instead of some pretty kind of canonical
to each and every one of you my goodness
I am so happy and so proud to be a part
of TEDx Java through University I’m more
proud to be a woman in front of all of
you as I am behind all of you ladies and
gentlemen my name is Lucia Luba and I am
thrilled to be with you this afternoon
TEDx and Java Poole University they may
close to my heart I want to tell you
something right in the very beginning
there is a dhikr that goes over there
and that frightens me so I’m not used to
that so I’ve broken that barrier already
ladies and gentlemen
breaking barriers who could you get
better than myself have the best choice
for that right so do I get a handle for
that I’m just about broken every barrier
that you could ever think of without
ever meaning to break a barrier because
barriers are all need as a header in
everybody’s head and if we were to talk
about the barriers that I’ve broken
without meaning to break it not a single
barrier did I ever think was a barrier
in my life coming from a very
middle-class background a background
that made me traditional because of my
parents ladies and gentlemen I come from
a family of six children very musical my
father was at the police I didn’t get
more than three rupees of pocket money
crazy absolutely crazy and at a time
when nobody ever believed in nightclubs
that’s when one of the first barriers
were broken ladies and gentlemen who
would ever imagine a lady in a sari or a
girl in a sari looking quite like me
giving it to a nightclub and singing I
stopped from my nightclub days because
my childhood
was even more beautiful absolutely
brilliant because I broke every single
barrier that there was to break girls
were never meant to be covered be who do
fly kites make mangia at home we were
never supposed to do things like that we
were supposed to play only house house
but here I was doing all those things
breaking so many barriers which we did
don’t really need to talk about but the
real barrier came when I started singing
in a nightclub who would imagine that a
Madrasi born and brought up in Bombay
married into Kerala
now living in big ball would have
started in a little nightclub called
nine gins in Madras but Ross the place
of Orthodox Lee tradition and art and
culture where people where people listen
to music and are really well versed in
their subject I come from a background
which I never had a chance to learn any
music so I didn’t love music but I
learned communication and music is not
my business ladies and gentlemen boys
and girls communication is now have
always believed that if you want to
communicate with somebody then it’s got
to be with the language of your heart
and the heart knows no barriers at all
not of religion not of caste color creed
not of language and that’s the first
barrier for me nobody thought that I
would get up in a nightclub and sing and
sing a jazz song or a jazz standard with
a band that I never knew existed my aunt
just said why don’t you get up and sing
I said okay and I sang a song and I
found the people clapped after I sang so
I said well so they must like me and so
would they asked me to sing some ball
I thanked some more I was absolutely
thrilled I got a contract for a whole
week and at the end of the week I got a
pavement of a country but I’m sorry I
was in
hundred sixty-nine the magical year for
me
ladies and gentlemen out to that I got
another contract in hotel Sameera
in Madras itself and it was at the night
club called the Golden Bowl where I was
singing along with the band so actually
at the original band Valley as they as
they say these days that the fans
started right now for 10 years ago or 20
years ago but as far as I’m concerned
started 48 years ago the original band
lolly so I was singing in a nightclub
with a band that soon became mine and I
say as a crooner I was a bar singer as a
nightclub singer and proud to be one at
a time when my club singing was only
made for or so-called meant for the
privileged Anglo Indian who came out and
had black numbers with a nice cleavage
blond hair beautiful figure quite like
mine ladies and gentlemen by and by you
will realize that there was no barrier
for me at all because the people was so
wonderful to me I think it’s because the
timing was just right I think the timing
when I say tiny 1969 when everybody
thought if you sang in a nightclub it
was bad people still sing still
unfortunately think that it’s not so
good to sing in a nightclub but I think
it’s a place you really need to second
because that’s where you learn how to
really coordinate with a band and know
how to communicate with the audience and
do what they want to do because I’ve
always believed that audience is God for
me and the song is always bigger much
bigger than the signal which is why I
say I was so happy when I was doing now
you call it covers you call it remakes
you call it remake whatever it is but a
