Ricky Kej to Receive Srajan The Spark Lifetime Achievement Award in Udaipur, Performs Free Concert for Environment

With this award, Kej steps into a roll of honour that reads like a history of Indian music itself. Past recipients of Srajan’s Lifetime Achievement honour include Padmavibhushan Dr L Subramaniam, Padmabhushan Vishwamohan Bhatt, A Sivamani, Pt. Ronu Majumdar, Usha Mangeshkar, Anup Jalota, Roop Kumar Rathod, Sudesh Bhosle, the duo Anand-Milind, Anandji of Kalyan ji-Anandji, lyricist Yogesh, Sameer Anjan, poet and actor Shailesh Lodha among many others.

“It’s absolutely amazing to be in that company,” shares Kej. “I am thrilled as this is an award from India, my country. And not only that, it’s an award in particular from Rajasthan, where my father hails from.”

“Ricky Kej has brought great recognition to India and Rajasthan, not only through his music but through his extraordinary work for environmental conservation across the globe,” says Khamesra. “Srajan originated in Udaipur, and Ricky also has his roots in our state. We are immensely proud to honour him.”

Interestingly, Srajan was born in 2013 in Udaipur over a cup of tea, when Khamesra, a music lover since childhood, and some of his friends set out to bring India’s fading music, poetry and shayari back to the people. Khamesra has always believed that his professional responsibilities and personal passion could coexist, and through his years in the police, neither ever stood in the way of the other.

What makes it rare is that it is entirely self-funded. Close to 1,500 industrialists and dignitaries who are proud members of Srajan the Spark contribute from their own pockets, purely for the love of Indian music. From Udaipur it has grown to Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Delhi NCR, Kota, Hyderabad, Asansol, Chennai, Canada and London etc.

The stage it has built is a treasure. Artists such as Anup Jalota, Pankaj Udhas, Suresh Wadekar, Usha Uthup, Nitin Mukesh and many others have performed at Srajan, as have poets such as Rahat Indori, Wasim Barelvi and Nida Fazli etc. It also seeks out unsung artists and gives young talent a stage alongside the masters. The movement is now working towards establishing Srajan Music Schools across India, along with a Music Museum and Academy in Udaipur, where work is already underway.

Kej shares that same commitment to India’s musical roots. “No matter how hard I try to make a completely western piece of music, there will always be a soul of India within that music”, says Kej. And, that soul is exactly what brings him and Srajan together.

Kej has made it his mission over the next five to six years to document as many of India’s tribal songs and musicians as he can, building a permanent archive of musical forms passed down orally for thousands of years and now vanishing. Those songs, he says, carry indigenous knowledge about coexisting with nature and our place as human beings in the world.

“Art is all about breaking the rules, but you have to know the rules first in order to break them,” he says. “That’s why it’s very important that these traditional forms of music are preserved. All other contemporary forms come from them.” And in this regard, Srajan the Spark is doing “fantastic work” in keeping India’s classical and folk traditions alive.

Ricky Kej will receive ‘Hindustan Zinc-Srajan The Spark Lifetime Achievement Award’ on 15th November at DPS School, Udaipur, to be presented by Srajan – The Spark & Bijay Kumar Surana Foundation in collaboration with Hindustan Zinc Limited.

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