No Strings Attached - Sitarist Ravi Shankar’s daughter says that she plays the sitar for the love of it. Not because she’s her father’s daughter

The girl in black cut-offs and purple T-shirt who trips into the room on really high-heeled black sandals looks like any high-spirited teenager. The gold loops in her ears tremble as she plops herself down on the sofa cushions and tugs off her sandals with a quick, “I can’t wear these anymore.”
The eighteen-year-old could just be any other teen obsessed with studies, parties and movies. But she isn’t. She’s Anoushka, classical sitarist, purely classical, she tells you, who has not yet attempted to experiment with other music as yet. Not yet, “because she does not believe in doing something for the sake of doing it.”
Having a legend for a father, helps. Maybe. But Anouska insists that life as sitarist Ravi Shankar’s daughter has not made a difference. “I hang out with friends, go out dancing and parties like any other teenager,” says the youngster who lives in California, but plans to shift to New Delhi in the near future. “There was no pressure on me to learn music - but I did, and it took at least a couple of years for me to really grow to love playing it.”
Anoushka feels that her mother Sukanya did have a part to play in her creative journey, even if it’s her father’s influence that stands out - she has been trained completely by Ravi Shankar since the age of nine, beginning her lessons on the ‘baby sitar’ that was made specially for her. “My first music teacher was my mother,” says Anoushka, “She taught me to sing in the Carnatic style.” The young musician is excited to be in Chennai, her mother’s homeground, which she remembers as a place where one made toys out of coconut fronds or traced kolams on the floor.
She’s well aware that a famous father makes it that much more harder to prove oneself, but it really is not an issue. “People are going to say I am here because of him and that I am not as good as him, but that’s normal.” Anoushka is certain that she plays the sitar, not to carry her father’s legacy forward, but because she loves it. “But I am very lucky to have my father,” she smiles, “And there are bound to be comparisons.”
The eyes sparkle and her face is animated as she talks. Yes, she can carry off a sari, she’s just learnt to walk in one, but alas, her mom has to drape it for her. When she performs, it’s the salwar kameez for her... She’s absent-minded, she’s done a lot of silly things and if she were re-born, she’d perhaps choose to be studying literature, or theatre or work with women... But really, you can make out, it’s music she’d rather be really making.
Life for this young sitarist and classical pianist who has toured the world, is poised precariously on the edge of fame. She has recently released her second album Anourag. “I like it a lot better than my first one, Anoushka,” Anoushka declares, “It’s a lot more personal. I have not worried about much, just played and enjoyed the process.”