song is a song is a song so where did
that barrier come from it’s crazy it men
everybody doesn’t have an original song
to sing but doesn’t mean you stop
singing and if a but pageant singer
sings a version which is being sung by
millions of people
nobody says it’s a remake and nobody
calls it anything else but an
interpretation and that’s what I was
doing I didn’t have an original song to
sing but I would sing jazz standards
folk music of everything everything and
people just accepted it because I think
the time was right and because I didn’t
believe in that battery of myself I
didn’t believe that if you stood in a
sari in a nightclub you couldn’t sing
English I didn’t believe that there was
a barrier of language ever so then I was
dressed the way I was singing novel oh
how much I love people you never know
how much I care when it’s hot you give
Nazif you give him a fever but so hot
there you do Madame Berthe I was singing
people looking like this but then Hey
so people started saying you too
I’m greedy Ghana got ba and so I didn’t
get a chance in the folk music Chrissie
because people thought that I was very
idealized so that that was another
carrier a preconceived idea that all the
people in the Hindi films must the good
girls must only have her voice and all
the bad to get my boy
93 mile pasta two of you together enjoy
not relevant but I want to say when that
preconceived idea pain that only girls
with your high-pitched choices could
sing for the good girl movies and only
the bad ones of my voice it’s not a
question I realized of being a good
singer or a bad singer
it’s just how original you are and that
was the value of our group yeah
completely original I have a copy anyone
with in those days there was demand
economic media except the video which
you can see to hide ever talking anybody
never wanted to keep things like
somebody ever met just wanting to be a
rebel touch your heart holiday except
keep song and music so music is my life
in here to get your life how you got a
sign is all the people thought now we
take it to myself or me anywhere so many
barriers will be broken while you sing a
song and if I sign country roads or if I
sign big fluid order by saying Eric
Clapton so be it all the kids loved it
somebody would say somewhere or the
other it Madrasi hair somebody would say
my god she looks like something else but
she sings in English you know and when
people saw me they all thought that I
was gonna do something like that with a
face
yes so if it was a barrier of sorts that
people thought that I was going to do
something while actually I did something
quite different and when word got around
to the film industry as Dev Anand that
the navigation unit came to listen to me
in Delhi at the Oberoi intercontinental
they asked me whether I would sing it
had it am a heavy Krishna and that’s how
I forgot my first didn’t break a barrier
which was broken because soon I was
singing not only for the bad girls in
the movies but also for the good girls
like Sridevi Rekha I probably not
probably and the only female artist who
even sign for a man I sang for between
Chakravarthy for that amazing internet
that I could get a chance to sing like
that but I always remembered that a song
is much bigger than the singer and so
when the song a song like rambha or
hurry over you as Sean it’s the big day
big day it’s already 3540 years since I
sang those songs and they have become
classics absolute classics now it’s so
amazing but in those days they didn’t
think it was a classic so you’ve got to
give something some time the time
barrier you’ve got to give it a tiny
you’ve got to give it some time to
become a classic and how did it become a
classic because people loved it for me
everything is people and I am a hundred
percent people person I cannot do
without you I need you as my audience
because you are my god and that is the
barrier that I broke because the
difference between so many others myself
is that I believe you are God for me I
believe you are everything in my life
because this moment is what I look
forward to the barrier between us
doesn’t even exist because no language
no cars no color no cream no
you can keep us away from each other
it’s so beautiful when you move on with
time when time becomes a barrier and you
break that you make time your friend
instead of fighting with it
so don’t try every day to look younger
in fact move with time and that’s when
people will look at you and say hey I
saw you some people even tell me they’ve
seen me 80 years ago
and then I was singing but then many
people tell me that I look absolutely
the same and why is that if you come
closer you will see the gray hair you’ll
see the wrinkles whatever it is but it’s
so beautiful because your eyes have
grown with me you’ve broken the barrier
and I’ve broken that barrier so slowly
people started giving me more songs in
the Hindi films to sing or different
