Shilpa Rao: On a self-journey

When you come to Mumbai and start pursuing your passion, you’re high on adrenaline. And there comes a time, when the novelty starts to wear off. When you had started out, you were really young and fresh. After some time, you have to re-invent yourself. Talking about myself, at this point in time, just listening to music or just being with music doesn’t inspire me. It needs a slightly broader perspective, that needs to go beyond music.

So, I travel a lot. I have been travelling for many years now. That is something that really inspires me. I talk to the locals, eat the local food and soak in the culture. When I’m travelling, nobody knows who I am. They don’t know what I do. When I’m travelling, I meet new people. There’s an unadulterated fresh perspective I get, that makes a real difference.

In our race of wanting to get somewhere, I think we’re losing that. What we do is just a part of us, but it’s not the entire us. For instance, I love watching movies. So I attend film festivals and watch movies. These are all parts of me, that make me a complete person. I just want to put out the message that one should not lose the person that’s inside you. Keep him/her alive. That’s the one thing that is going to be with you forever. And that not only makes you a better person, but a better artiste as well.

Let me tell you about the time I met Zakir bhai. When you meet him, it’s like there is nobody else in the room but you two.  The first time I met him, I couldn’t sleep all night. I was blabbering. He wasn’t Zakir Husain, the man who plays the tabla, but a normal human being with me. What an artiste, what a human being! The journey from being a working professional to being an artiste, is a long journey. And that’s a self-journey every musician needs to take at some point in their life.