Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Today’s youths, ignoring the advice of their parents and families, take independent decisions and end up paying a heavy price for them, said folk singer Maithili Thakur.
Maithili is in the city to perform at an event. She said that her outlook was very different. “For me, my family and music are everything. I don’t have any friends, neither do I intend to have any. My brothers are my friends. I do what my family asks me to,” she said.
Underlining the importance of familial bonds, she told media persons that her father has accompanied her to Bhopal despite being ill. “At my ancestral home in Madhubani (Bihar), music was part of daily routine. My grandfather and father were musicians. So, I began learning music as a child and I didn’t realise when I became a singer,” she said.
Maithili said that her family shifted to Delhi when she was in class 6. “It was then that I discovered that I was lagging behind. I did not know a word of English and that was embarrassing for me. But within six months, I improved,” she said.
She said that at the age of 11, she took part in SaReGaMa Little Champ, a reality singing show. “I lost but not before realising how hard children are working on music. I began practising with double enthusiasm,” she said. “The hard work paid dividends and today lakhs of people enjoy and appreciate my singing,” she said.
Maithili said that she had no plans to try her luck in Bollywood. “I want to follow Girija Devi and Malini Awasthi. I like devotional music and at my first public performance, I presented a bhajan by Meera Bai,” she said.
