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We don't have to be defined as one person - we can be many women if our imagination is given the freedom to soar and be creative, says Anmol Malik, a.k.a. Audrey Piano.
We don’t have to be defined as one person – we can be many women if our imagination is given the freedom to soar and be creative, says Anmol Malik, a.k.a. Audrey Piano.
I often think I’m like bread, eyeing the toaster with suspicion. When everything seems to be running smoothly, change frankly seems an overkill. Yet, the truth is, everything is always in a state of flux. Even the human skeletal structure regenerates every three months. Which means, whether I like it or not, I change four times every year without even trying. That’s human nature. Capable of endless combinations. Born into the universe, it isn’t content with playing just one role.
My art is greatly influenced by the world around me. And since the world is constantly changing, it means I’m constantly changing. And that change, when embraced, reinvents me. With every new piece of art I’m thankful to be able to create, I’m reborn.
I’m not afraid of reinventing myself, mainly because I don’t realize I’m doing it. It feels like building a bridge into the open sky. My current step helps me give rise to my next step, they fit seamlessly together.
When I first started learning the piano at the age of five, it felt lovely to be able to press a key and hear a wonderful, soft tinkle. They felt like people. Some had deep voices, some were shrill. Some became friends. But grouping these people together created harmonies. And grouping these harmonies became a song. It made me a musician.
Onto the next step then- joining the piano keys and singing along with them turned me into a singer. And then the next- writing lyrics.
Suddenly I was a musician, singer and lyricist, able to unlock the melodies in my head.
One inch closer to magic.
It only made sense that the next obvious step was for me to fall in love with musicals. And then the movies. Stories that were dotted with songs and swelling background
scores; dialogues that felt like poems. When I opened a book I could hear the author. See the places, eat the food, feel the anger and love and joy.
How wonderful people are, how talented, brilliant and full of magic.
In that pursuit of magic I am ready to reinvent myself ten times over. Reinventing means chipping away, layer by layer and finding hidden depths. Mining for diamonds that we all have stashed away deep within our beings.
That’s how I know I’m not just Anmol Malik. I’m also my pen name Audrey Piano. I’m every character I write- good, bad and the plain weird.
The women I have been deeply influenced by have all been generous, kind, and brave. They all taught me quite early that, as a woman, I would be playing several roles that would make me reinvent myself many times over. But the most important lesson was to always make time for myself. Women are the masters of reinvention, constantly discovering our various facets and quiet strengths.
This is how we build a universe within ourselves.
Reinvention is a marvelous thing. Because if you think about it, French Toast, Cheese Sandwiches, and warm dinner rolls all started off as humble pieces of bread.
Watch Anmol Malik speak about the transition from singer to writer, in this video.
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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