Shivam Singh is 24 years old and was born in Sydney. However, in spite of being a second-generation Indian Australian, Shivam started playing the Tabla from a very young age.
"My journey started when I was very young when I was maybe 2-3 years old when my hand touched a Tabla," he tells SBS Hindi.
"I was born in Sydney, Australia. My father use to sing and my father and mother tells me that when my mother was pregnant with me, my father would play the tabla, so my father says that must have had some effect on you while you were in the womb."
"Since I was born my father use to sing and play the table so I also used to play with him with my small hands. Slowly I fell in love with this instrument", says Shivam.
Shivam tells SBS Hindi that he is a disciple of Ustad Abdul Sattar Tari Khan.
Source: Shivam Singh
He adds, "If I didn't play the tabla, I would probably know nothing about our culture. The tabla when I started, I used to play in Bhajans and I used to go to all these festivals with my father so the tabla has actually helped me to understand and better be familiar with our culture, and it's so beautiful and so colourful and not that any other culture is bad or that we shouldn't embrace it. It's just that we shouldn't forget about this either."
Shivam says " My experience is that our culture is very beautiful and very colourful with all this music and arts and it is very important that this is taught or we should spread some awareness about this so that our kids are more aware and they can embrace the culture and this tradition keeps going."
Source: Shivam Singh
