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