Crystal gazing into 2022

It will be a more confusing world to navigate, and technology will get even more entrenched and demanding

I started the New Year as always performing with Jayanthi Kumaresh at Kalakshetra in Chennai. And, as always, the concert saw a large turn-out, including WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan. We seized the opportunity and asked her how this wave was going to play out and what we ought to be prepared for.

Her response was — don’t fret and fear.

I paused to reflect on how the two earlier waves had impacted the artiste community. Many losses have been irreplaceable, including the loss to a whole generation of young creators of being introduced on a live stage. Their worldviews have been altered forever. Given the plethora of problems that everyone has faced, the problems of performers or visual artists do not strike me as the most severe or disturbing.