An emotional spring is waiting to bloom this winter as sitar virtuosoAnoushka Shankararrives in India to promote her new album, Home. Starting December 12, she will perform in Mumbai, New Delhi, Jaipur and Bengaluru. Joining Anoushka will be her husband and acclaimed film director, Joe Wright, and her sons, Zubin and Mohan. Described as a deeply sentimental album, Home is a homage to her father and guru, Pandit Ravi Shankar. It marks her return from the fusion phase to the pure classical form. Featured among its evocative compositions is Raga Jogeshwari, which was created by Ravi Shankar. The four-time Grammy-nominated artist says the album is special also because it was recorded while she was expecting her younger son, Mohan. Anoushka is a global artist who speaks her mind. She has talked about child abuse and what it means to be a woman in India.Excerpts from an e-mail interview withAnuj Kumar :
What does ‘Home’ mean to you?
As someone growing up across three continents, I always felt as if I had many homes, but no home. In the past few years, I have managed to make a feeling of home with my family and I feel more rooted and settled than I did before. However, perhaps because of my peripatetic childhood, home has always been an internal, spiritual concept, as someone comfortable in themselves can learn to be comfortable anywhere. After my father passed away, I had played several tribute concerts for him in various cities, and naturally these were classical in nature. I felt very moved playing classical music after a long time, and in a way, it reignited my love for it, and I felt a deep connection with my father through playing. I wanted to capture this on record. Raga Jogeshwari is one I played with my father a lot, and was created by him, so it felt a perfect choice with which to pay homage to him.
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At times, I’ve tussled with my legacy, at times I’ve been proud of it, or afraid of it, or simply tried my best to ignore it! I’ve had to extricate and separate the entwined aspect of this legacy. For me, there is no part of me that wants to leave behind the fact that my father is my guru. That is a central current running through my music and I wouldn’t be where I am without his teaching. Separately, I’ve felt diminished and frustrated by the fact that, in some eyes, no matter what I’ve done over a 20-plus year career, I’m constantly only viewed as someone’s daughter.
Being a daughter and being a disciple are two different things in my mind, and I think they can get too tangled up in other peoples’ minds.
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Having said all that, acceptance that, that’s the way things are, is the only way to achieve any kind of sanity around it all. I just try to keep my head down and do my work the best I can.
How was the experience of shaping music during pregnancy?
When I was pregnant with Zubin, I recorded Traveller . I found pregnancy to be a lovely time to play, create, and record music. It’s a very creative and full time, by nature, and the music somehow becomes an extension of that connected and creative process.
Tell us about your relationship with the sitar ... how it has matured in all these years?
Everything I go through in life ends up being played through my instrument. It’s a cathartic relationship for me. I’m very grateful to have something to express my emotions in this way.
You have been working on a culturally and politically relevant album. Should artists take a stand? How can music be politically relevant in these times?
Musically, the new album is very modern and strong, and takes the sitar to a very new place. Thematically, the album deals with issues of asylum, migration and feminism, through music of course, and I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible guest artists who’ve helped achieve a very big, accessible, yet deeply emotional sound.
Not just artists, I think people should take a stand. I don’t agree with much of how the world is working at the moment, and I think it’s important to stand by my ideals. As an artist, I have an opportunity to do that in a way that works at a very subtle level.