Do you think there is a some partiality or people from the North India favored, uh, when it comes to selecting the candidates?

So first thing we have to kind of accept is that the Padma Awards have never been apolitical.

They are always political.

Affiliation, your political affiliation has influenced these choices, and definitely where you come from influence these choices.

Secondly, if there's an elections coming in a specific state, we can be assured before that among the Padma awards, there will be an extra portion given to that state.

Whether or not that has electoral benefit is a different question altogether.

This is a fact, okay? And this has always been a problem.

these, these awards.

Mm-hmm.

So I was singing right through from very young years, and I started performing, and I was going up the ladder, so to speak, and then performing around the world.

All that was happening and, but I think there was also a churning constantly happening within me about this entire exercise that I was, uh, indulging myself in and also the audience on why the hell was I doing it? I mean, what's the purpose of this entire thing? Other than the fact that, of course, there's great pleasure and great joy, which is undeniable.

But I think, um, I found contradictions, uh, within myself of how I saw things and how I performed.

And honestly, I was not thinking so much about society at all at that point of time-

Mm

... to be very honest.

I was thinking of the music itself.

Yeah

... is a problem even then.

So he, he recognizes that and he puts another edict where he says, um, "My praja are like my children, I'm like your father." He tells all the demo- all his bureaucrats to say, "Extra care to be taken.

No violence for even people who are in prison." So all I'm saying is this, even from then, we are so diverse.

Even your rajas and your monarchs recognized this diversity, and allowed each region to be within its own cultural domain.

I think that's what we realized in a more concrete manner when we created this country.

Hmm.

But the point was, there was something beyond all that, and I think that is the most important thing we need to learn, that we can disagree, we can argue, [clears throat] we can walk out of a discussion, say, "I will not talk to you." That's all fine, but we need to realize that we need to work together, we need to negotiate together, we need to find a common ground.