helpful and supportive of each other today i can ask a fellow musician to record and send a song that i am not fluent in it is more of a friendship with a little competition but in a positive way there is no jealousy among our peer group also we should be our biggest competitor just because i performed well last year i shouldnt take it easy this time it is a constant journey to prove ourselvesaruna competition is healthy it makes you attentive i feel it is necessary i firmly believe that there is space for everyone but the ultimate test is the audience if they come in droves then everything falls in placethe advantages of being a musician todayaruna there are so many for example the ability to tape something and play it back is a huge thing when i was a student of brinda ma i was all of 10 i was an onlooker first and then became her student i still remember her teaching some of my seniors one of the senior artistes came to her class with a book and pen that day brinda ma didnt start the class she asked the artiste why she had brought them when the musician said she wanted to take notes my guru asked her to open her ears and write the notes in her heart that is how we learnt in those days it made us more attentive having said that it is easier for all of us today to just make it into a sound file and store it also music is being preserved this waynisha technology is used to the maximum i agree from sharing recording on whatsapp seeing video recordings of legends singing to taking a picture of the notes it has only become easy but sometimes it costs us that personal interaction with seniors people are learning on skype today i dont know how much you can take in unless you have a certain musical maturity you need to build a rapport with your guru tooaruna oh yes the guru doesnt just teach music but mould your personality too unless you go through the process your art wont make an impact just being with the guru talking to them and seeing how they approach a raga makes a lot of differencenisha true but the good thing is that over time senior musicians have become more approachablearuna laughs i cant imagine talking to brinda ma like this there was a certain distanceclassical musicians and pay structurenisha as freelance artistes your pay isnt fixed right but i dont have this issuearuna i can only speak for myself for the music season i see it as a social responsibility to give them back as they were the ones who supported me when i started off i dont charge them my entire fee because it is my contribution to the sabha system it is payback time i never keep finance as priority this is tapasya time for