((PKG)) DIASPORA KID
((TRT: 13:50))
((Topic Banner: Diaspora Kid))
((Reporter/Camera/Producer: Arturo Martinez))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main character: 1 male))
((Sub characters: 2 female; 2 male))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
My name is Aditya Prakash and I'm a Carnatic vocalist and musician. Carnatic music is a musical style, primarily practiced in South India. It's a very beautiful, deep-rooted tradition of music that has survived and transformed over many, many generations.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
That's nice to end it like that.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
It's a sound that is so different and unique because of the microtones. It's a microtonal music. If you look just hear it casually, it might sound the same. But if you actually go into the details the way I sing,…could be very different from someone else who sings…. And so, there's a very abstract quality to the music.
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
I was born and brought up in Los Angeles. Both my parents are from India. I am a kid from the diaspora.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
I had a great childhood here. Very loved and it's a beautiful neighborhood. I used to play baseball right here….or cricket…. And we used to try and hit it over that tree. That would be a home run. It would never happen but it was always a dream to hit it over that tree. And that tree is still there, which is always nice to remember that.
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
To be honest, on this block, there wasn't much diversity, you know. Definitely the only Indian family but the only family of color I'd say in this neighborhood. I definitely tried to hide my brownness or my Indian culture as much as I could when I was young because it felt so different.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
I think growing up in the US, it was a bit difficult for me to figure out my identity because I grew up in a house where Indian culture was everything. And then when I went to school, it was, it felt like I had to switch off and go into another thing because I wanted to fit in with my friends. I wanted to be American.
And I think a big part of this made me embarrassed almost to say that I was Indian or that I was a musician, that I was studying this music
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))
because it sounded weird to my friends. When I first sang it to them or played it to them, they thought it was funny. So, it was a big kind of identity split I had for much of my childhood.
And I started learning when I was six, seven but I never shared anything for about ten years of my life with my friends. Nobody even knew I sang.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))

((Photographer’s voice))
Okay, here we go. Three, two, one. One more, one more.
One more, one more. One moment.
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
When I was about 15, I was asked to tour with Pandit Ravi Shankar. He's a sitar player.
((Courtesy: AP))
He taught the Beatles, most famously in the West.
((Courtesy: AP))
He's won so many Grammys.
((Courtesy: AP))
He's just, he's like the hero of Indian music.
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))
I was performing at Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, Hollywood Bowl, all these venues where like rock stars and legends have performed. My friends kind of finally looked up to what I was doing. And I think that was really important for me. Just a moment where I was finally able to share.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
So, this is the CD from my 2020 album and it's about kind of exploring the sounds of whether it be jazz,
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))
Hip-hop, like the different sounds I heard growing up in L.A., kind of bringing my Indian voice to that.
And the reason I had all these influences is because I am from the diaspora.
((NATS: Music))
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))
In the Carnatic world, which I was in, the idea of fusion or like combining the music with other elements was seen as diluting the music, making it less pure and heavy and authentic. But I think when I went to UCLA, I kind of forgot all those voices and I was just excited to meet other musicians. All these jazz musicians were curious about Carnatic music. And so, I think the marrying of these two comes with a fresh, new set of ways of thinking that can enhance each other.
((NATS: Music))
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))

((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Now, my sister, my brother-in-law and my niece live in this house. I'll take you to the back where all the music classes and my mom's rehearsals used to happen. This door would always be open. So, I would hear the rehearsals happening from here. And I feel like the whole neighborhood could hear our classes happening and the rehearsals. But we didn't care. It used to actually be a garage, which my mom used as her rehearsal space. And I would just kind of sit there in the corner, watching rehearsals, trying to get her attention unsuccessfully because she was so lost in her dance.
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
I grew up in a family of artists. My mother was running a dance school here in the US. And my father, he helped her on the business side and the artistic side of running the dance school and looking after me when I was a kid.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
My mom would have musicians from India. When I was born, she had many students already. And I would remember, the first thing I would hear in the morning was banging footwork, rhythmic slapping. There would always be people in our house. I'd never be a quiet house. And I think I was, I just loved that. There was like an excitement of creation.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Viji Prakash
Shakti Dance School of Bharat Natyam
Founder, Artistic Director))
Wait.
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
This area is definitely a very special place.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Life unfolded in a way that I didn't even realize that I wanted to be a singer but I already was at that point.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Good to see you.

