Geetu Hinduja believes that music should be a celebration of life, with all its strife and struggle, joys and pleasures. A Mumbai-based singer/ songwriter, who has been performing for over two decades. Geetu, is a Contemporary-folk Singer who weaves her way through varied musical terrains. She explores various styles and different genres (alternative, soft rock, pop, indie) bringing to her music a flavor that’s entirely her own.

Accompanied by just a guitar, Geetu tells vivid, evocative stories in her songs that instantly transport the listener to the landscape of her mind - her music could be defined as music for the soul.

Geetu had always been a songwriter. Her first album was released back in 1993 titled ‘Dancing Free’ followed by her second album almost 19 years later titled ‘Hope, Faith, Time & Me’  and a third, ‘It’s About Time’ in 2016.

From a gallerist to singer-songwriter, Geetu Hinduja has had a remarkable journey that never stops. Now almost four years later, she is back with some more music for the soul. Mantra of Avalokiteshvara is part of a series of songs titled “Songs of Grace”. She hopes to release a couple of singles over the coming months that will be a part of this set.

In her own words she shares her musical journey with Verus Ferreira where she also talks about her song Mantra of Avalokiteshwara.

“I started my musical career in 1993, by releasing an album titled “Dancing Free”. I wasn’t able to take it as far as I would have liked, partly because very few people did original music in English back then and I had personal limitations in being able to promote it. I jumpstarted my life as a singer songwriter once again in 2009. Since then I have released one album titled “Hope Faith Time and Me”, an EP It’s About Time and a single Sisterhood which was a collaboration with several other women musicians. I soon realized that technology has a lot to offer. I could create a home studio. I decided to put my curiosity to work and learnt how to use Ableton, how to program and to record at home.

I seemed to have organically added a shloka to two of the previous collections of recordings for a different set of reasons each time. They became a part of my narrative. I started to realize how shlokas and chants were in reality a big part of my history. I grew up going to a Bal Vihar every Saturday evening as a young child. These were classes that were a part of the Chinmaya Mission’s activities; where kids came together, we were taught shlokas, the arti, we were told stories from the various scriptures, we used to enact these stories and there were art competitions programmed around it.

Thereafter, in my twenties I started learning music from P. D. Jalotaji, he in turn taught me a lot of material that seems to be resurfacing and showing up in my consciousness these days.

It took me a while to decide on which songs to work on, each had so much to offer and the wisdom in all the mantras, shlokas, hymns and chants is infinite. It was important to me that I follow a thread of consistent thought. I had no intention of releasing these songs until I had a chance to take the show on the road, performing all the material first. However, the Universe had other plans for all of us, so I decided to put myself to work and start recording and releasing some of the songs as singles.

So here I am embarking on yet another journey with this Buddhist Mantra that has the most soothing almost ‘non melody’ but is extremely addictive. As I have been singing this mantra, the beautiful terrain of Ladakh seems to surface in my mind’s eye. I made my first trip to Ladakh in 2004 after a particularly challenging time in my life. I felt that I started healing while I was sitting and watching the sunrise at dawn, on an extremely cold morning, on the edge of a stream near the Pangong Tso.

I also visited the various monasteries; watching the monks while they prayed, they taught the junior monks, they read the scriptures, they built and repaired buildings that needed to be fixed and they smiled a lot. The early morning service at Thiksey Monastery left a huge impression on me. All these reflections reverberate through me when I feel this Mantra. My experiences in Ladakh led me to the Mantra of Avalokiteshvara.”

This single Mantra of Avalokiteshvara was released on various music platforms on the 9th of September 2020.