In the name of Krishna

“I have been a spiritual person ever since I was a kid. When my father wanted my elder sister to become a doctor, I had no idea what the difference was between a doctoral degree and being an actual doctor. Nevertheless, I always fancied getting that title of “Dr.” before my name. It was only after I grew up and went on to do my M.Phil from Makhanlal Chaturvedi University, Bhopal, India’s first university dedicated solely to journalism and mass communication, I realized what research actually meant.

PhD was not the first option I thought of after completing my M.Phil however. I was initially a Radio Jockey. but owing to some unfortunate incident, I couldn’t continue being a RJ and shifted back to academia. I would like to believe that it was my love and faith in “Kanha ji” (Lord Krishna) that eventually guided me to pursue the topic of my PhD. I came across people like Malini Awasthi and Madhuri Sharma, who are renowned singers in the Braj language. Those encounters made me realize that traditional music and culture have a deep spiritual impact but are losing their audience base due to the current influence of western music. A part of my work is focused on investigating the reason behind this shift in taste of music with the current generation.

Although my family has been incredibly supportive of my decision to pursue research as a career, particularly my elder sister who is my…