The road less taken

At the third edition of ‘Follow Your Bliss’, automobile photographer C.P. Satyajit and Carnatic singer Rithvik Raja talk about why they left behind comfortable career paths to pursue their passion

March 26, 2015 07:34 pm | Updated 07:34 pm IST

Chennai, 26.03.15, For Metro Plus: (From RightTo Left ) Avis Viswanathan, Life Coach, Author and Happiness curater, C.P.Satyajit, Automobile Photographer and Rithvik Raja, Young singer Carnatic Music at Bliss Third Edition in Chennai. Photo.M. Moorthy

Chennai, 26.03.15, For Metro Plus: (From RightTo Left ) Avis Viswanathan, Life Coach, Author and Happiness curater, C.P.Satyajit, Automobile Photographer and Rithvik Raja, Young singer Carnatic Music at Bliss Third Edition in Chennai. Photo.M. Moorthy

Joseph Campbell, when he wasn’t delving into a world of mythic gods and religion, encouraged people to live on one simple philosophy: follow your bliss. At the third edition of ‘Follow Your Bliss’ at the Ashvita Bistro, C.P. Satyajit, an automobile photographer and Carnatic singer Rithvik Raja sat down with life coach AVIS Viswanathan to talk about what made them leave set, stable paths to pursue what they loved. “We’re here to inspire happiness,” said AVIS to around 50 gathered people, “to encourage others to find their own path of rapture.”

And paths could’ve been easier for both speakers. For C.P. Satyajit, having parents like Shanta and V.P Dhananjayan, two prolific Bharatnatyam exponents, equalled eventually taking over their legacy, their dance school and carrying on a tradition. The realisation that he wanted a life behind the lens of a camera started in school, when he started to take pictures of everything from his sports day to biology classes. “I was thirsting for knowledge,” he said, “Knowledge that went beyond my dance background.”

Chennai didn’t prove to be the strongest of bases for someone who wanted a career in automobile photography. “I had to move to Mumbai to study under my mentor Iqbal,” he said. “My first salary was Rs.4000, and between the cost of food and transport, I only had Rs. 500 to spend on film. That meant every shot I took needed to be thought about carefully.” The dichotomy between dance and photography was a constant one, and he admits there’s a part of his parents that wishes he’d chosen the former, even with their support. “There were six crucial months when I had to ask myself if I’d rather be creating images or dancing. The answer was very simple at that point,” he explained to the audience.

With the World Cup going on, as AVIS jokingly pointed out to Rithvik, it couldn’t have been easy to leave behind what could’ve been a successful career with cricket to pursue Carnatic music. And though Rithvik was obsessed with the game as a child, it was a definitive monsoon season that changed everything. “I wasn’t playing cricket then, and school was over. My music teacher made me attend at least four concerts a day. Once, I accidentally attended a T.M. Krishna concert, thinking it was T.N. Krishnan who was going to perform. By the end of the first song, I was hooked.” Six months later, he found himself a student of the musician, and had to find a way to survive a gruelling schedule of music, cricket, and later, college. “I was practising music so much that I wouldn’t even feel time pass,” he said, “Our classes had no structure and I lost myself to my training.” By end of 2005, he knew that he was going to walk away from cricket, a decision that he now has no regrets about. “I had the opportunity to pursue a job with a steady income, but I knew I would get nowhere musically if I did,” he said.

Bliss closed with both speakers acknowledging the challenges of their fields, and that the satisfaction that came with them compensated for it. “Bliss is about a pattern of people who make important choices and see doors open and important people walking into their lives,” concluded AVIS. “But for those things to happen, you have to first make that choice.”

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