regional languages but hey how would I
sing in Swahili or in German or in
French or in any way of any other
language it’s because that barrier never
existed if you don’t look at different
aspects in your life as barriers you can
break every one of them without it even
being there because people make the
barriers for you
they say you’re a woman first of all
that’s the big barrier but for me I
think in everybody’s yard all the men
and all would go so I never was I didn’t
have any scandal the only scandal I had
I married but it’s wonderful absolutely
wonderful to break that barrier and know
that fidelity is really beautiful it’s
really exciting to know that you could
spend the night with the same man for so
many years without giving yeah you can
laugh it’s okay we are almost 2-3
minutes left that’s all so I want to say
the barrier of religion is absolutely
non-existent for me absolutely because
they come from a common school I grew up
in a Hindu household with Muslims as my
neighbors and in school where we learn
bribery and corruption
we say we burn so many candles let me
god these Jesus let me do well in my
maths examination tell me how many of us
have done it right we do it all the time
or go to a temple and say are we going
to do break so many coconuts will you
God please let us do well in the exams
we all do it that’s where we learn it
but every God has faced that and I think
that’s why it’s so exciting to be able
to say that barriers are really made in
your own mind so banish them banish the
barrier people think how would you ever
wear sneakers with a sari now it’s not a
ridiculous barrier but look at my
sneakers why as men yes my grandchildren
tell me that so if you have a barrier
that only this will look good on you
only that will look good on you we grow
up with so many terrible notions in our
head and when I start when I started
singing I was bearing stilettos for
about 30 years
I wore high heeled shoes and I kept
thinking that my god if I wear flats I’d
never be able to walk well that was such
a silly barrier isn’t in my own head
because then I realised that the heels
really took a toll on my knees so what
do I do
do I give up singing do I give up
talking do I give up coming to you all
of you no way so I decided to wear
sneakers because I was walking well with
my sneakers then I decided that sneakers
nobody everybody would laugh if I were a
country where I’m sorry and sneakers but
soon it became a fashion now when you go
to the airport to go anywhere remember
if you see a lady in a sari wearing
and you think of barriers in your mind
the better it is for you to realize that
you didn’t break every barrier thus far
as I’m concerned the one of religion was
broken very early the one of language
was broken ends being broken all the
time as far as I’m singing and the most
important thing is I think in my life is
the fact that I made all my limitations
my strengths if you realize your
weakness and you know that well for me I
know I can’t sing a dozen so I would
never enter that area why would I so I
need my limitation my voice the way I
sounded it was different
I need that barrier a strength and
that’s how it got broken when people
think that this is going to stop you
from doing something remember just cross
over it you don’t even have to break it
consciously it will be broken if you
believe in yourself like I do believe in
myself and that brings me to a point
where I know that it’s almost only 22
seconds left so what would I do in 22
seconds except to say a hundred times
more that I love you and I love you from
deep within it would be never possible
for me to carry on singing for 48 years
ladies and gentlemen
[Applause]
Sally of the brilliant values of
language barriers of preconceived ideas
that this can only go with this is all
wrong is all wrong really and now the
only thing that I can really think of
what I’m sharing this with you because I
know all of you will understand when I
say people ask me so you look good
you look cool in your new haircut and
when I tell them that look actually
wasn’t done for a fashion the fact that
it looks good is because the barrier was
broken but I did it because my son was
ill yeah though it’s not a hard hard
luck story I promised to give my hair to
deliver thee so I went to fill with the
I didn’t cut it there I got it here and
I took my hair never realized there was
26 inches which I gave because I hadn’t
said well if my son gets better so you
see that was a barrier for a brief maybe
five minutes is the haircutting fellow I
spell sad that how would people accept
me cutting my hair because that became a
fashion is then flowers in my hair long
hair it didn’t be everything put
together but then that was something I
believed in and this is the strongest
barrier that I can talk to you about if
you believe in yourself and you believe
in the things that you do there is no
barrier nothing and there is nothing that can be