Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveSitar for Mental Health : Rishab Sharma spreads peace through music

Sitar for Mental Health : Rishab Sharma spreads peace through music

Compiled by: Darshana Ramdev

Grief had debilitated him and Rishab Rikhiram Sharma locked himself in his room, turning himself away from the love of his life – his sitar. Growing up, the instrument had always been his greatest source of comfort, his “happy place,” the thing he turned to in good times and bad. When he lost his grandfather before the pandemic, his “third parent and best friend,” there was no comfort to be found. Global Indian looks at how this young prodigy, the youngest and final disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, pulled himself out of his abyss, picked up his sitar once more and found a way to bring peace to other people through the music that had given him so much. At 24, Rishab, the founder of Sitar for Mental Health, has performed before a live audience of 60,000 and appeared on Indian reality TV shows and channels.

Rishab Rikhiram Sharma, founder of ‘Sitar for Mental Health’

The Rikhiram legacy

Born in Delhi into a renowned family of luthiers, the Rikhirams, Rishab laughs as he recalls never being allowed to touch the sitar. His grandfather, Rikhiram, after whom the family business was named, crafted instruments for India’s top musicians, including Pandit Ravi Shankar. “My parents didn’t let me touch the sitar for the longest time. I come from a family of instrument makers, we have been doing it since 1920. When I was a child, I wanted to get my hands on the sitar but my parents said no, saying it is a sacred instrument. When someone tells you not to do something as a kid, you want to do it even more,” he said in a recent interview.

Rishab was, however, allowed to play the guitar and got quite good at it, “playing songs and barre chords and everything.” One day, a broken sitar was sent back to the house. His father, the national award-winning luthier Sanjay Sharma, fixed it up and left it on the wall to dry. Rishab looked at it quietly, gathering the courage after a couple of days to ask his father for permission to play it. Finally, his father consented. He held the sitar in his hand, it was a fretted instrument, like the guitar. “I figured out ‘sa ri ga ma‘ within minutes and started playing Bollywood songs,” he recalls. “I was 10 at the time.”

Finding a guru

His father was impressed and agreed to teach his son, becoming his first guru. In 2011, his father allowed him to perform on stage for the first time. That debut performance caught the eye of sitar legend Pt Ravi Shankar, whose own instrument had been made by Sanjay Sharma. He rang Sharma the next day, saying, “Bring Rishab to Delhi when I am there.”

Rishab with his father, Sanjay Sharma

When the maestro was in town, the family duly paid him a visit. “He surprised us by offering to make me his disciple,” Rishab said in an interview. “That was the moment I fell in love with the sitar and decided to make it my life.” He was around 12 at the time.

Being a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar is perhaps the greatest honour that a young musician can ask for but Rishab learned, quite quickly, that it wouldn’t be easy. His guru was a strict teacher, pushing his students as much as he could to unleash their potential. “That strictness was only during the teaching,” Rishab laughed. “The moment we left the music room, he would chat with me, about my favourite food, my girlfriends. I had a great time with him and there were moments when I got scolded, ‘Are you stupid or what?’ he would say.”

With such tutelage to guide him, Rishab’s career blossomed – in 2016, he was among the lineup at Howdy Modi in Texas, playing to an audience of 65,000 people, who sang in chorus as he played ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha’. He has been mentored by Pandit Parimal Sadaphal, one of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s seniormost disciples and by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Rais Khan and Pandit Arun Bharatram.

Coping with grief

In 2020, his world came crashing down. Rishab’s grandfather, the man who was always in the front row, clapping when his grandson played, passed away. All his life, the sitar had been Rishab’s ultimate therapy, “If I was angry, I would practice for hours and let the emotions flow. When I lost my grandfather, I was grieving, I stopped playing.” He stayed in his bedroom instead, barely eating or sleeping, struggling to cope.

Finally, Rishab’s friends suggested therapy. He looked for help online but this was the pandemic, everybody was struggling and there were no therapists available. By this time, the family had moved to New York and Rishab was studying music production and economics at the City University in New York. Rishab went to a psychiatrist – at the time he didn’t know the difference. The psychiatrist was patient with him and Rishab came away knowing that he couldn’t give up on his music.

