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On a mission

A Journey Benny Prasad

When musician Benny Prasad first performed in Nepal in 2001, it was a monarchy. Performing in Nepal, as part of the Christmas concert “Gloria Deo World Tour” in 2008 was a different experience for Prasad. In 240 years of existence, it is for the first time, Nepal has declared Christmas as a national holiday. Benny felt he had much better freedom to express himself than earlier. “I use the platform of concerts to interact with people and tell them my story. From being nothing, today I have become the most travelled musician in the world. And since it’s God who has brought about change in my life, I have to talk about Him. But last time in Kathmandu, I was given strict guidelines not to talk about such things. Not being able to share my story with thousands of Nepalese youth was disappointing,” recalls Bangalore-based Prasad. This time round, Prasad compensated for the lost opportunity.

“The concert with 12 artistes performing various genres was aired live on Nepal’s national channel. Seventy per cent of the concert was in Hindi keeping in mind the popularity of Bollywood and Hindi music there,” says Bonny Andrews of LiveJam, which has been organising annual Gloria Deo Christmas concert in different cities since 2005. This year the concert was held in Berlin, Kathmandu and New Delhi.

Talking about his life, Benny says, born with severe asthma, he took cortisone steroids to treat it. The steroids caused rheumatoid arthritis and 60 per cent lung damage. It resulted in his immune system regularly failing him even to this day. His scientist father expected him to excel at studies but Benny disappointed on that front as well.

“Frustrated with life, I tried to commit suicide at 16. And, then I had an encounter with God and my life took a U-turn. Through my music, I try to address the issues of gap between parents and children, unfulfilled expectations and distress amongst youth,” he says. “When people see the reality of life, they want to see the same change in their lives,” he adds.So far, he has performed in 189 countries and in 2006 entered the Limca Book of Records as the most travelled musician. He has performed at 2007 Military World Games, 2006 FIFA World Cup and hopes to finish performing in every nation by 2010.

In harmony with the musician’s mission, Benny’s music is meditative and a “little more complex.” In 2004, he made a unique guitar with bongos inside called “bongo guitar” He played it at the 2004 Olympic Games for the official welcoming of South African athletes. In 2005, he designed another guitar which is a combination of six strings acoustic, six string classical, 22 string harp, 20 string sympathetic sitar, one bongo and tabla, and yet another guitar with six strings, two bongos and a 14 string harp. All his guitars are called Bentar. “Apart from the urge to innovate, I have made these guitars to attract people to my music shows and to listen to my story,” concludes the self-taught musician.

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