Aarya Sarda, a ten-year-old youngster from Nashik, is the proud recipient of the prestigious CCRT (Centre for Cultural Resources and Training) Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme 2013-14 of the Union ministry of culture. The scholarships are annually awarded to outstanding performing arts exponents between 10-14 years of age. A class VI student of the Rasbihari International School, Aarya bagged the scholarship for her solo rendition of raag bageshree and zhala on the harmonium at a specially convened event held last June at the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Mumbai. She is one of the country’s four scholarship awardees — three of whom are from Maharashtra — in the Hindustani music instrument – harmonium — category.
A total 42 of the 544 national scholarships announced were awarded to promising young performing artistes from Maharashtra. The CCRT scholarship is valid throughout the period of undergrad education or until 20 years of age, renewable every two years.
Aarya was introduced to music by her father, Shrirang Sarda, promoter-director of the Nashik-based Sarda Group — a big name in the bidi, real estate and hospitality industries — at age two, and trained to play the tabla and keyboard. Later her mother Suchitra taught her to play the harmonium and perform kathak. Their passion for music led them to organise Nashik’s first-and-only annual inter-school music festival in 2003.
“My music achievement is due to my guru Subhash Dassakar and his daughter Surashree who plays the harmonium with me. My proudest moment was when I performed in the presence of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar in Delhi,” says Aarya, whose first public performance was at age five.
With her youthful energy and talent, she is adept at managing a busy schedule between school, tennis, music and kathak dance classes.
“At different times I have wanted to be an astrologer, poet and dentist when I grow up. But whatever my vocation, music and dance will always be a part of my life,” says this promising musician and danseuse.
Sunayana Nair (Mumbai)
