Ilaiyaraaja turned 83 recently. And his popularity is not just enduring. It is being reinvented.

Thanks to a completely new way of engaging with music and a completely new audience. Gen Z is discovering his timeless classics through YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels and just can’t seem to get enough of him and he is making it into their Spotify Wraps. Year on year.

Contrast that with how the new movie economy works. Having a viral 30–90 sec reel-friendly track with a choreographed hook step is often part of the design. It is then seeded across the creator economy to make it viral. 5 million views….10 million views in a week to a month – all part of the manufactured hype.

And you cannot help but be swayed by it.

Until the next viral trend ousts it.

And when you think about it, Raja’s compositions resemble Indian textile crafts.

They reveal themselves slowly.

The first glance of an exquisitely handcrafted saree captivates the vision…but the saree only reveals itself in the second, third, tenth….encounter.

Through repetition, memory and rediscovery.

You don’t have to understand the language to suddenly find yourself softened by Raja’s compositions. And you don’t have to be a connoisseur of craft to be enamoured by a handloom saree. 

Their beauty doesn’t demand expertise for appreciation. They connect to the irrational quotient where the mind and heart are at confluence. That’s why great art transcends the boundaries of knowledge and time alike.

And this is the delight of working in Taneira.

Not dictated by trends, but guided by the repertoire of generationally honed Indian textile crafts.

~

Draped in my colleague Anindita’s saree from the Ajnaa collection — block print, hand painting and Kantha embroidery on Murshidabad Silk. A fabric that competes with butter for softness.