Music
as a
constant.

I've been playing Indian classical flute since Grade 3 — over a decade, without interruption. It started simply: I liked the sound, and I wanted to be able to make it. Over years of practice I moved through the foundational ragas, learned to control breath and tone, and eventually became the student the school called on for every performance that needed a flute on stage.

Throughout my school years I've performed at every school event consistently — annual functions, cultural evenings, morning assemblies, and every occasion where there was a stage and music was needed. Not as a one-off. Not for a portfolio entry. Just because it was what I did, year after year, since Grade 3.

In Grade 9 I received the School Flute Award — given to one student per year across the entire school. The recognition wasn't for a single performance. It was for six years of consistent practice and presence that the teachers had watched firsthand. That kind of recognition, earned over time, means more to me than anything scored in a single sitting.

I completed Trinity College London guitar examinations to Grade 2 — internationally recognised graded certification covering technique, sight-reading, and music theory under formal examination conditions. Trinity Grade 2 represents solid foundational mastery: chord transitions, fingerpicking patterns, and the theoretical understanding that underpins all of it.

Playing two instruments — Indian classical and Western — exposed me to the idea that the same emotional truth can be reached through completely different technical systems. That turns out to apply beyond music.