Sitar for Mental Health

Looking for an outlet, he went live on social media. Clubhouse, the invite-only voice-based social networking platform that was popular at the time. Rishab opened a hosting room and went live. Three people turned up. The next day, there were six. The number grew and eventually, Rishab had around 4,000 people listening in the audience. “It was a beautiful space because I wasn’t just playing the sitar. I was talking about grief. Other people opened up too, they made music and recited poetry.”

The Clubhouse event grew into Sitar for Mental Health, which Rishab continues to sustain. The event always begins with ten minutes of breathing exercises before the show itself, leading into the Jod and Alaap he learned from his gurus. “I am no therapist. I am just using my music to heal people in all ways possible,” Rishab told NDTV.

These days, he plays a lot of bhajans, he says. He’s also working on an EP called Sitar ‘n Chill, making romantic sitar music, he chuckles. Another album, Navaras, explores the nine human emotions. A big hip-hop fan, he hopes to collaborate with Kanye West and Drake, given the chance and if he had his pick of Indian musicians, Nav and Diljit Dosanjh.

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Published on 18, Dec 2022

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Ananya Jain: The tech founder helping GenZ improve their mental health

(April 2, 2023) In October 2021, a Lancet study found a 35 percent increase in mental health disorders in India alone. That means one in every seven Indians, amounting to a whopping total of 19.73 crore people. The gig economy and its hustle culture, the advent of AI, the growing pressure on teenagers to get into top-notch foreign universities, and the glamorisation of toxic work environments have had telling effects on mental health. Social media, with its curated, filtered glimpses of people's lives has only contributed to overall stress, leading to feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. Unless, of course, you find Ananya Jain on LinkedIn. The intrepid tech founder works with GenZ's mental health, creating a safe and empathetic space for them to connect and cope. "I help strangers on the internet," she writes, in her LinkedIn bio. That's exactly what she does - she helps people. Not in the way that a mental health professional would - while the stigma around seeking help is reducing, empathetic friends are hard to find. That's the gap Ananya fills with FullCircle. Younger generations want to open up and talk about mental health, but the people who understand are rare. "It started selfishly,"

"It started selfishly," Ananya says, during an interview for Global Indian. "I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me." At 23, Ananya's aura of wisdom is a hard-won attribute. Her early life was filled with challenges and she overcame them, mostly on her own. In the end, she knew one thing: she didn't want anybody, not even strangers, to suffer in silence and solitude. It meant sacrificing, at least for the moment, the financial security that every immigrant seeks, in order to be a tech founder and start up an organisation for mental health in a foreign country.

Early turning points

Ananya grew up in Chandigarh, "always looking for ways to get out of the house because things weren't great at home." Her sanctuary was the chemistry lab at her high school - she didn't have any particular interest in science but it was the only place she had. One day, she noticed cockroaches running around in the laboratory. She decided to run some experiments on them, to distract herself from the boredom, if nothing else. "I made a lot of mistakes but I kept at it. At the end of that year, I was 13 then, I had made a biofertiliser," Ananya recalls. She sent her findings off to the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE competition.

When the President’s office called Ananya’s mother to say the “cockroach experiment” had won, the family thought it was a prank. The office persisted and finally, Ananya was on her way to meet Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who was the President of India then. That was a turning point in the teenager's life. "He cracked a ton of jokes about my obsession with cockroaches," she laughs. "And I realised that if I was ever going to make something of myself, I had better study science."

Georgia on her mind

A few years later, she ended up filing a hurried application to Georgia Tech, starting 30 minutes before the deadline and hitting the send button with 30 seconds to spare. She was accepted- with a scholarship. She arrived in Atlanta, in her own words, as a "really dumb, broke, naive child." She was a good student, though, and was put straight away into the Grand Challenges programme, which was reserved for the best and brightest. "Everyone around me had already done two years of college," she recalls.

In those early days, life looked great on paper but in truth, Ananya Jain was struggling to cope. She was stressed, had no family in the US, and worked five jobs throughout her time in college to pay her way through. "I would sit in a Math lecture, pulling my hair out because I was so stressed." After class, she would rush to work until past midnight. She was also travelling abroad for research.

