CHENNAI : On the second floor of Odyssey, you could see a crowd of people attentively listening to AVIS Viswanathan, the happynesswala, as he spoke with yoga instructor and theatre artist Varun Aiyer, and singer Surojit Guha in the 41st edition of The Bliss Catchers, a series on individuals who give up conventional careers to follow their dreams.When Varun was 10, his mother introduced him to the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Kafka. This was where the schoolboy from Hyderabad began questioning who we are and why were we put on this Earth.
“I think the trigger was Tolstoy’s Anna Karina. I was reading Dostoyveskey and Kafka at the age of 11 or 13. I was probably reading them loosely, and 50 per cent must have flown past me but the other 50 per cent stuck around,” said Varun. When he was younger, Varun aspired to be an astrophysicist, as he wanted to reason things in an empirical manner.
Similarly, Surojit had music in his life since he was two. From a young age, he would listen to records and sing along. “I have a vivid memory of being propped up on the bed and listening to music. My aunt taught me how to use the record player and I would play every single record in the house, every day,” said Surojit. The Jim Reeves fan was accepted into a music school at the age of two, despite the school accepting children of only ages five and above.
Surojit began his 25-year career in a corporate company and Varun went on to teach at KFI, Chennai. Yet the pull of their love for art was irresistible. At the age of 28, Varun left for New Delhi to study at the National School of Drama. At the age of 55, Surojit left his job as a trainer to pursue his career in music. Both felt that they reached a point where their careers got stagnant. Varun was doing theatre while working as a teacher, and Surojit’s singing career was merely a shadow of his true talent. This was when they decided to take the plunge into their true passion.
Surojit’s bliss comes from the support of his family, and his belief in his talent. Varun’s bliss comes from the act of performing and engaging with life to become a better performer. “I don’t think there is a balance between life and bliss. One finds oneself very interestingly bankrupt. I think that’s good. I think it becomes important at some point to see if you feel better worrying about the resources or money, but in the act of worrying about it, we find something wonderful in it,” he said.