Kuljit Bhamra
United Kingdom
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From Leaky Garage to Platinum Records
Music has always been my passion. Even at the age of six, I played Indian drums and accompanied my mother when she sang in the Sikh temples in London where we lived. As a teenager, I could listen to a song and know how it was put together, just as a good chef can taste food and know what spices have gone into it.
Today, I’m a percussionist who specializes in ethnic and Indian drums called tablas. I’m also a composer with three gold and two platinum disks. Yet for most of my 43 years, music was relegated to being a hobby.
Growing up, I spent every night in my room listening to music – pop, English, Greek, Arabic – everything. But my father believed that to be successful, I needed a profession such as engineering, medicine, or law. Otherwise I would be a failure. Every night he would knock on my door and say: “Kuljit, this is only a hobby. Make sure it doesn't get too serious. You're going to be a doctor or an engineer."
I never really questioned his judgment and eventually I earned a degree in civil engineering. I got the job of my life, so to speak, and for 10 years, worked as an assistant highway engineer designing speed humps. I hated it, but I believed that was the way life was supposed to be.
When I wasn’t working, I played and wrote music. One night I was writing a song and it was going really well. It was 2:00 a.m. I knew I needed to go to sleep because I had to work the next morning, but I decided just to carry on. The next thing I knew it was 4:00 in the morning. I thought to myself, “I'm a young man. I don’t need to sleep.” Of course, in the morning I was really tired. I got to work, sat down at my desk and noticed that one of my shoelaces was undone. I bent down to do up the lace and fell asleep under my desk.
Fifteen minutes went by before I woke up. I couldn’t believe I’d done that. What really got me was that no one had noticed I was missing. That was the last straw. I knew I had to get out of this job, but I didn’t do anything – I couldn’t because I couldn’t see any alternative.
A short time later a musician friend, Jan Steel, took The Landmark Forum. Because of what he shared with me and because of a few people at the London center, eventually I did, too. At first, the thought of being with 100-plus people was intimidating. I was pretty shy, but I decided to give it a go.
The Landmark Forum was brilliant. One of the things I saw was how short and precious life is and I began to see my life as a multitude of possibilities. What was I doing designing speed humps? Although my father had steered me into my profession, I didn’t blame him for my unhappiness. I saw that it was because of his deep love for me and his commitment to me that he had wanted me to have a profession where I would make some money and be successful. As I sat in The Landmark Forum, I also recalled the religious teachings my parents had instilled in me: God wouldn’t have given us the ability to dream if he didn’t intend for us to live those dreams.
The week after completing The Landmark Forum, I resigned my job. It was the scariest thing I had ever done, but my heart said, “give it a go.” I rented a little garage with a leaking roof that just happened to be part of a complex with three recording studios and eight rehearsal rooms. Within a year, I purchased the complex and started producing albums. I joined Andy Sheppard, one of the top saxophone players in the UK, and toured the world. Little by little, I came out of my shell and everything else just fell into place.
While I'm a good composer and a good musician, what I attribute my success to is taking my heart in my hand and getting into action.
Kuljit Bhamra, 43, is a composer and musician specializing in a popular form of Asian music called Bhangra. He has written some 1500 songs, including music for major films such as Wings of the Dove, Bend It Like Beckham, and Bhaji on the Beach and performs in Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit West End Musical, Bombay Dreams. He has three gold and two platinum discs and is generally recognized as the person who has popularized Bhangra outside Asia. He is the father of three children and leads the Self-Expression and Leadership program for Landmark Education
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