SaPa, offers Carnatic courses, Hindustani courses, Western classical and contemporary courses. We do a lot of vocals. Courses in instruments like the violin, the piano, the mridangam, the tabla, flute are also available and dance and theatre have also recently become an integral part of what SaPa does.

What is most exciting is how children come in for one thing and then they find their own voices and find different ways to build their musical skill sets and different intersections of their own passion. A question that they have gotten very often from parents of young children is, “How do I find the right musical course for my kid if I’m not a musician? I don’t know, I want them to understand, appreciate, love music, find that joy, but how do I make that right decision?”

So, after a lot of thought, they have put together a course that we are really excited about called the Sampler course. Through the course, in a period of three months, children will learn the fundamentals or basics of the Western contemporary ukulele, Carnatic vocal, Mridangam, Hindustani flute. So we really wanted to create a course that, with a lot of thought into it, where you have intersections of these different styles of music and different instruments, and children really understand, “Okay, this is Carnatic music, this is Hindustani music, this is Western music, this is a stringed instrument, this is a wind instrument, the percussion instrument, this is my voice,” and how you can bring all of those together. And if you’re more excited about one of them, how you can take that forward.

In 2020, they had to work around numerous new constraints and adapted to the new environment overnight and was able to create content that would continue to resonate with children while also helping them navigate uncertainty.

They want to make sure that we continue to impact people with material that resonates with them – screen on or off. They are working on building a subscription box with music-related outcomes for expecting mothers and children of all age groups.

Work-life balance is something that one must pay constant attention to. And when she is not working at SaPa, or not working on my own music, she is usually at home with her daughter Mahati, husband Sanjeev, and their five cats. “I am also a very proud aunt to two young children, Agni and Veda, and I enjoy being part of communities that are trying to create change in the world.”

Read the full story that first appeared in Global Indian here: