The gifted voice adorns her, and the creative intellect enhances her ‘charisma’ to carry on the unstoppable hard work. Known for her jingle sung for the Cadbury, her ‘Kiss Me’ jingle has been widely famous. Many years in corporate, high degrees and a handsome salary could not stop her indomitable courage to pursue her career at singing. Woman Times brings to the foray Shubhalakshmi Misties Sen’s life and her love for music.
Anyone who knows her well knows how much she loves, worship and respect music which she will be completely into it for the rest her life. Her training started under the supervision of her mother when she was only 3 years old. Her mother being a banker herself and mothering two of the most notorious children, never failed to practice every single night after the dinner was over. And maybe that is how Subhalakhsmi got her ‘mishti’ voice. Her roots being in Hindustani classical music, she was later inducted for a brief period of time under the guidance of Pandit Sushil Basu, who was her mother’s Guruji and also the student of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Her route into Western music was completely acquired since her father had a varied taste in western music. Hence Subhalakshmi had the privilege to enjoy the joys of both the worlds.
On asking about her entrepreneurial ventures she said, “I would like to thank my family, the brilliant minds that I have rubbed shoulders at the business school and my ex-corporate offices, my current musical colleagues and the aspiring and enterprising individuals I meet every day. They have rubbed off their brilliance on me so that I can aspire to do better in my life.
I have had very supportive offices and colleagues, where I was given the privilege to pursue music alongside my career. In fact, they have come for my performances and encouraged me all the way. This put a strong desire in me to quit the services and join the music industry full time. Now, music is a strong connection between my becoming an entrepreneur. Music has given me the opportunities to travel to different countries and has put the love for travelling in my soul. Hence, I started the travelling company for Sri Lanka where I receive more opportunities to travel to different places and countries.”
Ms. Sen did not leave an inch of her creativity to go waste and when, while travelling she found different cultures, different tastes and attires too, she desired to create something. This was the beginning of the journey with HandyKrafts India, which is home-based hand-made jewellery brand. In a matter of 5 years, she has satisfied patrons in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Dubai, Germany and USA. She considers her extremely lucky to have started a humble journey of an entrepreneur and hoping that she can continue doing so in different areas of work.
For her, “Motherhood has been the best thing which has happened to me. It has shaped me into an individual that I am today. It is an absolute blessing to be a mother were there many, who can’t receive the joy because of their reasons best known. I’m truly blessed to have my son Mayank, who makes me proud and also makes me a better human every day. He has taught me, love, affection, patience, humility and so much more. It’s a journey, where I have learned so much as an individual. I am proud of being a single mother yet overwhelmed by the feeling of raising my son both as a mother and a father. Starting from being not only the mother but the father, understanding the different needs of a child and thus, making me more competent and confident in my life. It is a satisfying role in my life, where I’m yet to face difficulties because I’m enjoying my motherhood to the fullest, all thanks to my son.”
Shubhalakshmi not only just sings but strongly opines on the demarcations of commercial and non-commercial music, “While the boundaries may seem clear, the difference between commercial music and non-commercial music can be difficult to pinpoint. Most clearly, music for commercial use is intended for projects with the intent to profit in some form or fashion. Less obviously, even music that’s used alongside training, videos and internal communication is considered commercial music. Non-commercial music, on the other hand, applies to projects that have no association with a personal brand, corporate brand, or any profit-generating element, which applies to only projects that will be seen by family and friends. But our sense of categorising music into commercial and non- commercial is still pretty vague. Like, music used in Box Office or Blockbuster hits are called commercial, yet on the other hand, music for the art movies or documentaries are known as non- commercial. Because at the end of the day, money and TRP generated from such music categorise them as profitable.”
Commenting on copyright law she thinks in India people are not aware of the licensing system or they tend to avoid it. It is generally illegal to play music in a public place without obtaining a license for the musical works. Many business owners are unaware of this, and don’t know that they need to pay a license to play music, or don’t know how to play music legally in their business. She goes on commenting that, “apart from the usual licensing in India, various producers are registered with multiple societies like Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), Indian Performing Right Society Ltd (IPRS) etc. But musicians/ artists aren’t entitled to royalty as such. Because the music directors take the sweetness of the cake, singers like us only can revel in the joy of singing it.”
Industry yet is much pro to playback singing and Shubhalakshmi feels that playback singing is much easier than performing for the audience on a live stage. In fact, according to her, ads, jingles and voiceovers can be re-done in multiple takes in the studio, but one wrong note or a one off-pitch is sung on the stage can’t be redone, a song sung once is your ticket to glory. Also, in studios, one can rehearse multiple times for the right kind of mood and feel, for the output of the product. But on a live stage, it’s the pure and raw energy of a musician/artist, collectively with fellow band mates or on a solo act, to bring that right element, the electrifying moment, so that the audience is captivated and enjoys their time.
Sen’s take on feminism is, “Beliefs are beliefs, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. With this, you are correct, I am a feminist. You are entitled to your opinion, and I am entitled to mine. An important part of opinions is education about the matter. That being said, it’s important to know the true meaning of feminism.”Feminism” as the theory is about the political, economic and social equality of the sexes. NOT women having ascendancy over men! Women have fought and continue to fight every day for the last century to attempt and to gain the same rights as men. Feminism does not include putting people of the opposite sex down.” Interestingly, her inspiration actually comes from both women and men. Her mother and maternal grandparents have been the biggest source of courage, inspiration and motivation in her life. And next inspiration for her, were her dad, elder brother, youngest maternal aunt, and her eldest cousin sister.
“First of all, this is the 21st century! Women have never been more respected. Women have more rights in the world, right now than before.” says Shubhalakshmi. Although respect for women has drastically increased, women are nowhere close to receiving the full respect they deserve. If women were respected in every way, their bodies would be respected as well as our thoughts. Balancing her views she says, “I consider myself to be a very strong and independent woman. But that doesn’t mean that I feel the need to put down the opposite gender for every problem I endure. Not everything is a man’s fault. Hence, What I call myself doesn’t matter nearly as much as what I believe in.”
She knows that labels are supposed to be shorthand for that kind of thing, but a label is only as useful as it is descriptive. Today, labels like ‘liberal’, ‘conservative’ and ‘feminist’ are inaccurate and unhelpful. Too many people with different beliefs, interests and ways of life claim these labels. To speak of people using these labels is to say little more than ‘people’. You could say that, in some odd way, this is to the credit of such labels. They’re so popular that millions of people want to be associated with them. But for that very reason, their use is limited in serious conversation, because most don’t understand the importance of the subject.
Being a strong lady when asked her about her mistakes she said with poise, “Let me rephrase this a little, as far as I know, I don’t recollect mistakes but failures in my life. Because I can’t pinpoint any particular mistake which has reshaped my life, then the failures which have strengthened me as a person. We all fail at different times in our lives, which make us more human and also teaches us the importance of conviction and self-reliability. After each of my mistakes, I have become more tenacious, hardworking, humble and positive. She believes in the fact that one must understand the fact as to why one has failed? It gives us more insight and afterthought, which builds us for the future challenges. Hence, failures have taught the ‘Kiss Me’ girl more.
In reference to the image of the women in this young and developing country, Sen thinks women everywhere have their share of different challenging roles across the globe. As a young woman, she strongly believes that the image of women in the world is changing for the better. ‘She’ is no more looked upon as a commodity to only rear, bear and care. This ‘she’ is looking after both the spectrum of the society, be it the family or the workstations. On her travels to foreign countries, she has seen women almost on the same page in every country, but she is also positive about the opportunities coming her way and she is hopeful that women will be scaled equally.
Recalling some facts she tells that, we had our first woman astronaut ‘Kalpana Chawla’, the first prime minister of India was ‘Indira Gandhi’, the first president ‘Pratibha Patil’, the CEO of a leading American company Indra Nooyi, Lieutenant General Punita Arora of Indian Armed Forces , the first woman Air Marshal Padmavathy Bandopadhyay of the Indian Air Force , Priya Jhingan the first lady cadet to join the Indian Army, also the announcement by our ex-president Pranab Mukherjee, women will finally be allowed to take up combat roles in all sections of the Indian armed forces. This shows that we are heading towards the change.
“Although it is 2017, yes, women are still by far, too vulnerable to many situations and problems, all around.” she believes.
Few according to her are,
“Receiving the right to education, irrespective of the social class they are prone to domestic violence, irrespective of the class of the society. In fact, domestic violence is still prevalent in well educated and well-earned families are more and behind the curtains. This probably will never be spoken of in public, due to obvious reasons of speculation. Women are still under-represented in our society. We are still looked upon as someone who will rear, bear and care. Victims of rape, acid attacks, domestic violence, social media offence are still awaiting their verdicts.
The only message she sends to the society is that ‘Believe in what you are.”
