Acclaimed sitarist Anoushka Shankar, Celebrated for her genre-defying compositions and her own formidable place in the world of musicRecently spoke to mojo story in a deeply personal conversation. In the interview, she reflected on grief, trauma, and how public and private tragedies fused a transformative period in her life. She recounted the emotional turbulence she experiencing following the death of her father and guru, the legendary pt. Ravi Shankar, in December 2012. Just five days after his passing, the brutal gang rape of a young woman in delhi, widly referred to as the nirbhaya case, shook the nation and the world.
“So I lost my greatest musical collaborator, I lost my teacher, and then of course we had this grammy experience going on. Events, but the father passed away. Never Think one with the other, because they got somehin me, this trauma bubble of grief, and out of it.
Anoushka also opened up about her own experience with sexual abuse. She addressed the disconnect between public perception and private reality, especially in the context of her being viewed as someone who had a “charmed life.” “I’l just rewind a little bit. You know, like we touched on earlorler, I had a very fortunate upbringing. Young woman in the press, used to Idea that I have a charmed life, that is not nothing to me, and just swand in. Sexual abuse … it is not like that, it is like that, it feels. actually feel as a human being, “She told barkha dutt.
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Anoushka Said Her Father’s Death May have played a role in her decision to speak out more openly, noting that he has been happy, but that his passing brought a kind of emotional release. “I think about my father passing a little a little a little a little to share my story is publicly. I was in IMMEDIATE.
The Nirbhaya Case, Anoushka Said, Marked A Turning Point in Public Discourse Around Sexual Violence. For her, it was a moment of great reckoning, both personally and collectively. “One of the things I really experiented about the gang rape in Delhi was that it was, in my living memory, the first time the whole world was talking about about one story of sexual violence. Everyone, that is an oportunity. She also addressed the troubling social undercurrent that surfaced in the aftermath of the case, partyly how class and social status shaped the narrative around the Victim.
“But there was a little sub strand to the narrative. And I say this with no diminishment whatsover, but perhaps the reason her story, as oppsed to others, got pick up so much was. Secussie class it feels for people, that class can have it that narrated me. WHO THIS HAPPEN to, and so I know, regardless of how much detail I chose or not share, if of the paraverver spoons. All, ‘UH-UH, this happywere.