With more than a million views of his performances on YouTube and nearly 70,000 followers on Twitter, Anurag Harsh is one of the most popular Indian classical musicians online. But he is only a part-time vocalist. The son of a Tata Steel executive, Harsh is a full-time tech mogul as the founding executive of Ziff Davis, a multi-billion dollar online and gaming company. In an interview at his office in midtown Manhattan in New York, Harsh shares his views on topics as diverse as the future of classical music and Indian macroeconomics.
Do you use the same modes of thought for business and music?
I don’t. There are very few of us who straddle both sides of the brain. Most people in my company don’t know that I performed at Carnegie Hall. When you look at it from a music perspective, it’s a different way of thinking. All the stresses that you have from your day job go away because it’s when you are pure and true to yourself. It’s very cathartic.
You start getting a little older and life hits you. You suffer and you see disease and you see suffering and I saw my father pass away in front of my own eyes. And that changes you. You can’t do anything about it at your day job, but in music you can. Every human being suffers. Music is a way to connect that suffering without using words.
When do you find the time to practice?
I sing in the car. I drive to and from work. It takes around 40 minutes each way. I love cars. I have a nice car with an extraordinary music system and I put my tanpura on in there. Ever since iTabla Pro, the iPhone has replaced tabla players. In some ways it’s less intrusive because they just keep the theka and you keep it on in the car and it sounds pretty cool. If the traffic is worse, it’s actually even better. I chuckle when that happens because I say, “I’m going to get to do another 20 minutes today.”
Can Indian classical music be divorced from living in India?
Most Indian classical music videos are viewed from India. That’s the truth and it’s very revealing. For a musician, it shows an expression of a following which is really what you want. There is a very limited market for Indian classical music in the US. It’s excruciatingly hard to get audiences to come to these events, so you have to create intrigue. It is possible that Indian classical music exists outside of India. But is it commercially viable? Absolutely not.
Do you have any plans to perform in India?
I do. I’m trying to do something in Kolkata at Rabindra Sadan. Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, one of the best santoor players in the world, has invited me. I have a huge following, at least on Facebook and Twitter, with 75% of it from certain regions in India. My hope is that if ticket prices are not too exorbitant, people will come.
Do you think NRIs have a role to play in Indian politics?
They actually do and I know this to be true. A country needs money to be run. Indian industry is not philanthropic by nature and it’s not a very philanthropic society. They don’t raise anywhere near what we do in our telethons and galas abroad. The same goes for tipping; it’s just how it is, culturally very different.
I think Narendra Modi realised that macroeconomic changes were not going to get funded by any industries in India. Money is not going to get raised there and the country needs money.
Every time he [Modi] comes here, or Australia, or the United Kingdom, there is massive, massive investment not just from NRIs, but because of NRIs and our ability and our contacts to corral the big boys in America such as investors and industrialists.
When you have a hundred or two hundred of those guys starting to do that, suddenly you can see a macroeconomic shift. That macroeconomic shift is not going to come from within India. It is going to come from American corporations and British corporations.
What is your favorite raga?
Raag Miyan Ki Todi.
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