[caption id="attachment_29043" align="aligncenter" width="418"] Tech founders Ananya and Ankit Kukadia, of FullCircle. Photo: LinkedIn[/caption]

The breaking point

By the second year of engineering college, Ananya Jain had lost all her hair. "I was completely bald," she says, "I had started shedding hair in May 2018 and by the end of that month, my hair had fallen out." For a young woman who had always had long hair, this was shocking. She went to several doctors, but nobody could figure out what was wrong - there was nothing to explain such radical hair loss. And Ananya was keeping it all secret from her family back in India. "I would call my mother every couple of weeks and wear a hoodie. One day, she had had enough and made me remove it," she said.

That day, Ananya Jain landed at a therapist's office, where she was presented with a big bill to be paid by the end of the week. "I had a spreadsheet of expenses. If I had to pay the therapist, it meant I couldn't eat that week. So I didn't eat that week. Ironically, I was more stressed going out of therapy than coming into it," she remarks.

This was the breaking point. Ananya Jain was fed up - she took a photo of herself, completely bald, and posted it on the internet. And she posted her phone number, telling people that if they were stressed out, they could call her (yes, it's a risky thing to do). Twenty-four hours later, 1,00,000 people around the world had seen it. "So suddenly, all I was doing was taking calls from people around the world."

All the lonely people

Why were they calling her, though? This is the age of technology, where everything, even peace of mind, can be coded. Meditation apps, therapists, medicines, everything was a click away. So what was happening? The simple answer: Loneliness. What was the point, she thought, of doing engineering and research when it was such a struggle and there were so many people seeking help? "I cut my education short to work on mental health instead." And that's how things came full circle, so to speak.

FullCircle has two aspects - one, says the young tech founder, is "remaking The Oprah Winfrey Show (it's a figure of speech) for GenZ." Ananya interviews celebrities to talk about what they go through and how they cope. The other aspect is to bring curated groups of ten people together to form small but tight-knit communities. "We facilitate them talking to each other," she explains. "For someone like me, who had just lost her hair, instead of going to Reddit and talking to 50 people trying to find out what was wrong with me, I would go on FullCircle and ask for help." When she was struggling, Ananya recalls, she met a lawyer in Boston. He had lost his hair too, during law school. "If I had met him two years earlier, I would have had an answer."

[caption id="attachment_29044" align="aligncenter" width="572"] Photo: LinkedIn[/caption]

Leading by example

Ananya’s own life is meticulously planned out. Managing stress is a lifelong affair and everything matters, from diet, exercise, and rest, to intangible aspects like good friends and family to provide emotional support and also hold one accountable. “Everything I can control, I put on an Excel sheet,” she explains. “I try to reduce the number of decisions I need to make daily, so my diet plan, my clothes, my social interactions – everything is planned out. I have learned to listen to what my body is telling me.”

Not another therapy app

The tech founder doesn't comment on the pros and cons of therapy - of course, it is necessary in some cases and helpful to many. Still, people require more - they need emotional and tangible support. "We are here to offer perspective to people," Ananya explains. The FullCircle journey does not end with creating micro-communities alone. "The goal is to support them every step of the way, to make people realise they're not as alone as they thought." The other aspects include coaching, therapy, and growth. Mental well-being is never about just one thing- as the saying goes, 'it takes a whole village'. And that's what this young entrepreneur has made it her purpose to give, to tell people that no matter what, there's hope out there.

Follow Ananya Jain on LinkedIn

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Indian-teen Yathaarth Murthy croons 260 national anthems, is a 2-time Limca record holder

(January 6, 2021) Singing the Indian national anthem evokes fervour and patriotism. Some hum the British and American ones. Well, not fully, but at least some words! Yet, this Indian boy’s anthem repertoire is something that will take you aback. The 15-year-old Indian anthemologist Yathaarth Murthy is a two-time Limca Book of Records holder for singing the highest number of anthems in the world. He disarms with his eager smile as he shares how he mastered a whopping 260 national anthems – that is how many there are in the world, incidentally! That’s not all, this teen is also an avid environmentalist and was one of the 20 winners of the India 20 Under 20 organised by White Canvas, a mentoring organisation recognised by Niti Ayog. Born and raised in Bengaluru, Yathaarth’s first tryst with anthems happened when his Hindustani classical music teacher tutored him to perform anthems of four countries – India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Japan -- on the keyboard. “That was back in 2014. It got me hooked. I liked the lyrics and wanted to explore more anthems. So, I began researching on YouTube and Wikipedia, and taught myself several more countries’ anthems,” the Indian anthemologist tells Global Indian. Onward on, one anthem at a time Anthem spurting became a passion for the student of Vidyashilp Academy. “It lit a spark and there was no

wp-image-9313 aligncenter" src="https://www.globalindian.com/youth//wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IMG_31791.jpg" alt="Indian Teen | Yathaarth Murthy | Global Indian Youth" width="417" height="640" />

Onward on, one anthem at a time

Anthem spurting became a passion for the student of Vidyashilp Academy. “It lit a spark and there was no turning back,” he says. Soon he was spending hours pouring over anthems of different nations. While he understood the gist of a few, he enjoyed the lyrics and tunes too.

