In this exclusive article, we are featuring someone from the first batch of BITS Hyderabad Campus. She graduated in the 2012 batch and has made it big in the music industry. Who is she? Shruthi Veena Vishwanath. She is, in our lingo, a dualite i.e. having done two degrees: M.Sc. in Economics alongside a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering.

She was introduced to singing at a young age, and sang through her childhood, learning through her years at BITS too. But a few years later, she “got wounded by the word” (Kabir says “shabad ki chot”) when she heard the exponent of Nirguni folk in Malwa, Prahlad Singh Tipaniya singing at a festival in Mumbai. She changed from classical singing to Kabir poetry because of Prahladji. She believes that Kabir's poetry connects us all to Mother Earth, nature, and our deepest selves. She has performed at world-famous festivals and venues like Jaipur Literature Festival, and has given guest lectures on Kabir and Indian music at UC Berkeley and IIT Bombay. She is a dualite in terms of her fields of study - she studied economics and chemical engineering at BITS-Hyderabad. She was the first Cultural Secretary at the BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus and led many firsts at BITS- founder and secretary of the classical music club, first protest in college, and first woman candidate for Presiden.