Notes from Watching a Master at Work
I experienced greatness, and I can't get over it.
Last night, I watched Academy Award-winning musician AR Rahman perform live in concert. I grew up listening to his music, and he has composed and sung some of my favorite songs. Going in, I was ready for an experience similar to most concerts—an evening spent enjoying music I love with people I love.
What I didn’t expect was for it to become a spiritual experience, one that I think will leave a lasting impression on me and that I simply have to share with the world.
Experiencing Greatness
For the rest of this essay to make sense, I’ll begin by getting one thing out of the way: AR Rahman is a maestro and a genius. I'm not a musician, so I can't attest to this technically, but I have little doubt that the performance I witnessed was anything other than the act of an artist in complete mastery of his craft.
Beyond that, I sensed I was watching someone who is not merely among the best in the world at what they do, but a generational talent who will be remembered (and listened to) for centuries.
I've never had any of these experiences, but this is how I imagine it would feel to watch Lionel Messi play football, to witness Da Vinci paint, or to be in the room when Steve Jobs and his team were crafting the iPhone.
It was the kind of experience you'll reminisce about with your grandkids.
The Creative Act
As I watched thousands of people around me dance and sing, laugh and cry, and recognized the euphoria I myself was experiencing, I couldn’t help but feel grateful to the artist. Here was someone who, by fulfilling his potential and excelling at what he was meant to do, was performing an act of service for his fellow human beings.
This led me to reflect on the purpose of our existence. Perhaps one of our responsibilities in life is to create something for, or be of use to, others—to pour care into whatever we do and strive to fulfill our own unique potential.
This doesn't necessarily have to happen at the scale of millions, as with Rahman; it can manifest itself even through the smallest acts—taking an extra five minutes to thoughtfully plate a meal for someone you love, writing an essay about an impactful experience you've had, recognizing and nurturing someone else's talent, or simply performing your daily work to the very best of your ability.
Our civilization is built upon the shoulders of giants, a culmination of countless small creative acts. Each of us should strive, in our own way, to contribute to the collective miracle that is humanity.
Exposure
This morning, my girlfriend and I were discussing the concert (much of this essay originates from that conversation). She works as a brand manager for a large FMCG company where her job is crafting messages for products that reach millions of people. Without my mentioning it, she shared that she, too, after experiencing Rahman, felt the urge to take her craft more seriously. And if she and I felt this way, I’m sure so did a thousand others who attended with us.
That got me thinking—perhaps we should deliberately seek out and expose ourselves to greatness across different fields. Read books that have survived centuries. Watch the greatest movies ever made. Invest in a quality pair of headphones and listen carefully to the greatest albums of all time. If you're visiting Delhi, maybe set aside an extra day to see the Taj Mahal. Or, if you find yourself in New York, make time to stand before Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
One hurdle to gaining such exposure is that if we aren't familiar with the workings of a particular field, we might struggle to appreciate—or even recognize—mastery when we encounter it. For example, millions visit the Louvre every year to see the Mona Lisa, yet many leave puzzled about why it’s considered a masterpiece. Experts can help deepen our appreciation, but relying solely on human explanations isn’t scalable.
Now, with advances in AI, each of us has instant access to an infinitely patient, multimodal personal tutor who can help us understand greatness when we see it.
Re-exposure
Most of the songs Rahman performed last night, I’d already heard hundreds of times—in movies, on the radio, at weddings, and during late-night whiskey sessions. I had subconsciously memorized their lyrics and could sing them word-for-word if asked.
Yet, it struck me last night that I hadn’t truly understood what those songs meant or had perhaps overlooked a subtle instrument playing gently in the background. Take the song Chaiya Chaiya, for instance. I’ve always thought of it as the iconic song with Shah Rukh Khan dancing atop a moving train, the one which brings guests to their knees at weddings.
But for the first time this morning, I genuinely paid attention to the lyrics—lines I’d memorized but never truly attempted to understand:
यार मिसाले ओस चले
My beloved drifts like dewdrops at dawn.
पाँव के तले फिरदौस चले
A little paradise rolls out beneath her feet.
कभी दाल दाल, कभी पात पात
Now from branch to branch, now from leaf to leaf she flits,
मैं हवा पे ढूँढ़ूँ उसके निशाँ
And I scour the very wind for the traces she leaves behind.
They were so fucking beautiful that I started crying.
How many other beautiful things like this do we overlook or take for granted? I'm sure there are countless examples. Here's a rather nerdy one: the Uber app. It functions beautifully—almost magically—but hidden beneath its simplicity lie years of effort from some of the most talented engineers and designers of our times. For many, it's their life's work.
Maybe if we revisited books, music, products, photographs, or anything we find beautiful, spending a little more time allowing their magic to seep into our consciousness, we might begin to catch glimpses of what makes them truly great.
Being Prolific
A friend said something simple yet profound after yesterday's concert: “It’s crazy how many hit songs he has—he could easily perform another three-hour set without repeating a single song.” In fact, I’d argue it could be far longer, considering Rahman has an extensive body of Tamil music that many of us have never even heard!
The greatest artists throughout history have all been prolific creators. Rahman is no exception.
Notes to self
Seek greatness.
Revisit and rediscover greatness.
Make art.
Make a lot of it.
I’m going to try to do my life’s work.
I hope you do yours.