Musician Pragnya Wakhlu is first Kashmiri and among few Indians to be elected prestiguous member of the Grammy.

Hailed second by Vogue as the top 12 Indian indie acts of 2020, Pragnya Wakhlu is an award-winning musician, composer and activist based out of New Delhi, India. She been an active part of the independent music industry for the last 12 years with three released studio albums and five singles to her credit.

Pragnya is one of the first Indian Independent musicians and very few Indians to be elected to be a prestiguous member of the Grammy Recording Academy this year .

Her travelling audio-visual show with her band ‘The Kahwa Speaks Ensemble’ has been successful in highlighting the positives of Kashmiri culture and changing the negative media narrative cross India, U.SA and Hong Kong.

A strong believer in using the power of music to promote positive change, Pragnya’s work is heavily inspired by the many important issues she is passionate about.

In 2020, she hosted and sang in Kashmiri on a T.V. show ‘Bollywood Hits’ on Doordarshan Kashmir (DD Kashir).

With over 1000+ shows to her credit (in India, U.S.A ,Hong Kong and Dubai) she has been featured at some of India’s most prominent venues and music festivals including the Divas of Rock and the Kasauli Rhythm and Blues Festival organized by Rolling Stone Magazine and has shared the stage with promenient Indian act such as Indian Ocean, the Raghu Dixit Project and Parikrama.

Pragnya has been featured on TV on MTV, Vh1,Zee news,Zee Salaam, DD Kashir, DD Urdu,Wion News and newspapers Indian Express,Sakaal times, the New Indian Express, The Hindu, The Telegraph, The Guardian,Times of India amongst others.

Born in Srinagar, but brought up in Pune, it is Wakhlu’s mission to bring Kashmiri culture to the centrestage. To that end, she recently released an illustrative and paper-cut animated music video for her Kashmiri-English fusion song ‘Katyuchuk my Love’ on International animation Day (October 28)—part of the album Kahwa Speaks. The video portrays the love story between the 16th century Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon and King Yousuf Shah Chak of Kashmir.

Wakhlu says her intent was to recreate the state’s rich history and make it come alive for viewers. She had earlier run a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the video and the album’s visual piece.

The last few months have been a busy time for this musician, who quit her corporate job in the US to focus on her passion for music. She has been busy facilitating workshops on wellness using sound and movement-based practices with her company, Mousai. Self-funded, her startup offers workshops and exercises on ‘Tibetan Bowl sound meditation’.

During the lockdown, she took a few virtual group sessions on Instagram and Zoom and is currently working on creating a virtual programme for organisations worldwide, which will give people access to a toolkit of methods using sound and movement for personal wellbeing. Simultaneously, she is also working on developing an online course.

When asked about her personal life, Wakhlu remembers how her grandmother would often ask her to find a ‘rajkumar’ (prince), marry him and settle down. Living by herself today, Pragnya says she has never been happier.

It’s been a time of growth and nourishment for her, she claims. “I love the time I’ve had to self-reflect, meditate, work on my music and just be with nature.” And that’s what her latest Hindi single, ‘Akele hi sahi’, is all about. To her being alone doesn’t necessarily mean being lonely. “One doesn’t ‘need’ to be in a relationship to feel happy.

The sense of fulfilment needs to come from within,” she says.