I strongly believe that my music is in my genes. When I was young, I couldn’t persuade my parents to get formal music lessons for me from the music teacher who used to visit our home to impart rudimentary lessons to my sister. I would listen to the teacher from a nearby room. That convenience was short lived as the music teacher decided to stop tutoring my sister because of her utter lack of interest in the art! So, I turned to my mother. She is a very accomplished musician and plays the veena. She was a professional artiste for the then All India Radio. This was a private arrangement with my mother. I learned the fundamentals from her – of course the Carnatic Music.
I had discovered my writing skills sufficiently early in my life. Thanks to my illustrious father (he was not averse to music. He enjoyed good performances and would turn a blind eye whenever I sneaked out to listen to the stalwarts of those days) whose spoken and written skill in the English language was outstanding. As a child and later as an adolescent I certainly was fortunate to imbibe some of those skills.
The lack of formal training in music was a shortcoming for me despite my other professional accomplishments. I would dabble in writing poems and lyrics for my own enjoyment and my mother would not discourage me!!
In my professional career, to be taken seriously, one was supposed to show an overwhelming attention to silly details and participate in agitating technical details which had no substance. It was sacrilegious in those days for us professionals to display any tendencies that even suggested that you are using the right hemisphere of your brain! So, display of those tendencies were professionally suicidal. This weakness ( or strength perhaps!) was deliberately supressed until I was able to establish my professional prowess and get all due recognition and wear various hats and have all the horns and whistles!! This was perhaps my father’s worry too when I wanted to get formal music lessons.
So, in the second half of the year 2003, I finally gave vent to the steam trapped on the right side of my brain. I must remind you that I was then a senior partner of a large global professional services firm doing serious stuff. The Chairman of the firm was a very liberal soul and he let me explore my musical skills – unheard of liberties in an era that was still very traditional. I wrote the lyrics (along with Maya Sami) for a song called CELEBRATE and it was set to music by my friend Loy Mendonsa ( Yes - the Bollywood Music Maestros - Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy). It was recorded in the iconic studio in Bandra (Mumbai) – Purple Haze. It got published and became a hit in many countries around the world. The sound for this wonderful song was given by Carol (she also rendered her voice for my next song!).
The song CELEBRATE was rendered live at the World Entrepreneur of the Year Celebrations in Monte Carlo by none other than my friend Usha Uthup. It was an electrifying night at the Salle des Étoiles, a legendary venue for society events and concerts, with its retractable roof and view that overlooks the French Riviera. Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy (NRN), then Chairman of Infosys had won the global title “World Entrepreneur of The Year”. The CELEBRATE song was a hit.
Late 2003, I got a call from NRN asking me if I would do the Theme Song for Infosys. I was wondering why he chose me. He could command the best in the world and get a marquee Theme Song for them. It seems he was impressed with CELEBRATE. I said YES and thus wrote the lyrics for the Infosys Theme Song which was again set to music by my friend Loy. The song was made in the Purple Haze Studio in Bandra, Mumbai and Carol rendered the song for us. It was again a hit. The song was played at the Infosys Campus Celebrations in Bangalore in 2004 when the company reported annual revenues of US $ 1 Billion. The Infy Theme Song is now popular around the world of Infosys.
The idea for my third song originated when myself and my wife Geetha were at the Madras Club in Chennai having breakfast with Dr. S.S. Badrinath and Dr. Vasanthi Badrinath ( Sankara Nethralaya) and Mrs. Vani Jairam, the iconic singer. I was involved with Sankara Nethralaya and their charitable activities and had always thought of a Theme Song for the Hospital. Vani Amma, as we fondly call her, said that it was a good idea. It stood as an idea for a while until one day at our home in Delhi, she and me sat down and drew up a plan. She always sang songs with substance and it was always music rather than name, fame and glamor that always captivated her. She was spontaneous and absolutely brilliant. She quickly grasped the essence of Nethralaya and its values and started writing the lyrics. We decided to do the lyrics in four languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. The music was composed by Dakshin, the grandson of the legendary music composer Dakshinamoorthi Swami in Chennai. Vani Amma also gave voice to the Theme Song and it was released in Chennai in September 2018.
