More noise, less music

Beauty queen Lisa Dookie is devoting her time to learning the finer points of East Indian classical music and vocals.  And, she is polishing her skills under the tutorship of top sitarist Mungal Patasar at the Caribbean School of Indian Arts.

Lisa, a finalist in the Miss Fem India TnT beauty pageant, is an accounting assistant with Sasha Cosmetics. Apart from focusing on the pageant and developing her artistic skills, she is also pursuing accounting and management studies on evenings. “I believe the times are getting harder and it is difficult to survive in the midst of ever-evolving worlds,” she said. “One must prepare themselves by first acquiring good education. This will open many doors, therefore if one is shut in the face, there is always something else to turn to.”

Being a devout Hindu, she spends many hours doing devotion to Lord Shiva who she says, has given her the inner strength to conquer the odds and move on at a fast pace in life. “I would spend 30 minutes on mornings meditating on the eyes of Lord Shiva and somehow I am drawn to him. I know that a bigger force that is spiritual is helping me through life, and this gives me the extra push I need to get through the day.”  She said devotion is the key to disciplining the mind and focusing on your goals. Lisa who loves to do classical singing for her audiences is critical of what passes for music and noted that there is too much noise associated with songs while the real emotion associated with the lyrics is lost. “When one studies classical music only then you realise that a song is written based on a ‘raaga’ which is an emotion that will depict either sorrow or happiness.

So you see the singer who attempts the song must first know the ‘raaga’ or the mood the writer is trying to capture,” she said. Focusing on soca singers she noted that while their ambition is to make people dance and become happy, the real messages are short and sometimes without meaning. However, Lisa is not a Carnival person and does not enjoy the festival because she prefers to live a religious life.