As Hindustani vocalist Yashaswi Sirpotdar’s sweet voice filled the air at the Secunderabad Club, guests invited to the In Continuum Series event couldn’t stop raving about her performance.
But for Sirpotdar, who has been performing for decades now, fame and adulation is not new. Having started her musical journey at the tender age of two, Sirpotdar is one of the few child prodigies who went on to become a successful artiste.
But the journey wasn’t easy. “Talent wasn’t enough. It took me hours of practise and years of hard work to get where I am today,” says Sirpotdar, who now travels around the world for her shows.
Sirpotdar’s talent was spotted by her grandmother when she started playing the harmonium at two years of age and she went on to give her first performance as a two-and-a-half-year old. Later she was sent to learn vocals from her guru Padma Shri Pandita Padma Talwalkar.
Yashaswi Sirpotdar
There have been many child prodigies who have shot to fame, but not many managed to make it big. And Sirpotdar credits her success to her guru. “She honed my skills and got me to where I am. The guru-shishya parampara is what is needed today. You can have talent, but of what use is it if it ends with your childhood,” she asks.
Ghatam Maestro Vikku Vinayakram, in an earlier interview with DC, spoke about how difficult it was to practise music as a child. At 11-12 years of age, he was practising music on a regime so strict that most adults would crumble to and by the time he was 13, he was accompanying his father on tours. “My day would start at 4.30 am. I would be given a glass of buttermilk and then, my father would close the door of the room and light a lamp. I was supposed to keep practising until the flame in the lamp went out,” said Vinayakram. “It wasn’t easy. He was a tough taskmaster but it made me who I am,” he added.
In the world of music, while talent does help you survive, what you need is a lot of hard work. Take for instance the Carnatica Brothers, Ganesh and Shashikiran, who recently performed in the city. While Ganesh started learning music when he was three, he went on to give his first performance when he was eight. “There is a lot of pressure on child prodigies. It is no easy task and the child should have the ability to accept their talent and work on honing their skills,” says Ganesh. What kept the cousins going even when they grew up was their passion for music and the fact that they were willing to work on their talent. Shashikiran says, “A child prodigy might have great talent, but for them to make it big, they need to be able to handle their talent. Since they are already aware of their special talents, it can either go over their head or they can end up taking it further. But when they decide to go further, the road is paved with lots of hardships, especially for singers.”
Ganesh says, “For an instrumentalist, nothing changes. For a vocalist however the voice changes as they reach adulthood, especially for boys. This transition often leaves people with a change in the voice but instead of giving up, one needs to practise very hard.”