While Yathaarth, the only child of architect parents, found the accents and pronunciation a bit difficult, he kept at it. “The first few tries were difficult. As I continued to practice, I got a hang of the pronunciations too. Before I knew it, I was able to sing more than 100 anthems,” says Yathaarth. Incidentally, the term “anthemologist” was something he coined to describe his unique feat.

[caption id="attachment_9312" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Yathaarth Murthy with Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai[/caption]

It was around this time in 2017, that he told his mother about wanting to apply to the Limca Book of Records. To his surprise, he had in fact made the record. That’s how a young Bengalurean came to hold the Limca record for singing the highest number of anthems – 112 at the time. “When I first picked up learning these various anthems, I didn’t think I’d one day become a record holder or a TEDx speaker,” says the class 10 student. Yet, he soon broke his own record when he learnt all 260 anthems, and once again set a new Limca record in 2019.

Saving the environment, one lake at a time

As a primary school student, Yathaarth used to love watching TedX videos and wanted to be on the hallowed platform himself. His dream soon came true when he was invited to deliver his first TED talk in 2018 at age 12. “My first talk was about my journey as an anthemologist,” says the youth who has so far given four TED talks, the most recent in December 2020. The topics have been varied: environment, anthems, and on pursuing one’s dreams.

After he’d set his second Limca record, Yathaarth wondered, “What next?” “How could I give back to the community and do something meaningful? It was around then that I began learning more and more about the environment and climate change. I watched Greta Thunberg’s speeches. Shortly, I began working in the environment sphere in my own small way,” he adds.

Soon, Yathaarth was holding climate strikes and working on a school project for the World Federation of UN Association which earned him more accolades in 2019. “I worked on a project with four friends. We decided to revive Manae, a 4.5 acre lake on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The city was once filled with beautiful lakes, but today most are highly polluted or encroached upon,” says the environmentalist, who launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise Rs 8.27 lakh for the lake’s revival. He worked with Anand Malligavad, also known as the Lake Man of India, to revive the lake and would often visit the lake in his free time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IVIcvIMKhU

“When we first visited the lake, we could see the barren lakebed and there was barely any flora and fauna. Today, the lake is thriving and hosts various birds like peacocks, has beautiful flora and is the water source for a neighbouring village,” beams the boy who still visits the lake sometimes. His work to revive this lake earned him a spot on White Canvas’ India 20 Under 20 list.

Making time count

Anthems and the environment apart, Yathaarth Murthy is also a basketball and music lover. As he gears up for his board exams, he has already begun planning for a future as a diplomat representing India at the United Nations. “I’ve chosen sociology, global perspective, history, and environment management, so I can apply to colleges abroad, and work towards working with the UN,” says the teen who spent the better part of the pandemic trying to conduct relief work. From distributing food to the needy through the iCare brigade to organising Housie for a Cause, and diverting funds towards Covid relief, Yathaarth has been busy doing his bit to spread cheer in otherwise dismal times.

Follow Yathaarth Murthy on LinkedIn

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Prathamesh Jaju

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Pubarun Basu

[caption id="attachment_12664" align="aligncenter" width="483"] Pubarun Basu[/caption]

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Aishwarya Sridhar

[caption id="attachment_8951" align="aligncenter" width="541"] Aishwarya Sridhar[/caption]

The wilderness is her office, Nature, a constant companion. The first Indian to win the coveted Wildlife Photographer Award in 2020 for her photograph on fireflies Lights of Passion (chosen from 50,000 entries from 80 countries) Aishwarya Sridhar’s entry held pride of place in the august halls of the National Museum of History in London at one time. “Every day is a new adventure. I look forward to spending time in the wilderness,” says the preservationist, who cherishes all those moments in verdant landscapes but feels most fortunate to have seen a tigress training her cubs to hunt in the wild. Sridhar is also the winner of Sanctuary Asia’s Young Naturalist Award, the Princess Diana Award, and is a Jackson Wild summit fellow (considered the Emmy of wildlife filmmaking).

