Project Overview
They say farming is the seed of civilisation. And yet, women - who have always built the world, return home to invisible labour: pressure cookers, unfinished tasks, unshared weights. songs of working women is a choral-theatre performance rooted in songs sung by women while working ; in fields, homes, factories, and on the move. Born of repetition and memory, these songs are not decoration. They are survival, resistance, repair. First created in 2024 by Ensemble Sahanaad, the piece is now being expanded by Peace Projects into a full-length work built entirely from voice. We collaborate with folk artists singing from lived experience, placing native Indian traditions in dialogue with global choral textures. In a world where urban women have no ritual of collective song, this work asks: what happens when we gather and sing, not for spectacle, but for what we carry? We hope the songs go home with you, and stay.
Expected Impact
Songs of working women revives a disappearing practice in the urban landscape: coming together to sing. It centres women’s relationship with labour, using voice to make visible what patriarchy often hides. This is not a performance by or for women alone. It’s for anyone willing to witness the everyday worlds women sustain, often without recognition. Rooted in harmonic choral form, it weaves together folk work songs and global choral traditions. It creates space where rural and urban, working-class and privileged, meet ; where a woman hears her own story in another’s life. In a time where collectives often form through fear or division, this act of gathering across caste, class, and gender becomes its own quiet resistance. Each person carries home what resonates: a practice, a memory, a truth. Singing together is not just expression. It’s repair. It’s remembering how to listen ; and how to stay human, together.
Applicant Background
I’m a music composer, choir conductor, and singer-songwriter. After training in Hindustani classical voice, I studied music composition at KM Music Conservatory, Chennai, and have been active since 2019. I’m part of collectives like Peace Projects (Something Like Truth), Composing in Dialogue (India–Switzerland projects like Seer and Sight, Diary), and FLOW (nature-art focused; songs include Raabi Re, Dar Dar Bhatkoon). I also founded and direct Ensemble Sahanaad, Pune’s first contemporary music choir. My EP Bee Ekke Bee: Songs of Seeds, on seed conservation, was commissioned by Goethe-Institut. My music blends research, experimentation, and evocativeness — across original songs, choral works, and film scores. Most recently, I composed the score for Shyamchi Aai, which won Best Marathi Film at the National Awards.