A new examination of Hindustani classical music has turned attention towards khayal, a centuries-old vocal tradition, and the lesser-known musicians who continue to preserve its complex practices outside the mainstream cultural spotlight.

The book “The Secret Master Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music” explores the journey of a khayal performer and examines the changing environment surrounding Indian classical music, including questions of commercialisation, institutional support and the survival of traditional learning systems.

The author described the work as both a biography and an analysis of the wider ecosystem in which Hindustani music exists. The book traces the evolution of khayal while looking at the challenges faced by musicians who maintain demanding artistic traditions away from popular platforms.

At a discussion in Chennai, the author spoke about the relationship between Hindustani and Carnatic music, saying that greater interaction between the two classical traditions could benefit performers and audiences.She said khayal attracted her because of its wide range of tempos and its emphasis on gradual musical development.

The form allows performers to move from slow, expansive passages to faster compositions while exploring different emotional and technical possibilities.Her interest in the subject deepened after she heard Arun Kashalkar perform at a small concert in Mumbai in 2016.

She later became connected with his teaching community and began exploring his approach to music and the broader tradition he represented.Kashalkar’s style combines elements from three different gharanas, or schools of Hindustani classical music.

The author said studying his career revealed the existence of a larger group of musicians who work within highly specialised traditions but remain outside the main cultural conversation.She said the book was written to understand why such musicians exist on the margins and to examine the relationship between mainstream recognition and lesser-known artistic practices.

The author said she interviewed leading figures in Mumbai’s Hindustani music community and attempted to address difficult questions rather than present a purely celebratory account of one musician.The book also explores the personal sacrifices involved in pursuing classical music at the highest level.

It examines the physical and emotional demands of long-term training and the challenges faced by artists when changing economic conditions affect opportunities for performance and recognition.

The discussion also focused on the changing place of classical music in contemporary India, where social media, commercial sponsorship and entertainment markets have altered how audiences engage with traditional art forms.

A noted Carnatic musician involved in the conversation said the book raises questions about how classical traditions survive in a culture increasingly shaped by commercial pressures.The author argued that khayal remains connected to India’s diverse cultural history and that its practitioners continue to recognise the contributions of different communities, including Muslim musicians and historical figures who helped develop the form.

However, she said the tradition faces pressure from broader cultural and economic changes. She described current debates around Indian culture as being influenced by political ideology, market forces and the demand for easily consumed entertainment.

According to her, this environment creates difficulties for art forms that require patience, concentration and long-term engagement from both performers and listeners.She said khayal represents a less visible part of India’s cultural heritage and requires stronger support systems to survive.

The discussion highlighted the role of institutions that provide performance opportunities and support for musicians. Some organisations have attempted to promote Hindustani classical music through specialised programmes, but the scale of support remains limited compared with investment in other international cultural events.

The shortage of performance spaces outside traditional centres of Hindustani music was also discussed. Chennai, known internationally for its Carnatic music tradition, has relatively fewer regular platforms for Hindustani performances despite interest among audiences.

The Carnatic musician said the city needs more smaller venues where younger performers can develop audiences and sustain their careers.“The problem in the South is that the only kind of Hindustani music we experience is one built around corporate sponsorships and superstar talent,” he said, arguing that smaller performance spaces could help create stronger ecosystems for emerging artists.

The author said the survival of the guru-shishya parampara, the traditional teacher-student relationship central to Indian classical music, depends on recognising the economic realities faced by teachers and students.She said institutions need to provide resources that allow gurus to continue teaching and allow students to pursue rigorous training without financial insecurity.

“We need institutional frameworks that will give these gurus money and other resources,” she said.The discussion also raised the possibility of expanding gurukul-style models across the country and creating stronger links between cultural institutions, artists and journalists who cover the arts.

The author said khayal currently faces uncertainty but expressed cautious optimism about its future.Ending the book on an ambiguous note, she referred to a Chinese proverb: “Dying embers can still start a fire.”

The emerging industry centers on collecting so-called “egocentric data” — first-person recordings captured through head-mounted cameras, smart glasses and motion sensors that allow AI systems to learn how humans interact with physical environments.
In Chennai, 25-year-old homemaker Nagireddy Sriramyachandra spends part of her day filming routine household chores, including food preparation, for AI data company Objectways.

