The pandemic has given this teenage tabla student enough time to go beyond his regular riyaaz. And for a person who only went online via Facebook and Instagram in class 8, the music used in the Glitch Trend Reels was inspiration enough.
“I saw people dancing to the Glitch Reels, and I wanted to do something different,” says Ved, 18. After jamming to it for five hours, he neatly put together a Reels that made the groove more compelling, with classical tabla techniques switching to bhangra beats. His DMs were filled, the Reels had 800 views and he gained 3k followers.
Celeb-savvy
This isn’t the first time Ved’s gone viral. His version of Genda Phool got five million views in two days on TikTok. His repost on Reels got him 300k views within hours and his followers went from 7k to 9k. He’s also had songs reshared by celebrities like Badshah and Akshay Kumar.
Ved started playing the dhol when he was 3, after his father and grandfather observed his tendency to turn utensils into percussion instruments and took him to a music shop in his hometown, Kadi, about 200 kms from Baroda.
Tabla techniques
{{/usCountry}}Tabla techniques
{{/usCountry}}“My grandfather insisted on the tabla, even though I wasn’t keen on it then,” says the second year student at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. His focus shifted to the classical tabla when he was 12 years old, after having his fill of national and state-level dhol competitions.
The last few months have seen song requests and those for collaborations pouring in. “About 60 per cent people in India may not sit through an entire purely classical concert. However, classical music is what helped me understand music. I owe it everything,” says Ved who plans to pursue his masters and a PhD in classical tabla.
Follow @kkuenzang on Twitter and Instagram
From HT Brunch, October 3, 2021
Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch
Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch