‘If music be the food of love, play on...’

Divya Sharma

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 21 

For a 39-year-old music teacher, Shravan Kumar, music is not just any art form. It has played an instrumental role in shaping his life.

Kumar, who is blind since the age of 14, has been teaching music at the local Institute of Blind to many like him and others. He feels music is the soul of his life, as it has enabled him to establish a deeper connection with his students and enabled him to earn a respectable livelihood for himself. He says, “Music has been a blessing for me. It has opened new avenues for someone like me, who is blind. Today, I can teach harmonium, flute along with tabla to anyone. I love my students, it is a special bond.”

Not just Kumar, his 23-year-student, Gurpreet Singh, is following in his footsteps. Recently appointed as a music teacher in Government Elementary School in the Dam Gunj area of the city, he revels in sounds and melodies and acknowledges that they have given a meaning to his life. He says, “We are no less than anyone. I had a keen interest in music which is now my profession. I owe a lot to music. My love it can overcome anything, even my lack of sight.”

However, he did face difficulties in handling his young students. Says he, “I did face difficulties in teaching my students the music lessons, but now we are used to each other.”

“My students are quick to pick up the nuances of different instruments as well as vocals, remarks Gurpreet Singh, who is a graduate in music from Guru Nanak Dev University and teaches vocal music to children in primary classes, says he.

Adding to the list is the city-based tabla instructor, Dharmpal, at Saroop Rani Government College, who has been teaching at the college for the past 27 years. He feels music not only gave a direction to his life, considering his limitations, but became a career option for his son also. He states, “Whatever I am today, it is because I play tabla, I cannot recall the number of students I may have taught over a period of time.”

Dharmpal, who runs a welfare society for young blind girls, feels nothing is impossible and one can do whatever one wants to do. “Through my society for the blind, I try to give back to society what I’ve received to the best of my ability. This way I can keep contributing to society.”