#BigThingsThursday is a weekly series of short interviews with people who are doing big things for the community and for the world. If there's someone you think I should highlight, email me: BigThings@LucyKalantari.com.
Meet Ricky Kej: Grammy award winning composer, producer and conservationist who made an astounding project for environmental consciousness. It started with what should've been a 10-minute meeting with the Prime Minister of India. Narendra Modi invited Ricky Kej and his wife, Varsha, to simply congratulate them on their Grammy win–the first New Age nomination and win for India. An hour later, they found themselves with an idea based out of their mutual altruistic desire of reminding humanity to respect and preserve our environment. "...we need to return to a symbiotic relationship with our habitat."* Unbelievably, this album was written, recorded and produced in about 2 months, to be presented and handed out at COP 21 in Paris, December, 2015.
Q. BIG THINGS begin with an intention, what is yours?
A. My intention is to try and ensure I leave this world a better place than what it was when I entered :-)
Q. How are you fulfilling this intention?
A. By working hard, creating awareness, spreading a message through the language of music, and searching for like minded people to do the same.
Q. What barriers have you encountered, and how have you dealt with them?
A. My only barriers have been the limitations of my imagination, and my recurring laziness, which I try and overcome through constant self motivation
Extra: Share a favorite quote that keeps you motivated.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw
Thank you Ricky, for doing really BIG THINGS for our world. There are many things about this intention that moves me to my core, one thing is remembering where we are from. And just like we'd want to care for the home we live in, we must care for the home of homes. Earth.
I leave you with this wonderful song and video off of Ricky Kej's Shanti Samsara album, "One Song".
Shanti Samsara is currently on the Grammy ballot for Best World Music!
*Excerpt extracted from the Shanti Samsara companion book.