Hi everyone, I'm Arjav Rawal, a 15 year old high school student from California, in the US.
My mother is a former singer herself -- she sang Gujrati sugam sangeet in the 70s and 80s. My great-grandmother was the first female singer on the Vadodara AIR, so I come from a very musically involved family.
In 1995, two things happened -- in May, a 20-year-old Sonu Nigam began hosting a show on Zee TV, and in August, my parents married. That show was Sa Re Ga Ma, or Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as we call it today.
My parents' first few months in California were tough -- back in those days, there were few Indian grocery shops here, and only select shows from Indian TV were aired on the "International Channel". As luck would have it, one of those shows happened to be Sa Re Ga Ma. My parents used to spend tons of time watching the show together, and we have a running legend throughout our family that the love that my sister and I have for SRGMP and music in general is because of how my mom managed to get past two pregnancies with the assistance of Sonu Nigam, Shaan, etc.
Oddly enough, the earliest memory I can recall is someone named Vineeta on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa "Fame" 2005 (the precursor to Challenge 05 -- not very sure as to how this worked, or if this is even real?) I do know there was a Vineeta on C05, not sure if they're the same though.
Apart from that, my earliest memories involve...well, Challenge 2005, Antakshari with Himani, Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, and Lil Champs 2006.
In 2013(?) don't remember the exact year, but I auditioned online for SRGMP Lil Champs, and made it through to the Top 50 shortlist. I was invited to participate, but that required flying out to Mumbai for an undetermined period of time, and I chose to decline the invitation in order to continue focusing on my studies.
