Follow Your Heart It Will Lead You Home

[Music]

good afternoon everyone

i’m viviane pocha i was born in a little

coastal town

in the south of india my mangalore

my journey took flight when i was just

three years old

my dad died my older sisters were five

and seven my mother at

27 stayed in deep morning for

for the next 10 years wearing black

deep purple and sometimes dark green see

those were the colors that i saw her in

but through all the hardship and pain

music and art

came to my rescue and i keep thinking

how did i know at that early age that i

was going to pursue

music as a child i was given a lot of

musical toy instruments as gifts

uh there was a bongo and a little

harmonium

a little um toy violin with a matka

and a stick uh going through and finally

a

and i managed to make some music out of

it all

but when i was 12

my mom bought me a real an 81 rupee

real guitar and i was so excited

i wrapped myself around it as i slept

so my school and college passed by in a

whirlwind of

musical competitions and trophies

and right there in front of me

was the idea of a career in singing

so we made an appointment

with this legendary uh western classical

voice trainer

mrs brown well she looked me up and down

and in his turn tone said i believe

you’re a jazz singer

let me hear you sing and and then she

played a little uh

scale on the piano and i said la la la

la la la la la

higher la la la la la la la la

mana

and she said well

i think i could do something with you

but

you are going to be not able to sing

anywhere for the next five years

while i train your voice and that was a

shock for me

i was ready to sing yesterday

so i the thought of

going underground with mrs brown for

five years

no way and i gave up the idea of

training

and that was it

it was at that time that i saw my first

big stage musical evita

directed by alex padamsi now

watching from the last row of the safaya

baba auditorium

and in that collective hushed silence

i heard my call in the strains of don’t

cry for me

argentina tears were streaming down my

face

i was going to be on that stage i

promised myself

this was my destiny

and so i picked up my guitar and moved

to the bombay of my dreams well

everything was happening here the music

industries in bombay

the advertising industry was in bombay

the the bollywood was in bombay and so

but how where how was it going to get an

in-road

big question mark there was a buzzer on

this place

uh they were auditioning for a stage

musical grease lightning

musical uh director

louis banks took my audition and he

chose me

and we had a second audition for the

dance the choreography

i floundered i failed miserably let’s me

let me put it this way

i didn’t have the moves all right so

uh but i was innocent

and i heard that they had chosen me and

i believed it

and i waited for a month for that call

which never came

that was my first big disappointment

i felt rejected shattered and i felt i

had nothing to offer

but very quickly i had to collect myself

and ask myself this very important

question

what did you move to bombay for it was

for my dream

and i had to fulfill it

and then one day a friend takes me to a

party

i sling my guitar along i sing through

the evening and half the night

also present there was director noel

gordon

and he was auditioning for his play

blood brothers now he heard me sing

and he called me and he said i want you

to play the lead role would you take it

and i was taken aback

i said oh maybe maybe

and he said i don’t have time for maybe

it’s a yes or no i said yes

and the rest is history what followed my

friends

was not a piece of cake what followed

was eight

months of intense training

grueling rehearsal schedules i learned

to walk

to talk to sing project

uh readings and workshops i ate

slept drank and breathed only the play

i had no other life but

opening night was magical

i will never forget the smell of wood

on a freshly constructed set the lights

casting shadows on a polished wooden

stage

the spirit of anticipation in an empty

auditorium

filled with promise this

this was a new challenge this was

a new world and i had given birth

to the stage character mrs johnson

what a ride now to look after my

provide for myself i took up paid jobs

first as a secretary yes and then a job

in the airlines

and uh it was then that i encountered my

other friend the art of painting

also the calls to sing and act kept

coming

and i went on to play dorothy in the

wizard of oz

directed by pearl padamsi ah

so i would work uh at the airport in the

in the daytime and rush to rehearsal

four to five hours in town

uh it was exhausting but

exhilarating and uh

it would also required me to lose 12

kilos to play the

role of a 12 year old when the play

closed

i got married and then i moved to

calcutta

new city new people

i had to reinvent myself i did the

rounds

and very soon i was singing and touring

with a famous rock band shiva singing

rock and so

uh it i always think life has a way of

throwing challenges and surprises at you

when you least expect it

because in the middle of a divorce i

played one of the most

loved characters that of maria in the

sound of music

people always ask me what

is your style of singing what genre do

we place you in

and i think as a musician in mumbai one

cannot afford

or at least i have stretched myself into

various branches

and opportunities that music provided me

and that is why i say please don’t put

me in a little box and label me

i am a sum total of all my parts

and of all my experiences and that is

why my friends

i’ve had a long innings uh as a studio

singer

in the advertising jingle world like me

scorpio myntra uh knock here to name a

few

i’ve also had the pleasure of being a

part of the bollywood industry

uh singing for ayam and zuvraj and

amir khan’s uh tarays

uh alongside this i played the iconic

character of mary magdalene

in jesus christ superstar the rock

musical

directed by the wonderful rahul dakona

but my friends when i look at my life

and my journey i would say

one of the most fulfilling relationships

i’ve had

was with my mother my mommy

she came to every show of mine and every

performance was recorded on a little

tape recorder and

she would listen to the playback the

very next morning and i

hated that because i disliked listening

to my performance after the show

but she loved it my mother

opened a new door to my art in the last

two years of her life

when she was battling cancer and i

stayed back

to be with her developing this art of

paper collage what that means is just i

take

discarded piece of magazine paper old

magazine paper

and i cut it and i paste

layer of a layer of a layer till i get a

new hole a new painting

now i want to show you this painting at

the back i put it here because

you can see this is something i did

during the covert period

in the lockdown period uh

this this has given reason for my

existence

this meticulous

contemplative art form

has taught me the virtue of patience

perseverance and most of all

forgiveness uh because

i feel that every step taken in the

wrong direction

shows me that i can retrace

my steps and uh

and that is why i say to all of you

even today my heart full of love is

bursting to express itself

and i wish the same for you that you

follow

your heart because it will lead you home

and when i say home i mean

your destiny

[Music]

i am life

i am blind

[Music]

am life i am

live i am

life i

i am not the things my family did

i am not the voices in my head

i am not the pieces of the brokenness

inside

i am live

i am

[Music]

now i am not the color of my eyes

i am not the skin or the outside

i am not my age i am not my race

my soul inside

[Music]

[Applause]

is

thank you