If you were wowed by the video of Sonu Nigam playing the harmonium and singing on the street in disguise, here's where he probably got his inspiration from.
In 2007, The Washington Post came together with the famous violinist Joshua Bell and conducted a social experiment to judge people's ability to appreciate beauty when it is placed out of its regular context. Bell disguised himself as a street busker and played in the middle of the morning rush hour chaos. However, not too many people paid heed to either the Grammy-winning musician or the classical masterpieces that he was playing on his $3.5 million fiddle. Only seven people stopped to listen to him from the thousand-odd people who passed by, and only one recognised him. His earnings from the street gig was a mere $32.17 from 27 passersby, not counting the $20 from the person who recognised him.
The article on the experiment by Gene Weingarten went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and triggered conversations on how we appreciate art and music.
Watch Joshua Bell perform at the L'Enfant Plaza station of the Washington Metro.
Also watch: This roadside 'ustaad' is our very own...can you guess who?
