G S HEGDE : the man behind Sapthak’s success

Music is the language of the soul. A musician transforms the mundane material world into a transcendental heaven by giving expression to his innermost feelings. By dismissing his pains and forgetting his sufferings he gets involved with his divine art and transfers the same nectar to the audience before him. But the challenge of building a bridge between the artist and the audience and enabling such a transfer lies with the organizer.“Yojakaasthatra Durlabhaha”..goes one Sanskrit saying. The pains and the challenges faced by organizers of cultural events have made their numbers really rare . The process begins from finding the proper artiste, continues with communicating with them, making required arrangements in the given time, informing and advertising to gather the audience and extends till the end of the program with remunerations and reports. A true leader is one who always takes the whole responsibility on his shoulders; however his role will often go unnoticed after the curtains have fallen and his efforts are drowned and forgotten in the thunderous applause of the concert. The organizer, though, derives utmost satisfaction only from the smiles on the faces of the artistes and audience. His hidden service moves on with fresh challenges and expectations.G.S Hedge of Sapthak is one such successful organizer who has founded the Sapthak organisation which focuses on providing opportunities for budding artists and creating a platform for the all-round development of music. G.S. Hegde’s dream to build a strong and capable institution to serve musicians as well as music lovers, has become true with his total dedication and involvement in the activities of Sapthak.Hegdeji hails from a small village near Honnavara of Uttara Kannada District in Karnataka. As he belongs to the culturally rich Annuhittal family of Kelaginooru which is closely related to the legendary Yakshagana Keremane family, Hegdeji’s young mind has inherited all cultural values and the deep interest towards various art forms. Right from his college days, he was very much attracted towards Indian classical music and even after securing a job at Karnataka Bank Limited, he continued to pursue his hobby of playing the tabla. After marrying Geetha Hegde who was equally interested in Hindustani vocal music, Hegdeji supported his wife to become a well known music Guru with hundreds of disciples . Hegdeji’s strong and continuous encouragement to his son Dhananjay Hegde has elevated him to the status of being one among the most talented young musicians of the nation.Having served as a senior employee for four decades at Karnataka Bank, Hegdeji did not even accept the promotions in his banking career which might have elevated his status, as he felt that the added job responsibilities may hinder his service towards music and was thus able to sustain his deep love for music undisturbed. To encourage budding artists to reach greater heights and create a positive environment to serve the holistic growth of music became his passion. After serving at Gururao Deshpande Sangeeth Sabha Bangalore as Secretary for 15 years, Hegdeji started his own trust Sapthak seven years back to meet his dream. With Hegdeji’s enormous efforts and struggles, Sapthak has now become one of the most popular and trustworthy music organization of India, by providing platforms to young artists, by arranging concerts of renowned artists, by providing scholarships to needy young music learners, by conducting workshops, by felicitating the music legends as well as by bringing the music audience together under one roof to listen to the nice concerts. Now music has become everything to him, his life, his breath, his work, moreover his ultimate dream...Hegdeji derives great happiness by looking at the satisfied faces of music lovers and feels blessed when an artiste reaches his ecstasy through music.