Firstly, I must start this with a round of thanks to Tasneem Vahanvaty, the co-ordinator of the awards for India and so much more at the British Council, India! She forced me to put in my application last year and was there to answer any queries I might have had along the way! And while I am at it, Claire De Brackeleer for all the help provided in the UK! It would never have been possible without either of you!

The application form itself is quite a questionnaire and they have smartly left the questions very non-specific to a particular project that you might have worked on. This means that you have a LOT of introspection to do and you get to pitch yourself for the award. It took me about a week to just fill up that form and get all my references in place, but I was glad I put that time in for it because ultimately when I had to make my presentation, it was all just a breeze!

London was a once in a lifetime adventure for me! It was the first time I had travelled out of the country by myself and there was just SO MUCH to do that I feared I would not want to come back at the end of it The British Council had taken the most excellent care of us and much to the surprise of EVERYONE I know, the finalists were put up in the Leceister Square area of London, the most central, most vibrant place in London!

Our schedule was packed with meetings with various different people from the music industry in London who gave me a whole new perspective to the entire music business. Like I realized after discussions with them, what we see in India today with regard to the Indie music business is what the scene was in London about 20 or so years back! And also, with technology and opportunity becoming more and more widespread, the gap can be closed very quickly!

All the finalists got to head to Liverpool and Manchester for a different perspective from the people who run their businesses from there. But the underlying thread that we saw in all conversations was how people from every single domain in the music business take thier work so seriously and how there is value attached to every little bit of work that goes in! Something that has to start and grow in India.

Many of the friends I made in London and in the trip across the UK, have been very helpful to me over the course of the year when I sucessfully shaped my career in the music businessand the few partnerships that have formed and are forming show a LOT of promise! Infact, if I was to sum up the whole experience of the Young Music Entrepreneur award in one word, it would be ‘PROMISE’. And I would like to thank everyone from the British Council for doing their bit in showing us that promise!

Go over and read my “Thank You” list for everyone who has helped me win this award. And if you are doing something interesting in music in India today, then please head to the British Council Website and get the forms and apply at once! Its well worth your time

http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-arts-yme-award.htm is the link you want to head to now!

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

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Got to these links via PhotoJojo

So here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas and I hope everything that you have wanted becomes yours in this season and for the year to come!

Right from the time we landed there to the time we left and for all the meetings that we had, she was always making sure that things were on track and we just had to go with the flow because we were sure Claire had taken care of it!

Claire is a brilliant listener and each of us were crazy story tellers! This is a typical Claire smile where she is completely enamoured by one of our stories! it was so much fun!

The rest of us are casually tiding along just following Claire from meeting to meeting!

For those of us who were on the trip .. this picture should be really amusing!