally, the event head had to intervene and bail me out. I always wonder why should one be judged by his appearance or language. As a human being, we should all rise above the artificial barriers and prejudices. Let our work do the talking, not the language we speak in!
