Artiste Sona Mohapatra first acknowledges her privilege as a successful musician before talking about any challenges she’s facing during the current lockdown. “When you’re in India, you can never forget the have nots. As an artiste, I’ve been very blessed for this time at home,” she says during a half-hour chat over Instagram on Saturday.

She recalls how a few month ago, she was on the road constantly, either performing with her band or promoting her documentary Shut Up Sona. In fact, the singer says, she was “on the verge of some kind of breakdown physically” just before the lockdown. In quarantine, Mohapatra has had the time to cook more, clean up at home, binge-watch shows and catch up on reading. As for finding inspiration as a songwriter, she says musicians don’t need or ask for much. “I think musicians are amongst the simplest, nicest people, though I say so myself. They’re used to a very unpredictable life – you don’t know when your next gig is coming or when you’re getting paid. I’m a successful mainstream musician so I’ve managed to build a business. But most musicians have the simplest of needs,” she says. The session has several observations about how musicians are perceived, and the demands of the industry. “Songs that are from the soul are rare. We’re all the time under the pressure of creating jingles. Music is selling everything – films to dahi. I have no issues with that, it’s a certain requirement, of course,” she continues.

Listen to a teaser of Sona Mohapatra’s ‘O Ri Chiraiya’ from #LockdwnWithWeekend

But Mohapatra hopes to change that perception about music with a new online video performance series called #GuitarWaleGaane, featuring guitarists from her band as well as musicians she admires. Her latest was a timely acoustic version of ‘O Ri Chiraiya’, composed by Ram Sampath originally for TV show Satyameva Jayate, featuring lyrics by Swanand Kirkire. Closing her live chat with an a cappella version of it, dedicating the release for Mother’s Day in her own unique way, she concludes, “I’m singing it for the motherland and for Mother Earth, because I think we’ve been very greedy. In this time, I hope we go back and learn from this. Somewhere, we’ve been a burden on Mother Earth. [It] nurtures us and I hope we can be much more considerate… in the coming days.”