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Soul survivor

dna gets candid with Shivaji Park resident and blues musician, Kanchan Daniel.

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"Oh Jackie, won’t you please put away that knife?
Oh Jackie, we know life’s been in the dark,
Cause you’ll save the man’s soul,
But you’ll rip out his heart..."

Kanchan Daniel’s sweet, clear voice pierced the air, a powerful mezzo soprano with a rich gospel quality; one cannot help but envision an Indian Joplin crooning away to her heart’s content.
Growing up in Shivaji Park, Daniel was your regular, free-spirited teenager, still figuring out the ways of the world. “At one point, I wanted to become a pilot, but I was never really sure what I wanted to become. I was 17 and I had just finished my exams,” remembers Daniel. Her love for the blues, however, was ingrained into her musical senses since she was a child. Who says age, experience and wisdom are a necessity for singing the blues? “My parents listened to the blues, so I grew up listening to vocalists like Big Mama Thornton and Joplin. There is so much emotion. When somebody plays the blues, I am able to feel it, so I can execute it better,” gushes Daniel.

Defying death

Only 17, little did Daniel know that she was carrying a 4 kg tumour in her body. “Honestly, it did not look like there was any trouble at all. I thought I had epic abs or something,” quips Daniel, who later experienced a shooting pain in her right thigh while she was learning to drive. This was followed by persistent fever and fatigue. “My family doctor was horrified when he pressed my stomach; later when I got the sonogram done, my tumour was so big that it did not fit the screen.

A surgery was scheduled for the next morning. I understood the gravity of the situation. I was even told that I may not make it out of the OT,” continues Daniel, without batting an eyelid. “It was only after I came out from the surgery that I got to know that I had cancer.” She did not cry or break down, but her instinctive reaction was to be optimistic and beat the disease out of her system. “I used that kind of self talk through the course of my illness,” explains Daniel. Music did play a therapeutic role when it came to enduring chemotherapy sessions, “I could not do chemotherapy without listening to Heart of life by John Mayer on my ipod,” smiles Daniel. Diagnosed with Dysgerminoma stage 3C in 2008, by February 2009 she was completely cured of cancer.

Second chance
It is not everyday that life offers you another chance. Daniel believes she found her calling in music and psychology. She shares, “Why the hell am I not doing all the things I want to do? Music has always been a big part of my life, I decided to take it up”. She had received a reality check of sorts.

Mukesh Lobo, the keyboardist of her band, ‘The Kanchan Daniel Band’, was the first individual who prompted her to sing, “He heard me humming to myself and asked me to sing, that is how it all started,” says the self-taught vocalist, who has been playing the keyboard for more than a decade. Amusingly enough, when it comes to songwriting, her inspiration ranges from burgers to enumerating upon the female version of Jack the Ripper. Witnessing her live on stage is a completely different scenario. You would be entranced by the 23-year-old blues diva’s energetic performance, depicting remarkable stage presence as she wildly shakes her head, while her bodily movements are perfectly synchronised to the tunes of her band. Her deep, throaty, husky voice shows wide range and definition, emerging from a great deal of spontaneity and true passion for the blues.

Daniel’s love for psychology led her to pursue a masters in Clinical Psychology. “I wanted to study psychology because I thought I would like to use my experience with cancer to help other cancer patients, especially adolescents,” enthuses Daniel. The quintessential Miss Universe answer? Truth be told, in Daniel’s words, “It is what it is.”

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