Leaving a legacy

I think it’s encouraging that there is at least some form of patronage for the classical arts, even if it’s someone else blowing our trumpet, pun intended. Wind instruments like the shehnai or flute might work for an idea like this one — something like the sarangi is softer while a monotone like what you get from the sitar wouldn’t work either. You need multi-phonic horns, like the ones that lorries on highways have. I also want to harp on the fact here that if you look at things more holistically, what is still remnant of ancient cultures like the Greco-Roman ones? It’s their philosophy, art, architecture and scientific progress, and not their economy because you might be in profit one day but the next day, the ship might sink. What you churn out as a result of your artistic progress is what’s going to stay, and I wish and hope our country would look at that. I am not talking about just this government, though. I am talking about moving beyond pop culture as a people and leaving a better legacy for the world, and if one day we are able to market Indian-made cars with Indian classical horns, then we’d be making some sort of statement.

Purbayan Chatterjee, 45, sitar player