A life dedicated to 7 Notes – Shobha Sagar – Part 2

Formal initiation and beyond

It was Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, presiding judge of a district level competition, who suggested Shobha to start formal training in Hindustani music. He, just like the audience, was mesmerised by her singing. On that day, she remembers singing a popular Kannada song ‘Hucchu kodi manasu’ which was an instant hit with the audience.

Her first guru was Shantaram Bhat, under whom she trained for 2 years. Later on when she moved to UK, she was trained and guided by Piyush Joshi, a violinist. In her journey, even with all that talent, excellent training and regular practices, she has seen a number of setbacks. She has been rejected in an audition, has taken career breaks, lost her close family members, has had voice issues. But none of these deterred her. In fact with her passion and perseverance she achieved feat after feat. Here I list a few of her accomplishments, with the hope that it will inspire many.

Performance at British Parliament for an event Jalanjali on world water day. Media Coverage.
Folk Dance performance at Indian high commission, London, representing siddi tribe of Karnataka.
Volunteered to lead Karnataka Folk and Tribal research team. Goal of this team is to research and explore folk and tribal dance forms. The findings of this team is then presented at British parliament every 6 months. The team has built a Facebook page where folk artists are promoted.
Written, Composed and Sang Adhunika Punyakoti for Modi campaign in 2019 Karnataka election. This was based on a Kannada folk song and went viral.
Performed at Kannada Anivasi Hindugala Okkoota (KAHO) event in London. She trained and performed ‘Vande Mataram‘ with her friends. This event was presided by Chakravarti Sulibele.
Her poem ‘Avale Tayi Sharavati‘ written in Kannada on Jog waterfalls has been printed and released in a book called Festone of Expressions. This book is a collection of poems from 18 languages of India. It was released in British Parliment in the year 2019. The poem was also recited in the event.
Her poem ‘Manada Maalige’ has been published in Book Brahma.
Was teaching Kannada to kids in UK as part of Kannada Kali program, an initiative by Kannadigaru UK organization.
Performance at Kannadigaru UK rajyotsava event.
Released her book ‘Kadala Teerada Mouna‘ – a compilation of 63 poems she had penned. This was an initiative by Kannada pustaka pradhikara, Karnataka Government to encourage new poets and authors. She was one among the 50 people selected out of 3000 odd applicants.
Participated in Janapada Jaguli – an online folk song event during COVID.
Choregraphed and performed for Nandi Citadel events in Bangalore.
Composed 10 songs and scored background for 8 of them.

Despite her impressive accomplishments, she has a remarkably modest demeanor. She is a perfect role model to her daughter and is also a wonderful wife. More power to you Shobha.

In future, she plans to compose more songs, release her music album, pass on music legacy to her students, has plans to write a novel. Wishing you more success and may you continue to inspire many more.

PS: More on singing in the next post of this series.

Shobha’s First Poem (she wrote it when she was 10 years old)- ಗುಬ್ಬಿ ಅಲ್ಲ ಸುಬ್ಬಿ

ನಾನು ಸಾಕಿದ್ದೆ ಒಂದು ಗುಬ್ಬಿ
ಅದಕೆ ಇಟ್ಟ ಹೆಸರು ಸುಬ್ಬಿ
ಅದರ ರೆಕ್ಕೆ ಬಣ್ಣದ ಬೊಕ್ಕೆ
ಅದರ ಕಣ್ಣು ಕವಳೆ ಹಣ್ಣು
ಅದನ್ನು ಸಾಕಿದ್ದೆ ನಾನು ಮನಸಾರ
ಕೊನೆಗದಾಯಿತು ಬೆಕ್ಕಿಗೆ ಆಹಾರ