![]() Sons Siddharth and Shivam, who also do playback – keep his work “young”, he believes. Or, the Dil Chahta Hai song “can be related to a classical raag but the way it’s been rendered it sounds pop and rock”. “This is what happens in a bhajan, qawwali or gospel – you sing a line and people repeat it”. “They just didn’t teach me the technicalities of music but also a magic formula, which if you apply intelligently, will work with any genre of music,” he says, citing how he applied the principles of a bhajan to Kajra Re. Two-decades later, his work continues to sound fresh, relevant and hip. But it was after years of working as a software engineer that he decided to enter the music industry. At the age of five, he was reproducing melodies on the harmonium then he turned to the veena because “it looked cool”. Mahadevan is glad that his family and teachers spotted his talent and kept him focused. “If you wake up a child at 5am and make him sit by the lake to sing, he or she will surely run away,” he reasons. So, he endeavours to make music lessons at his academy “fun, cool and joyful” in addition to tech-savvy. But there was a lot of love underneath that strict demeanour and I knew that,” Mahadevan says. “I would bunk classes, sometimes because of my cricket, I would not remember lyrics, I would not do riyaaz. TR Balamani, for instance, would call the “mischievous” Mahadevan “absolutely useless”. That doesn’t mean his gurus were easy on him either. These maestros stay in the background but keep releasing talented students one after another,” he says, wistfully. Later, he innocently told me he didn’t even realise that he was speaking about me. I expected him to speak about his life story and contribution to the field of music, but, no, it was about me – ‘Shankar is like this, he’s like that’. “This was after I had gained some recognition. He recalls how at a function organised to honour the Late Pandit Shrinivas Khale, who he used to “hang out” with as a teenager, “Khale kaka” spent “80 per cent” of his time talking about none other than Mahadevan himself. Staying humble is a life lesson he learnt from his own gurus, so it’s fitting that the 51-year-old is here for the second edition of Guru Kripa Awards, that his academy instituted to honour music exponents. On a Friday afternoon, he is at his eponymous academy in the city, making jokes, recording staffers on his phone, drumming tables, clicking selfies, meeting up with music students and teachers who’d turned up despite the rains, and moving around without an entourage. Singer-composer-actor Shankar Mahadevan wears his fame lightly. Once a Saint, always a Saint.He’s played mentor on TV shows, but the musician himself owes much to teachers, he tells us When you join the Locke Family, you become part of a 50+ year tradition of high quality public education. Student success isn't a destination -it's a journey that begins as soon as a student walks through the doors of Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy. ![]() ![]() We believe it's up to us to provide the kind of high quality, public education that can get them where they need to go. Our students grow into leaders who are ready to achieve. We want our students to cultivate skills and qualities that prepare them for success in college and life beyond. Students also have access to innovative science and technology programming. In addition to a rigorous college-prep curriculum, Locke students have the opportunity to play on athletics teams or in our world-class band. Today, the Locke Family consists of two Academies, one serving 9th-10th graders and the other serving 11th-12th grades. In 2008, Green Dot Public Schools joined with teachers, parents and the community to transform Alain LeRoy Locke High School, one of the most persistently low-achieving schools in California, and split it into several small, safe, personalized learning academies. Welcome to Alain LeRoy Locke College Preparatory Academy!
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