Carnatic evangelist K.N. Shashikiran: Leading a new breed of musicpreneurs

In the mental landscape of a middle-class Tamil parent of a teenager, the sequence of words maths-Brilliant Tutorials-IIT-financial aid-h1b visa-you yess (that's US pronounced the Tam way)-Microsoft is like carefully arranged furniture. Adequate care is taken not to clutter it with ''worthless'' things like literature or arts. The only exception being the ragas and talas of Carnatic music, which keeps the child away from the film-going, rock-loving infidels. Besides, it's also a sign of flawless upbringing. So, the search for a paattu mami (the venerable aunty who teaches carnatic music), whether in the crammed Carnatic heartland of Chennai's Mylapore or San Francisco's Bay Area, begins in right earnest very early.

But for people like Ramakrishna Piyush, 15, picking up Carnatic notes for the last eight years, the problem starts when passion steps in. To his desire to build a career in classical music, his father, a government servant, has just one retort: ''Carnatic music provides succour for the soul, but it won't fill your stomach.''

Fortunately, for the likes of Piyush that logic seems to be on its way out. Representing a new breed of musicpreneurs, K.N. Shashikiran, 31, a wiry musician-Carnatic evangelist, and his friend and popular vocalist S. Sowmya, are changing the way classical music is being taught, and in the process creating new career avenues for people like Piyush.

Shashikiran with Sowmya: Catching 'em young

Shashikiran is the Founder Director of Chennai-based Srishti's Carnatica Private Limited, which plans to popularise Carnatic music through multimedia, including tutorial VCDs and the portal Carnatica.com. And late last year, he introduced his Carnatica music-learning centre. Sowmya, once hailed as the musical heir to the legendary M.S. Subbulakshmi, is a gold medallist-post graduate in chemistry from IIT Madras, who chose to take up music full-time.

Replicating the NIIT model of building expert content and reaching out through franchisees, the two cater to nearly 170 students. Shashikiran and Sowmya, got together in 1997 with a capital of just Rs 2,500, and at present, after four years, they claim to be worth Rs 2.9 crore in terms of the content they've generated (though they refuse to divulge their turnover).

Located in T. Nagar, Chennai's bustling commercial area, the 6,000-square feet Carnatica centre is equipped with a well-stocked library, a state-of-the-art-mini recording studio, and an auditorium. As of now, the centre has four franchisee centres in Chennai and Coimbatore.

Typically, a Carnatica franchisee has to bring in an investment of Rs 2-5 lakh and some space. Shashikiran provides the equipment and the faculty, and most importantly, he offers the franchisees an exit option where he gets 60 per cent of his investment back two or three years down the line, if the business seems unviable.

Shashikiran's next target is taking his music centres global, for which he requires close to Rs 3.5 crore in the next two years-it could come through joint ventures, VCs, or a sizeable community of NRI carnatic do-gooders. Also, the doubts over the viability of chic carnatic schools are being quickly dispelled. No longer is the traditional gurukulam way the only means to learn classical music. Says renowned musician-guru Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan who has signed up with Indiamusicinfo.com to teach music through the internet: ''By using multimedia, I can reach out to a wider group of students, unlike the traditional system." Now, paattu mami, beware of the computer in your student's house!

TREADMILL

Ouch! That Hurts Gym injuries are so common that eight out of ten gymrats (by the way, that's my own market research) are affected by them at least once a year. And I'm not talking about some butterfingered lout dropping a 7.5-kg dumbbell on your toes or a brawny, creatine-filled giant tossing a barbell plate that cracks your shin in two. More worrisome are the gym injuries that you're not sure what could have caused. Like, well, the exercises themselves. Take simple shoulder-presses. Most people, at least in the urbane gyms, like to do them at the machine. But the shoulder-press machine isn't built for everyone. The width between the two grips may suit your trainer's musculature, not necessarily yours. So presses using the machine can cause the small vulnerable muscles of the rotator cuff to get pinched between the bones of the shoulder joint. Training your shoulders with the old-fashioned free-weight barbell press can also cause the same injury, unless you get the width between your grips right or use a trained spotter. The worst thing you can do when a particular movement hurts a muscle is to continue with that exercise. Instead, stop immediately. Give it a few days to recover and then try an alternate exercise that works the same muscle groups without injuring them. So, if a shoulder-press machine hurts, try the two-dumbbell military press. Consider the traditional squat-where you place the barbell behind your shoulders. It's an excellent exercise to build powerful legs but many people lean their torsos forward too much while squatting. Result: lower back problems. Solution: Hold the barbell in the crook of your elbows in front of your body (see the little illustration our artist has done in the top corner). That way, your upper body doesn't lean too much in front and your lower back isn't strained. Ditto for leg extensions: if they hurt your knees, do leg- presses. And stiff-legged deadlifts: if your lower back hurts, do Romanian deadlifts (where you don't lower the bar as much as you do in the TRAD. version. Check with your gym instructor about these. Most of them are glad to talk to people who are curious about their area of specialisation. Tip of the fortnight: Exercise with dumbbells, barbells and machines, in that order. Exercises with dumbbells and barbells tend to need the help of the small stabiliser muscles that tire easily. Machines, which exercise the larger muscle groups by isolating them, require little support from these. So while exercising your triceps, do the skullcrackers and one-arm overhead curls first before you head to the cable pull-down. Muscles Mani