ART of FOCUS

By, Anand M. Marda (MBA)

Early Life…

• Rehman began taking piano lessons when he was 4.

• He lost his father when he was 9.• For supporting the family financially he started

working as a keyboard player in Illaiyaraja's troupe when he was 11.

• He also left school and trotted the globe with several orchestra groups.

Contd.

• He also worked with Zakir Hussain, a famous expert of tabla, on some tours around the world.

• He was rewarded with a scholarship at Oxford University's Trinity College of Music and earned a Western Classical Music degree.

• Afterwards he converted to Islam and got the name A R Rehman. 

Career Start in

• The award function at which A R Rehman received an award for the category of the Best Jingle Composer for his Leo Coffeee ad

• There Mani Ratnam - Spielberg of India approached him.

• After that A R Rehman had to never look back. 

Contd.

• His music in 'Roja' became popular worldwide and after that :

• great hits: Jeans - Bombay - Gentleman - Dil Se - Pukar - Saathiya - Lagaan and Taal

• Rehman's latest hits include music in the films :Rang De Basanti – Guru - Jodha Akbar & Rockstar

• He also worked as a singer in his films Dil Se - Rang De Basanti - Guru and Jodha Akbar. 

Words of Rahman….

• “I’m never composing in the studio for too long—at best for 20 minutes, 30 on the outside. I don’t spend eight to nine hours on something it fatigues me. It’s like beating a sick person. There’s this Big Bang moment. It either comes, or it doesn’t. It flows or it doesn’t. But when you sit and things are at ease… that’s when it happens.”

Life’s Lessons of

1. PAUSE

• The big lesson: The ability to pause for a few moments when everything around seems completely out of whack.

“Never take a decision based on emotion. You need to look at the world in a detached way. 

Pause! “It requires effort.... it requires sacrifice.”

2. Pursue your Passion

•“I used to cycle and go all the way to Mount Road [some 10-12 km away] just to find this one British magazine called Music Makers. It was about synthesizers.” Often, after he’d cycled there, the store would say it hadn’t arrived yet. But he’d keep going there every day, “until I got my copy. And when I’d finally get it, I’d go ‘Oh my God!’”

• “Then there was this time I used to go to Bangalore to another shop, where they had albums that were not there in Chennai and come back listening to them on the train. That transported me to another world. When I did my music, I wanted to transport other people as well, without compromising on tradition. I guess that’s why Roja eventually happened.”

3. Asset your Differences

• “If you go to Hollywood and say, ‘I can do what John Williams does,’ they’ll say, ‘get out!’ But when I said I have Slumdog Millionaire, they embraced me. Do something on your own. Do something unique. Look at yourself from the other person’s perspective and make yourself unique.”

4. Choose the World that supports you

5. Master Distraction

• In business, multi-tasking is a much-touted skill. The better you are at it, conventional wisdom goes, the higher your chances of making it to the top.

• AR Rahman doesn’t multi-task. When he’s focussed, it is intense, because, as he says, “It is a spiritual thing. Nothing comes without losing something. You can’t have everything.”

THANK YOU……