It all started when my mom’s colleague Brinda Rajaram sent an email on Aug 16th informing me about a Talent search competition that will be held on Aug 22nd. This was a competition being organized by an organization called Tri-Iva Global Inc. based out of NY. They were looking to select a winner who will be given an opportunity to sing in an Indian movie. The music director looking for the talent is named Srikanth Deva. It was too late to enter, but I took a chance by calling the organizers to see if anything can be done. The lady I spoke to, Mrs. Minu Kumar, said that the elimination rounds have been completed and they have selected 26 participants to compete in the finals. I persuaded her to listen to one of my tracks and requested to participate in the competition. The rest is unbelievable!
After I sent in my audition tape, I get an email form Tri-Iva Global at 2.30 the MORNING indicating that I have been selected to be the 27th participant!
The original plan was for my parents to drive me to Penn State on the 22nd as my school was starting on the 24th. So, now we changed all the plans, drove to Penn State on the 21st, dropped off some of my stuff in my apartment and continued to drive to NY.
The fellow contestants were all phenomenally talented and all came with a very high level of pedigree. This is when I realized just what I had gotten myself into… the nervous kicked in full-swing…all thrusters GO.
And how did they pick the singing order, you may wonder. So I asked….
“We’ll go by first names,” Said Minu Kumar.
………………….Why did I open my mouth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So. The letter A and the letter D happened to be the first two letters in my name. I was first…
I sang my favorite “Varagha Nadhi Karai Oram” created by AR Rahman and set the music to my own beat boxing arrangement. The final moment of the announcement came at around 11.30pm and when they called my name as the winner, I was jumping with joy and my parents sitting in the audience was screaming and whistling! J Check out the videos at http://www.youtube.com/vidhyu.