She earns about 250 rupees ($3) an hour for the recordings, which are uploaded through a specialized application and used to train robotic systems.
Developers believe that exposing AI models to large volumes of human behavioral data will help robots perform real-world tasks more effectively, particularly in domestic and industrial settings where navigation and object manipulation remain significant technological challenges.

Objectways, which operates in India and the United States and works with machine-learning platform Amazon SageMaker, collects videos requested by corporate clients seeking to train robotics systems for activities such as folding clothes, preparing beverages and performing basic kitchen tasks.

The business reflects growing investor interest in humanoid robotics. Morgan Stanley has projected that more than one billion humanoid robots could be in operation worldwide by 2050, primarily in commercial and industrial applications.
Objectways Chief Executive Ravi Shankar said automation would eventually assume responsibility for some routine jobs, allowing workers to focus on more advanced activities.

The company’s operations extend beyond homes. At a textile factory in Tamil Nadu’s Karur district, workers wearing smart glasses and head-mounted cameras record manufacturing processes while carrying out routine production work.

India has increasingly positioned itself as a global center for AI data collection, annotation and processing services, leveraging its large labor force and established technology sector.

Aditi Surie, a digital labor researcher at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements in Bengaluru, said demand for data collection services linked to AI development is likely to expand as companies seek increasingly sophisticated training datasets.

The rise of such work has also intensified debate over automation’s impact on employment in a country where informal labor remains a major component of the economy.

Government policy think tank NITI Aayog has warned that discussions surrounding artificial intelligence often focus on highly skilled workers while overlooking implications for India’s estimated 490 million informal workers.

Ahead of an international AI summit hosted by India this year, the institution examined how artificial intelligence could affect a wide range of occupations, including agricultural laborers, street vendors, cobblers and sanitation workers.

Among those participating in data collection projects is Ponni, a 55-year-old flower garland maker in Bengaluru who has spent years working in the informal economy. She has also been paid to wear a recording device while carrying out her daily activities.
She expressed concern that future workers engaged in similar occupations could face growing competition from automated systems trained on human-generated data.

At an Objectways recording studio, workers repeatedly film themselves performing household tasks in fully furnished mock apartments designed to generate varied training material. Employees record dozens of short clips daily while changing positions, angles and environments to increase the diversity of datasets supplied to clients.

Rani N., a 21-year-old engineering graduate employed as an AI system trainer, said she records roughly 90 videos each day, often repeating the same activity in different locations within a room.

Elsewhere, workers arrange objects such as water bottles, crayons and office supplies while specialized depth-sensing cameras capture movement and spatial relationships.

Qanat Consulting Services, a subcontractor based in Andhra Pradesh, supplies recordings to larger AI data firms through a network of around 2,000 contributors. Some participants wear motion-tracking bands on their hands, wrists and legs to provide more detailed movement information.

Other companies are expanding beyond visual data. Bengaluru-based Humyn Labs gathers audio recordings and conversations on assigned topics to help clients train systems capable of understanding speech patterns and human interaction.

Humyn Labs founder Manish Agarwal said he expects future workplaces to combine human expertise with robotic capabilities rather than replace workers entirely.

He said advances in robotics and artificial intelligence could eventually allow workers in one country to supervise automated systems operating thousands of kilometers away, creating new forms of cross-border employment.

Nearly 150 people were killed and more than 5,000 were injured when a large stock of the chemical exploded at Beirut’s port on Tuesday. Dozens of people are missing and up to 250,000 are without habitable homes.

Customs authorities in the south Indian port city of Chennai said a large consignment of the chemical had been stored at a site about 20 km from the city.

“The seized cargo is securely stored and safety of the cargo and public is ensured considering the hazardous nature of the cargo,” they said in a statement late on Thursday.

There was no residential area within 2 km of the freight station where the consignment has been stored, they said.

Ammonium nitrate is used to make fertilizers and explosives, mainly used by the quarrying industry in India.

The consignment was imported in 2015 by Amman Chemicals, a company based in Tamil Nadu state, and was confiscated on arrival due to an alleged violation of import rules, a customs official said.

“The company has been served a show cause notice and a case was booked,” the official said.

P Kumaresan, a partner at Amman Chemicals, declined to comment on the consignment, saying he was in a meeting.