Music ends suffering by healing wounds: Pragnya Wakhlu

Pragnya Wakhlu is an award-winning independent musician who has become a star with her songs across the country. She is one of the few Indian independent artists to be elected to be a prestigious member of the Grammy Recording Academy in the year 2021. Along with her career, she has taken up the role of the entrepreneur by launching Mousai- a wellness startup firm which renders a wide range of healing services to clients.

Musical Journey of Wakhlu

Born in Kashmir and brought up in Delhi, Pragnya Wakhlu has been inclined to music since her childhood. At the age of six, she began her journey by learning Hindustani classical music. Over the years, she had learnt various musical instruments such as sitar, harmonium and guitar and took up western vocals classes. She also joined and participated in various bands.

She has pursued her education in IT engineering from Cummins College of Engineering for Women in Pune. Following this, she worked as a software developer for a few years at Infosys in Bengaluru and shifted to the US. However, her career as a software engineer didn't align with her passion and she decided to quit. Since she has been inclined to music, she wanted to create music and use it as a tool to influence energy.

She began her musical journey by writing and recording her music in 2008. She formed a local band in Pune and performed a lot of shows after it gained appraisals from the public. During her period in the music industry, Pragnya has successfully released three studio albums - Journey to the Sun, Kahwa Speaks, Lessons in Love and 5 singles. Moreover, she performed over 1500 shows and won a few awards.

When asked who are your musical influences, she smiled and said, "KT Tunstall, a Scottish singer-songwriter. I also like the meaningful music composed by India Arie, Tracy Chapman and Bob Dylan. I love bands like Simon & Garfunkel, Coldplay, Audioslave etc and in terms of Indian bands I like Advaita, Lucky Ali, Swarathma and Indian Ocean.

Her unique qualities as a singer are authenticity and the emotional depth in her voice. She writes and sings songs in multiple languages about causes and issues she is passionate about and cares about. Her main focus as a singer is on "What is being said in addition to how it is being sung".

"Being a Kashmiri by birth, the media often tends to present a distorted image of Kashmir because of the constant highlighting of the issues that take place over there. This creates a very biased view of what Kashmir is and often overshadows the positive side of what we have to offer culturally as a community. I endeavor to help people see the real essence of the Kashmiri culture using music and storytelling through the audio-visual show we've put together for Kahwa Speaks Ensemble", she said.

She also loves to create a positive impact on other cultures that are not well-known in the country. "Cross-cultural exchange is paramount in today's world to foster understanding and an appreciation of cultures other than our own. This creates more acceptance and understanding between nations and aids in building harmonious relationships across borders."

Sharing her challenges, Pragnya said "I have to start again from a fresh slate. Secondly, sexism exists as there were not many women in the music industry. You have to work extra hard to prove you deserve the same spot given to men. During this challenging period, you have to keep reminding yourself to carry through the tough times and keep doing what you love."

Career Highlights

Pragnya shares her key career highlights here

1. She was featured in the Outlook Magazine, 2022 under 50 Indian change-makers.

2. Won the VIMA (Voice International Music Awards) Malaysia for her album Kahwa Speaks under the best Genre-Bending song and Best Female Act

3. Selected to be a voting member of the Grammy Recording Academy

4. Won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 'Best Music' for Katyuchuk MyLove and 'Best Cinematography' for Kahwa Speaks (2021)

5. Won the Young Leaders Creating a Better World for All award by the Women Economic Forum

Her future goals as a musician are that she wants to continue creating music that inspires her and those around her. Her aim is to achieve a Grammy award for India as an independent artist.

Journey of Mousai

The journey begins in the year 2009 where she started doing experiments along with a dance therapist on sound and movement and their positive effects on people under the mentorship of Pragati Leadership. This led to the birth of her startup firm - Mousai which renders healing services and workshops to clients. The workshops are a unique combination of meditation & sound and movement practices that can be practiced at home by the participants.

Pragnya strongly believes music heals both body and mind. She said, "The essence of everything in the universe is vibrational energy - Naad. Music can shift and change patterns of energy. Moreover, frequent exposure to irreluguar sounds in our environment such as traffic, social media notifications etc create irregularity in the regular rhythms within the body - heartbeat, breathing etc. The body can regain its natural balance by using sound as a tool. Directed esoteric toning using the human voice,certain beej mantras,tuning forks,Indian classical ragas and music with healing solfeggio frequencies aids to restore the natural state of balance of the body and kick-start the self-healing process."

Since then, the startup team has worked across India, Hong Kong and the USA. They also render wellness workshops which are centered around applying techniques using sound and movement to realize your true potential.

In regards to challenges, she shares that as Mousai was a new concept in the industry. It took time to convince HR managers to invest in their employees. Not many people want to invest in workshops where they feel the investment isn't going to be directly proportional to an increase in sales numbers. The startup took an ample amount of time to break through the challenges.

When asked about the customer reviews for services rendered by the company, she smiled and said the firm has gained overwhelming responses from her clients. "A lot of people have shared that the session cures their aches and pains and their minds become a lot calmer. Many of them are experiencing sound healing and body wisdom practices for the first time and find it quite fascinating. We hope to continue enriching people's lives with our work to create happier and healthier organizations", she said.

Her future goals are to expand the team by working with at least 10 organizations in the upcoming year. She wants to host sound healing programs for people who can experience its benefits.

Finally she says, "Music can heal the wounds that medicines cannot touch. It brings us pleasure and releases our suffering. Listen to music to gear up for a healthy day"