Tanmay Sapkal

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Braving sub-zero temperatures, venturing out at unearthly times of day and night, and spending hours on met department updates – the life of a photographer isn’t easy. Tanmay and his wife live in San Francisco (she also works for Apple). Evenings are spent, “working on images, searching for what to do next, and talking to photographers.” In summer, when the sun sets late, Tanmay takes advantage of the light, and drives off to photography locations after his work as a tech designer is done.

The key to being a good landscape photographer, he explains, is “to know the weather.” It’s usually an interesting weather change that draws Tanmay to a spot, as “plants and trees change with seasons, as does the light.” So, if a big cloud system rolls in from the West Coast, it ascertains the location. Seasoned landscape photographers wander off into forests for weeks on end, carrying equipment, food, water and tents, “It’s easy to go missing or to be attacked by a bear,” he says. Although, given his propensity for shuffling off into snow-covered woods, thermal shock is also a concern.

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align="aligncenter" width="800"] Nandita Saxena after winning silver medal in patisserie and confectionary[/caption]

This year saw 1400 participants from 58 countries, participating in 62 categories. The events were held in a decentralised manner in 15 countries across Europe, East Asia and North America, over a period of 12 weeks between September to November 2022. Global Indian takes a look at the champions of 2022 who brought medals back home:

Nandita Saxena (silver medal in patisserie and confectionary): Nandita became the first Indian female competitor in history to win the silver medal in confectionary and patisserie at the WorldSkills platform. The Karnataka girl had joined IHM Aurangabad after her Bachelor’s degree to develop her patisserie and confectionery skills. Under the guidance of her mentor Vinesh Johny, she learned the nuances of the craft. She went to Lucerne, Switzerland to participate in the global challenge.

[caption id="attachment_25472" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Nandita Saxena | Photo Credit: WorldSkills India[/caption]

Praveen Kumar Giri (silver medal in water technology): The Odisha boy is a mechanical engineering student of CV Raman Global University. A staunch proponent of using technology for water conservation, Praveen was drawn to the field when he observed the perils of water scarcity in his surroundings growing up. He bagged the silver at the state level skill competition and went on to snag the gold at the National Skill Competition in Delhi before moving to the WorldSkills platform. He demonstrated his skills to experts in Stuttgart, Germany.

[caption id="attachment_25473" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Praveen Kumar Giri | Photo Credit: WorldSkills India[/caption]

Anushree Srinivasan, (bronze medal in hotel reception): The Coimbatore girl has won the first medal for the nation in the hotel reception category. The graduate from SRM Institute of Hotel Management, Kattankulathur joined ITC Hotels soon after passing out. She has internship experiences at Oberoi Hotels and Resorts and The Savera Group. Anushree used her work experience to upskill herself in problem-solving, teamwork and time management, under the mentorship of Aagman Baury. She travelled to Montreaux Switzerland to participate in the global challenge.

[caption id="attachment_25474" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Anushree Shrinivasan | Photo Credit: WorldSkills India[/caption]

Likith Kumar YP (bronze medal in prototype modelling): Likith travelled to Bern in Switzerland for the WorldSkills Competition. Prior to winning the bronze medal there, he had bagged the first place in the prototype modelling skill in IndiaSkills 2021 – the countrywide skill competition. Likith honed his skills under the guidance of his mentor, Bhaskar Singh, the chief expert in prototype modelling skills at Toyota India.

[caption id="attachment_25475" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Likith Kumar YP | Photo Credit: WorldSkills India[/caption]

Karthik Gowda Seehalli Nagaraju (bronze medal in mechatronics): Born into a humble background, the Mysore boy got the chance to hone his expertise in mechatronics at Toyota Kirloskar Motor. The twenty-year-old dedicated his win at WorldSkills 2022 to his mentor, Bhagyashree Patil. He demonstrated his skills to leading experts and manufacturers in machine vision and automation at Stuttgart, Germany.

