A different method in Bootstrapping

- by Karra Rutwik Reddy 

Nawab fikr trishool ki, Gareebi jaaye tere fuzool pe..!!

Hisaab, sab galat salat… Jawaab, sab galat salat…

These are lines from an upcoming young indie musician’s song. Quiet thought provoking, right? May be not for everyone; but for some who feel responsible, who are feeling the quench of loneliness in their heart, yes it is poking them a lot, or at least me. But how relevant is this to entrepreneurship?

Well, be patient and read it till the end. This article is all about how poetry, prose and music combined is creating impact in the lives of the literature lovers and feeding the one’s who are selling their talent. In a country like India, ironically which has the origins of the vedas, upanishads and the greatest literature the world has ever had, a career in the same isn’t even considered as the last option. A young 24 year-old boy with long uncombed hair, shabby beard, ears pierced, wearing a waist-coat and loose pants, holding a pen and a diary, and reading from the old shayaris of Urdu history would make the perfect combination a son that an Indian dad would never want to have in his life. But welcome to 2018, this is the year which has witnessed the emergence of greatest musicians performing at various platforms around the nation, poets performing deep poetry, the fools from the Shakespearean plays turned out to be for real, because frustration is pulling people out of their houses to question the existence of reality against the sugar-coated news. 

Organisations like Hyderabad Poetry Project, Zubaan Project, Project FUEL, Delhi Poetry Slam, Raza Foundation, and many more have clearly made a profound impact in the late 2017 and early 2018. Credits for the emergence of numerous co-working space across the cities of India, which turned out to be the hubs to pass time for the contemporary engineers, brought from within them some of the best standup artists on beautiful open mics that are being conducted almost every now and then. A couple of open mics, you have followers; a dozen followers, you have a profile; a profile, you will be offered a standalone show at different venues; a couple of performances, you are an artist. As an artist you will have your rock band, your group formed, or you will be a standup artist, you will be a role model for a millions waiting for your shows. From Project FUEL’s ideology of collecting from the life lessons of every individual, to the Delhi Poetry Slam’s poetess’ questions about the rape cases. The Zubaan Project’s concept of collaboration with musicians across India who sing in their mother tongues’ first album which has taken up like a storm on the YouTube. Leaving aside the monetisation and economics, these have given them some fame definitely, some part of the Freedom of speech as a fundamental right is being utilised too. Standing in the hall of fame, termed as an influencer, every moment creating some impact on some or the other individual, somewhere around the globe, looking into your words on the internet; your liabilities increase.

A shift in the public perspective too has helped create such a poetic wordy revolution these days. Every change needs to be double-sided. A boy prefers taking his girl out to such a paid show to take away with them some emotional hunger. A bored aunt comes out on a weekend with her kitty group for chilling out in some ghazals and Sufi songs. At the end of the day, the host of these shows apart from the performers are making some huge chunk of money too-on food, beverages and special allied services.

Well, this is how some self made entrepreneurs are in the making, making money through their brains and collaborations. Somewhere on the other end of a globe a dark soul might be awakened by your words, stop not. When civilisations come to an end, they leave behind some masonry and the literature inscribed that shall show how life evolved. Earlier words went to the halls of the kings, now when people turn out to be the king-makers, the poets are wooing them and getting good reception too. The statistics state this progress will last, and people playing with prose will keep to stand on their legs.