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Carry on, Kary
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Meet Karuna Arora a.k.a Kary, the first resident female DJ in Chennai
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Turntable trends: DJ Kary at Flame Le Club
ARE DJ cabins in big clubs the preserves of men? I am afraid it appears so. You can count the clubs that hire female DJs on your fingers but in Chennai, there was none until recently. To borrow a cricketing phrase, the city got off the mark last month when Flame Le Club put Delhi's DJ Kary on its payroll. You may listen to her on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at the club.
Karuna Arora a.k.a. Kary had her powers of endurance severely tested as she pursued her goal - becoming a DJ. This was eight years ago and in those days, DJing workshops would happen once in a blue moon. That being the state of affairs, she could not find an alternative to requesting the male DJs to tutor her in the art. "Most frowned at the idea of a woman DJ," says 28-year-old Kary.
However, she stuck to her ambition, shunning the more sensible option of putting her degree in fashion design to use. When she told her parents (father is a banker and mother a dermatologist) so, they thought she was out of her mind.
And, she was forced to do something she is ashamed of admitting today. In 1998, she posed as a DJ from Goa and sought to be employed at the club Temptation in Hotel Gold Regency, Delhi. To her pleasant surprise, the management believed every word she uttered and appointed her as the club's resident DJ. "They fixed a monthly salary of Rs. 25,000. The perks included a chauffeur-driven Esteem." Now, the question that worried her was: `How to mask my ignorance and at the same time keep my new job from my parents' knowledge?'
She would practise at the club from noon to 6 p.m., "till beads of sweat would drip down on to the turntable" and then play at the club in the late hours. After work, she would shin up the water pipe and sneak into her bedroom. She managed to hoodwink her parents for three months. One day, she was caught attempting the climb. Her father got it into his head that she was either doing drugs or having an affair.
Kary goes places
Kary explained the situation and found her parents very understanding. In the years that followed, she notched up a few more residencies and many guest appearances that took her around the country. For two years, she was ranked among Delhi's `Top Five DJs'. She has also featured in a documentary `360 degree DJs'. For a while, she even ran a DJing school, Omerta.
When she tells me that `Kary' means fruit in Punjabi, I am led to think her persistence has indeed borne fruit.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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