[caption id="attachment_25476" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Karthik Gowda | Photo Credit: WorldSkills India[/caption]

Akhilesh Narasimhamurthy (bronze medal in mechatronics): The competitors of mechatronics were allowed to participate in a team. Akhilesh had teamed up with Karthik. This win holds a lot of significance for the youngster who has had a troubled childhood. With a specially-abled mother, Akhilesh struggled to make ends meet after his father abandoned them when he was young. He dedicated the award to his maternal uncle who funded his study. He has been trained at Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI) by Bhagyashree Patil.

[caption id="attachment_25477" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Akhilesh Narasimhamurthy | Photo Credit: WorldSkills India[/caption]

This is the 46th edition of the WorldSkills Competition, which is held every alternate year in a new country. Originally scheduled to be held at Shanghai, this is referred as a ‘special edition’, as it was delayed due to the pandemic and then conducted in a decentralised manner across several countries.

Indian champions participated in 50 skill categories, including graphic design technology, bakery, jewellery making, web technologies, health and social care, mobile robotics, restaurant services, information network cabling, autobody repair, automobile technology, 3D digital game art, fashion technology, and hair dressing among others. 

A total of 56 competitors, 50 experts, 11 interpreters and seven team leaders were part of the Indian contingent after rigorous selection process of National Skill Development Corporation starting from district to India Skills 2022 National Competition.

Visit WorldSkills India website to know more

Reading Time: 5 mins

Belagavi to Brooklyn: How Indian filmmaker Siddharth Salgaonkar’s home-grown short made it to the Toronto Film Festival

(August 27, 2023) "A film so guerilla that it was written, directed, shot, and edited by me, in my house, with no crew, and my mom as the only actor," Siddharth Salgaonkar said, about his short-film, Monster. The one-minute short was among the 23 selected from around the world to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was a big break for the young Indian filmmaker and put Belagavi, a town in Karnataka, on the world map. "Monster was made using available materials and meagre resources, featured my mother Seema as an actress and my father Hemant as a crew member," the young Indian filmmaker told The Hindu. "As a child, I wanted to be either a chef or a filmmaker. I think I have made my choice now after a lot of thought," he smiled. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TIFF (@tiff_net) Siddharth was born in Belagavi and his father, Hemant Salgaonkar is an artist trained at Mumbai's JJ School of Art. Creativity runs in the family, his mother is a Marathi theatre artist and a yoga teacher and his brother graduated from the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and is

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Siddharth was born in Belagavi and his father, Hemant Salgaonkar is an artist trained at Mumbai's JJ School of Art. Creativity runs in the family, his mother is a Marathi theatre artist and a yoga teacher and his brother graduated from the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and is now a UX-Designer in California.

Siddharth went on to study at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia and graduated in 2022. These days, Siddharth lives in Brooklyn, where he continues to pursue his dream of being a writer / director / actor. He's also exploring a new interest - standup comedy. Now a regular performer in New York's standup comedy circuit, the polymath is also working on his next independent film. "I'd dreamt of living in New York since I was little," the Global Indian says. "I'm in love with the city and the people and want to continue living here for the foreseeable future."

Early Student Films

He began making films as a student at the Srishti School of Art in Bengaluru, doing both fiction and non-fiction. His first film, Call, explores the relationship between a mother and son, and was based on true events. In the film, the protagonist waits for a call from his mother, which never comes. Although he doesn't know why, he senses that something is wrong. In 'Delete', a "seven shot short", a young man becomes oddly attached to an eraser. His films usually focus on the mundane, but are filled with tension and leave the audience wondering why. In Masala Beda, for instance, he captures the anxious anticipation of a student who waits for his order at the college canteen.

The non-fiction work of young Indian filmmaker, on the other hand, takes on social concerns. 'Livelihood on a Ride' delves into the ongoing battle that street vendors have against the municipality and the government in Bengaluru, as they jostle each other for space to make their meagre living. Ganesh Visarjan Bangalore is a brief documentary of the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Yelahanka.

Although his shorts make an impact, they have their share of challenges. "As an independent filmmaker, you have to restrict yourself while writing a film to make sure you can afford to make it," he explains. "I would like to believe that my ability to write humour - especially the dark, satirical kind - is one of my best characteristics," says Siddharth, who sees himself as a writer first, then an actor and a standup comedian. "Stories play the most important role in my life. Coming from a small town in India, there are a lot of culturally unique stories and experiences that I have picked up that I want to narrate to the world."

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