Music, Mental Wellness and Innovation: In a Conversation with ^{Jayanta Ray}

Sangeet Foundation started as a personal journey for the founder's Nupur and Jayanta when their elder daughter was diagnosed with ADD (Adult ADHD), Clinical Anxiety and Dyspraxia. The journey started with denial ("this doesn't happen in our household"), followed by acceptance of the problem ("yes I understand there is a problem. So what now?"), hesitation to reach out ("What will people say"?). This progressed to reaching out for help to the medical fraternity, friends, family seeking out people who had experienced this. What really helped was medication, meditation, counselling but most importantly music (she learned drumming). Discussions with friends and members of society led to the realisation that there was a dire need for awareness and acceptance of mental health and a forum for those affected to discuss this openly without stigma and learn from the experts and those who have experienced this. Deeply in love with their music and the arts, the founders started their quest and mission to leverage music and the arts to create awareness and address mental health issues.