a trained classical vocalist shubha mudgal straddles a range of musical forms from classical to indipop and all that falls in between defying definition you might think but her immense range and style too has been put in a box labelled eclectic does this label take away from her versatility and ability to fuse disparate musical forms yes but shubha takes no credit for her skill over a wide repertoire as she was exposed to all kinds of music without being judgmental in fact her guru pandit ram ashreya jha who was primarily an exponent of classical styles like dhrupad dhamar and khayal originally worked for a ram leela company and became one of the greatest composers of his time naina devi too did qawwali ghazal and thumri and also worked as a tv producer i cant give myself credit for being able to amalgamate styles its part of my inheritance so i have a natural curiosity for all musical styleswith the broad musical scenario in india today becoming a melting pot of musical genres why have nonfilm genres unlike in the west not picked up or become as popular as film music shubha attributes this to arts education in india not being an integral part of the school system you cant have one period a week for music often reallotted to more important subjects with the music teacher ending up training kids to sing for independence day besides she asks why such a narrow music curriculum with only classical music a lot of kids feel classical music sar ke upar se jaata hai why dont we inculcate a culture of listening and producing a variety of sounds and styles and not just shows in which every child wants to be a chota ustadironically enough even fusion styles like indipop which became a rage are on the decline shubha thinks indipop is on the wane because there is a complete lack of focus on quality the trend is to look good and if you have the wealth make an album and sell it to a company for a sum there is very little scouting and nurturing of talent and there is no well thought out marketing strategy for selling music she says the only option an artist is left with is to do spot sales at the concert venue which artists find difficult to handle and anyway is a limited avenue sensing the need for creating a distribution channel as many artists recordings are either not easily available or not being sold beyond a point shubha started an online music store the online store is a platform for musicians to sell on the net on their own terms and conditions and 80 percent of every sale is sent to the artist she affirms visibly delighted at being asked her about her fascination for gizmos and the connection to music mudgal says technology drives me and im like a child in a toy shop our music website started because of