Overcoming limitations to realize the love for Music

What happens in the pursuit of the classical dream?

How can a musician give back to his community?

Will you be able to play the Guitar after losing sight?

Where do all these Atypical Talents reside?

Music is a serious affair, it is an art that takes years to master and forever to perfect. One would say, you need all the help in the world with immense precision when trying to play the Harmonium, an ornament of Indian classical music while singing legendary ghazal verses, or playing the lead and rhythm section of the evergreen guitar while adding your vocals to it, or creating and producing one's composition on the Keyboard, let alone play it in front of a live crowd. Now if we tell you that 3 artists are blind but have mastered all the musical instruments- from Guitar to the Tabla to the piano and the Harmonium.
 

Whether it’s Kuldeep who hails from the hills of Himachal Pradesh or Dilip who has performed in 500+ shows or Ritesh who can play Kishore Kumar on Guitar with love, limitations are only there in our minds & we need to uncover them through our hard work & perseverance like these 3 brilliant Artists.

Kuldeep: Going old school is never out of style.

Kuldeep playing the table and mesmerizing his audience

Hailing from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh Kuldeep is not your typical musical talent. While most 23 year olds of his age would be attracted by pop and rock, Kuldeep finds his comfort in singing tunes of Ghazals and Bhajans. He is a performing artist with a disability of no vision from a very young age, it never seemed to affect Kuldeep in pursuing his Indian classical dream from the young age of 3. In person, Kuldeep would seem like one of the most humble peeps you would ever meet, but on the stage, he isn't shy of showing his musical prowess, let it be on the harmonium for Tabla. Having taken part in multiple musical competitions throughout his teens, Kuldeep has slowly built the confidence and experience required to perform on any big stage. While he finds serene Indian classical music, ask him to play or sing along to any Bollywood song, and you would be equally blown away by his performance. According to Kuldeep, music is a form of expression to him, and his intent with every performance is to spread love and joy to everyone listening.

Dilip: Music Producer with an ear for the perfect pitch.

Dilip playing the keyboard in a local cultural event

Coming next to our story, we travel to the hilltop city of Bidar of Karnataka to meet the multi-talented Dilip. Musical production and score composition are some of the most complex tasks from a musical point of view. It requires considerable knowledge of various instruments, an ear for the perfect pitch and rhythm, and most grandly vision to create a coherent musical piece. Dilip might lack optical vision, but his melodious sight embodies vastness only some can understand, and his catalog of over 1000 compositions is a testament to that. He has undergone western classical Piano training and has passed the grade 5 exam in piano performance. In the Zillas near his hometown Kadvada, Dilip is a household name having performed for over 500 shows throughout his state while specializing in bhajans and folk music, but wait his achievements just don't end there. Dilip loves giving back to the community that has helped him grow to be the musical artist today and knows how important it is to do so, hence he has taken part in various social activities, the most substantial being running a school for visually impaired or blind children free of cost in Gandhi Ganz of Bidar from where he belongs. In between the numerous performances in different villas and social activities, in his free time, Dilip can be found in his studio creating and mixing tunes for his next project. 

Ritesh: Unwavering Passion for Music.

Ritesh playing his tunes in the mountains

To end our journey we meet Professor Ritesh and his Guitar. No those were not misplaced words, and yes we might have an Indian Jack Black. Ritesh grew up in the city of Delhi, and his love for music came at a very early age. He recalls starting music at the young age of 9, taking regular musical classes. Like every guitarist out there, Ritesh’s instrument was the love of his life and he shares a special connection with it. They say love is blind, but can you still love when you completely lose your sight? That might seem like a philosophic question but for Ritesh, that was the unfortunate reality. Ritesh is a guitarist with a disability of blindness. At a young age, Ritesh had some complications regarding his sight, which he was aware of but until his teens, it was very minor. Things started being serious with the start of teens, and by adolescence, Ritesh had lost his complete vision. Being not able to see his dear ones, to see his favorite book, to see his favorite dish, to see his favorite color, was heartbreaking. The same applied for his guitar, but as they say, music had no boundaries, it didn’t discriminate like us humans do, so its guitar was the same old Ritesh playing his favorite Kishore tunes. And that beauty of music helped Ritesh to overcome this new challenge. Eventually JNU alumni, Ritesh kept pursuing academia as that is where his professional interest lied, but Ritesh’s passion for music never dwindled, and even now as an Assistant professor for the Institute of home economics, Delhi University, he is always ready to perform his next music gig. He specializes in pahadi folk music and loves playing retro tunes of his favorite Kishore da, or Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The best way to describe Ritesh would be an artist in slumber covered by the intellect that arouses whenever he has the opportunity to.

To end….

Atypical Advantage is India’s only Talent Repository where you can hire thrilling Talents with Disabilities for your requirement. So go ahead, look at these sensations & pick the one which matches your needs. You could choose the Retro Ritesh who plays Kishore Kumar Folk music from Dilip or a classical flavor from Kuldeep. Please look at their Talent and not their disability because “Being Disabled is not an excuse” and a musician with a disability is no less than any other music artist. To book, visit: https://atypicaladvantage.in/categories/musicians

Until next time,
Your Atypical Buddy!

Overcoming limitations to realize the love for Music was originally published in Atypical Advantage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.