A melody for the mind: The story of ‘Sitar for Mental Health’

Sharma talks about her date with the sitar, her guru, sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar, her struggle with mental illness, and the conceptualization of the ‘sitar for mental health’.

An inheritance and the blessing of a guru.

Sharma is the fourth generation of the well-known Delhi-based Rikhi Ram family of luthiers. The business started crossing borders in Lahore in 1920 and was later carried on by his grandfather Bishan Dass Rikhiram and his father Sanjay Rikhiram.

“It is a generational family business of the art of manufacturing the best musical instruments, especially string instruments. My father wanted my brother and I to inherit the art and signed us up for singing and guitar lessons. His theory was that to make good instruments, you first have to be a musician with tuned ears. Among them, the sitar is one of the most complex musical instruments, as its manufacture is very calculated and intricate,” said Sharma.

Sharma became the youngest and last disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar. (express photo)

Sharma said that growing up, he was an artist and a musically inclined child. However, he did not hold the sitar until he was 10 years old. “For my father, the sitar is a sacred instrument that must be handled with the utmost respect and care. It was once when I made an attempt at a repaired sitar with the knowledge he had from my guitar exercises that my father was amazed. Then he started my lessons the next morning. In 2011, at a concert in honor of my grandfather, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan saab asked me to play and I played his compositions from Tilak Kamod. A video of the performance on Youtube reached my Guruji’s wife and we were asked to visit him at her Ashram. When she asked my father to make me his disciple, it was like God showing up to teach me,” she said.

Sharma, who became the youngest and last disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, shared that it was only later that he realized the responsibility of carrying on the sitar, as his guru told him. “We had an age difference of about eight decades, but he was both my guru and my best friend. He was the strictest teacher and at the same time a jovial person. He asked me to collect as much as he could. He had told me that he should take care of my generation, such a great responsibility that I have realized now that I have matured, ”he said.

Sharma continued his sitar training with Pandit Parimal Sadaphal, one of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s oldest disciples.

music for the mind

During the onset of the pandemic, like many artists, Sharma also hit a wall when live performances began to seem stale. “2020 was when my mental health took a hit, but it got worse after I lost my maternal grandfather, who I was very close to. I didn’t go out, I just slept and ate. During all this time, I did not play my sitar. I felt very unmotivated and wondered why I was doing what I was doing,” she shared.

Sharma sought therapy and said that the first battle was within oneself, as one may feel that one can improve on one’s own, but it doesn’t always work that way. After a few sessions, Sharma’s therapist suggested that he go live on Instagram and perform on his sitar.

“In a way, it was something I did just for myself, to keep Instagram live, even if no one saw it. The platform called Clubhouse was also garnering attention and I soon started inviting people to performances for mental health. The second wave of the pandemic began and times turned dire. I was hosting a live session every day during the time when people were mourning the loss of their loved ones and dedicating the sessions to them. It was a very small way to help them cope with the loss. It was a lot to go through all at once, but I tried to be consistent in performing at the live sessions,” he said.

Over time, Sharma’s online initiative built a community of over four thousand and renamed the routine sessions to ‘Sitar for Mental Health’ sessions. “It was as if the sessions were for my mental health, but at the same time they also helped someone else,” he said.

Sharma believes that the younger generation has been deprived of the real and soulful essence of classical music. He said that music has the power to uplift the mind, but he has slept a lot. “People don’t know how good our music sounds in the right environment. I wanted to curate the stage where the music is presented to the audience with perfection and where they understand the therapeutic qualities that music has,” she said.

Calling his “Sitar for Mental Health” project a three-layered quest, Sharma said that after talking to a couple of psychiatrists and psychologists, he’s learned that while the sitar may make you feel better momentarily, you come back to it. their lives. its reality and therefore a dialogue must be created around serious mental illness and seeking help. “For me, the sitar became a therapeutic instrument. But I couldn’t leave it at that, and so in order to de-stigmatize mental health, I voiced my own struggles,” she said.

Carefully crafted, the event begins with soft applause, then a purely classical performance, while the last part incorporates fun, commercially familiar songs that people are familiar with, Sharma said. “I take note of the threshold people have for classical music in one sitting. The audience sits through the classical performance and develops an ear for it. Getting exposed to classical music makes them aware and little by little they will start to appreciate it,” he said.

Sharma is working on his album called Navaras, where each composition deals with an emotion. “My favorite is Chanakya, based on Veeraras, one that I play every concert. Roslyn, who is among the first lo-fi sitar pieces, and of course Tilak Kamod, who is a recap of my first lesson with my guru, will also be part of the performance. I try to use the sitar as an instrument but not restrict it to just classical music. I expand its potential by experimenting with it, since it is a very versatile instrument”, he said.