Her voice, rippling with an otherworldly timbre, swirls around dreamy guitar chords, and it leaves listeners imagining her floating away to some cosmic nightscape at the end of a song. But Ditty (aka Aditi Veena) has her feet firmly planted on Earth, and the Goa-based musician and urban ecologist taps into the synergy between these two fields while living in tune with this planet’s rhythm. Verve has a heart to heart with the singer of ‘earthsongs’….
How do you see music and the Earth being connected?
In some ways, I think of the Earth as a beautiful piece of music. The natural cycles of water and nitrogen, the rhythms of the yearly revolutions around the sun and rotations around its axis are its punctuations in time.
The dance of our breaths, the rise and fall of the sun, tidal waves, the various patterns over time and space; these are rhythms that repeat indefinitely, just like a beautiful drum circle where foundational beats are laid and others can float off from there.
Is there an early experience or memory related to music/sound that has remained a consistent influence?
My family loved to travel. We were a big Indian family, with lots of us tiny tots, and we used to go up to the hills often. My earliest sonic memories are of crickets and flowing rivers — we would jump into the rivers with crates of warm mangoes, which we cooled off in the water and then feasted on.
I often like to shut myself up somewhere silent if I’m in the city while writing songs. Else, I am mesmerised by the sound of water. Rain, thunderstorms, rivers and trickling streams fascinate me. I love to write by the sea.
What is the most memorable concert/ live performance you’ve been to?
In my teenage years, a senior from school — Sneha Ravichandran — sang The Carpenters at the morning assembly. I was deeply moved, and I knew then that I wanted my voice to have the same effect as hers. So, I started singing.
How do you use your songs as tools for protest?
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Esta historia es de la edición April - May 2019 de Verve.
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Making Amends
This generation’s penchant for thoughtless consumption gets Madhu Jain roiled up, and she wonders if nature is getting its own back for our missteps…
Diamonds With Provenance
In keeping with the company’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility, Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chief sustainability officer at Tiffany & Co. and chairman and president at The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, enlightens Shirin Mehta on the efforts that make the jewellery giant an industry leader in transparency
SARTORIAL ECONOMICS
Sisters Tashi and Tara Mitra demonstrate to Akanksha Pandey how deviating from the mainstream can bend the way we think, live and dress
NOTES TO SELF
An anthropomorphized tiger’s perspective, a viscerally worded futuristic interpretation of loss, a critique of performative activism, a meta reflection on the earth’s crises. Told through different lenses, Janaki Lenin, Indrapramit Das, Keshava Guha and Roshan Ali’s stories — written exclusively for Verve — attempt to make sense of the fraught reality that we exist in today
The Eternal Optimist
As Generation X and xennials grapple with fully transitioning to conscious living, young millennials and Generation Z are leading the charge to reverse human-caused environmental damage. Sahar Mansoor, founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based zero-waste social enterprise Bare Necessities, has a simple overarching philosophy: consume less and stay positive. Verve gets deeper into the mindset of the action-oriented earth advocate
Redemption SONGS
Indian music festivals have been demonstrating a refreshing sense of responsibility in terms of their ecological impact. Interacting with stakeholders who strive to make these large-scale events greener, Akhil Sood investigates the reasons behind the improved attitudes of audiences and the increase in corporate support.
earth hour
Crafted using nature’s elements, these dials draw inspiration from the many heterogeneous materials and hues around us.Verve turns its lens onto a mesmerising few
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Children are holding adults accountable for both the grim future they are facing and the toll this is taking on their mental health. Madhumita Bhattacharyya initiates conversations with families of young climate activists and observes the extent to which parenting has changed in the face of catastrophe
NATURAL JUSTICE
Most of us are only just waking up to the urgency of climatic action. When the stakes are so high, what can individual action solve? Mridula Mary Paul, an environmental policy expert, is proof of the tenacity needed to effect systemic change. It’s not glamorous, and the rewards are few and far between, but that doesn’t stop her from aiming big, finds Anandita Bhalerao
Along For The Ride
Navigating Indian streets as a woman is hard enough. But what is it like while riding a bicycle? Bengaluru-based Shreya Dasgupta, a regular cyclist, speaks to five urban women about the pros and cons of this increasingly popular means of transport.