It's been a while.
((The Soraya Manager))
-It's been a while.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
-A couple of years.
((The Soraya Manager))
-Good to see you again here.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
-Such an amazing venue.
((The Soraya Manager))
-Thank you so much. So glad you came out.

((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
-I'm so excited, yeah.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Okay.
Can we start with him just getting his own instrument first?
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Alright, hands in. Let's go, this was an amazing three days of intense rehearsals and it's going to sound great. Let's have fun. Let's do it. Go, team.
((Guitar player))
Love it.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
The next song you're going to hear is actually born from an exercise I gave myself during the pandemic. And this, this one was about getting to the point of breathlessness and pushing on. And pushing on through a space of discomfort.
An exercise where I time myself for seven minutes and 46 seconds. And I think we all know the significance of that number. We all think of [police murder victim] George Floyd.
Three, two, one. Start.
((NATS: Music))
((Courtesy: The Soraya))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
When the pandemic happened, all my concerts, everything was canceled. I was forced to be in one place. And I was also forced to face the realities that I had ignored due to my privilege. I didn't know that this art form that I learned came with an oppressive history.
((Courtesy: AP))
And also in America itself, seeing how could something like Capitol Hill happen?
((Courtesy: AP))
How could George Floyd happen?
((Courtesy: AP))
It's happened so many times but to see all the problems in our society.
((Courtesy: AP))
All the cracks. It just felt more exposed.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
And I think that's only natural that music should reflect where we are.
And I don't think I can still be in this state of ignorance of just only exploring beauty and joy and happiness and excitement.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Does it sound fake to you?
((Viji Prakash
Shakti Dance School of Bharat Natyam
Founder, Artistic Director))
I have a hard time with this piece because I know, I know with your... It's dead, the breath. It's not...
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
-What do you mean?
((Viji Prakash
Shakti Dance School of Bharat Natyam
Founder, Artistic Director))
-Because he pulled it out like emphasized it. I guess that's the point.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
-That's the point, yeah.
The main thing is the breath that's actually from the song, the singing.
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
This is the place you order from?
((NATS))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
My mom doesn't like everything I do now but she understands why I'm doing it.
When my mom was coming here as an immigrant artist, I think a lot of it was about upliftment and bringing together all these cultures and showing the power of Indian music to be a spiritual art form, uplifting art form. They came here. They put their head down. They just worked hard. And they would have to put up with the xenophobia, the kind of othering that happened in the country.
And I think my generation now is about finding equal voice, finding representation.
Now we have the privilege to question. They didn't have that. Me and my sister were born here. We're American and we can explore topics that she probably couldn't explore at that time.
((NATS))
((Mythili Prakash
Bharata Natyam Dancer))
But yeah, now like I think we're able to like we're talking about retelling stories, right?
So it's like we're asking questions like why can't she lift her leg too. You know, and like and in that we're telling the stories of marginalized peoples.
When we question our Indian tradition, there's a sense of like you guys are disrespecting it. You know, like you're Americans, you're NRIs, like nonresident Indians, whatever. And you're bringing your Western esthetics and your Western ideals. And I think it has nothing to do with being Western. I think we are so like I identify very much as Indian. So, I think it's not a matter of disrespect. I think we're questioning it because we love it and we identify with it.
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
Yeah.
((NATS: Music))
((Aditya Prakash
Carnatic Vocalist and Musician))
There's always this shuttling between feeling like not accepted or not fitting in in either culture, either place I call home. So, it's still a journey about finding out my identity. I think being in a place like America, you get to see so many different cultures. Everything comes with its problems and things that have to be changed. But I think it is beautiful that this country is built off diversity. And that's the thing with, the American experience can be so many things to so many different people. Yet, yet it's still American. Because what is America? I don’t know. Yeah, good question.
((NATS: Music))
((Courtesy: Aditya Prakash))