I had discovered my writing skills sufficiently early in my life. Thanks to my illustrious father (he was not averse to music. He enjoyed good performances and would turn a blind eye whenever I sneaked out to listen to the stalwarts of those days) whose spoken and written skill in the English language was outstanding. As a child and later as an adolescent I certainly was fortunate to imbibe some of those skills.
The lack of formal training in music was a shortcoming for me despite my other professional accomplishments. I would dabble in writing poems and lyrics for my own enjoyment and my mother would not discourage me!!
In my professional career, to be taken seriously, one was supposed to show an overwhelming attention to silly details and participate in agitating technical details which had no substance. It was sacrilegious in those days for us professionals to display any tendencies that even suggested that you are using the right hemisphere of your brain! So, display of those tendencies were professionally suicidal. This weakness ( or strength perhaps!) was deliberately supressed until I was able to establish my professional prowess and get all due recognition and wear various hats and have all the horns and whistles!! This was perhaps my father’s worry too when I wanted to get formal music lessons.
So, in the second half of the year 2003, I finally gave vent to the steam trapped on the right side of my brain. I must remind you that I was then a senior partner of a large global professional services firm doing serious stuff. The Chairman of the firm was a very liberal soul and he let me explore my musical skills – unheard of liberties in an era that was still very traditional. I wrote the lyrics (along with Maya Sami) for a song called CELEBRATE and it was set to music by my friend Loy Mendonsa ( Yes - the Bollywood Music Maestros - Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy). It was recorded in the iconic studio in Bandra (Mumbai) – Purple Haze. It got published and became a hit in many countries around the world. The sound for this wonderful song was given by Carol (she also rendered her voice for my next song!).
The song CELEBRATE was rendered live at the World Entrepreneur of the Year Celebrations in Monte Carlo by none other than my friend Usha Uthup. It was an electrifying night at the Salle des Étoiles, a legendary venue for society events and concerts, with its retractable roof and view that overlooks the French Riviera. Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy (NRN), then Chairman of Infosys had won the global title “World Entrepreneur of The Year”. The CELEBRATE song was a hit.
Late 2003, I got a call from NRN asking me if I would do the Theme Song for Infosys. I was wondering why he chose me. He could command the best in the world and get a marquee Theme Song for them. It seems he was impressed with CELEBRATE. I said YES and thus wrote the lyrics for the Infosys Theme Song which was again set to music by my friend Loy. The song was made in the Purple Haze Studio in Bandra, Mumbai and Carol rendered the song for us. It was again a hit. The song was played at the Infosys Campus Celebrations in Bangalore in 2004 when the company reported annual revenues of US $ 1 Billion. The Infy Theme Song is now popular around the world of Infosys.
The idea for my third song originated when myself and my wife Geetha were at the Madras Club in Chennai having breakfast with Dr. S.S. Badrinath and Dr. Vasanthi Badrinath ( Sankara Nethralaya) and Mrs. Vani Jairam, the iconic singer. I was involved with Sankara Nethralaya and their charitable activities and had always thought of a Theme Song for the Hospital. Vani Amma, as we fondly call her, said that it was a good idea. It stood as an idea for a while until one day at our home in Delhi, she and me sat down and drew up a plan. She always sang songs with substance and it was always music rather than name, fame and glamor that always captivated her. She was spontaneous and absolutely brilliant. She quickly grasped the essence of Nethralaya and its values and started writing the lyrics. We decided to do the lyrics in four languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. The music was composed by Dakshin, the grandson of the legendary music composer Dakshinamoorthi Swami in Chennai. Vani Amma also gave voice to the Theme Song and it was released in Chennai in September 2018.
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