BENGALURU, September 2, 2026: Some awards merely punctuate an artist’s career; others reverberate as a summons to return to the work that created the journey in the first place. For Indian singer-songwriter, composer and live performer Supratiek Shyamal Ghosh, the 26th Mother Teresa International Award in Singapore became precisely such a summons.
Days after receiving his first international Change Maker recognition on foreign soil for a 26-year journey inspired by the philosophy “Changing Lives Through Music,” Ghosh returned to the stage in Bengaluru, fronting his long-standing band Aurko – The Rising Sun at The Bay, Ecoworld, for a sold-out, ticketed tribute to the immortal musical legacy of Kishore Kumar.
The juxtaposition was striking yet profoundly coherent: Singapore offered recognition, while Bengaluru demanded performance. One celebrated the journey; the other demonstrated that the journey remains vibrantly unfinished.
The concert was conceived under Ghosh’s continuing “Sing to Save” initiative, which seeks to employ music not merely as an instrument of entertainment, but as a catalyst for opportunity, dignity and sustainable livelihood for singers and musicians in need. What unfolded was consequently more than a conventional retrospective of Kishore Kumar’s oeuvre. It became a collective, emotionally effervescent celebration, with a full-house audience singing along to beloved classics and repeatedly clamouring for encores.
Vocalists Nibedita Pradhan and Ankita Kundu joined Ghosh and Aurko, adding contemporary multilingual energy to an evening steeped in nostalgia.
The programme was powered by MSR Academia and also brought contemporary brands into the cultural milieu. ITC Right Shift, positioned around nutrition and wellness for Indians aged 40 and above and the philosophy of positive ageing, was associated with the experience. ITC’s B Natural Coconut Cola, including its recently introduced zero-caffeine, zero-sugar proposition, also participated in the concert experience.
Yet beneath the commercial associations, the evening illuminated a much larger continuum.
Ghosh founded Aurko – The Rising Sun in 2000, initiating a musical odyssey that has subsequently encompassed more than two decades of live performance. Over the years, the band’s documented trajectory has extended across thousands of concerts and numerous Indian and international cities.
The prolonged encounter with the music industry, however, revealed an ecosystem substantially larger than the singer beneath the spotlight. Musicians, backing vocalists, composers, arrangers, recording engineers, sound professionals, lighting specialists, AV technicians, stage crews and production personnel collectively constitute the invisible architecture upon which every successful performance depends.
That realisation eventually transformed Ghosh’s personal artistic voyage into a broader institutional vision.
In 2010, he founded Alive India, which has progressively evolved into an artist-led music, media and cultural ecosystem encompassing initiatives such as Alive India Studio, Alive India in Concert, Alive India Rockstars and Alive India Music Foundation.
Its philosophical progression is succinctly expressed:
I → US.
ME → WE.
BAND → BRAND.
TALENT → OPPORTUNITY.
PASSION → PROFESSION.
MUSIC → LIVELIHOOD.
The principle is simple but consequential: music should not terminate in applause; it should generate opportunity.
That philosophy underpins Musicians Social Responsibility (MSR) and the evocative proposition “Roti • Kapda • Makaan • Music • Aur Rozgaar.” Through performance, recording, collaboration, artist development and professional platforms, the objective is to create pathways through which talent can evolve into sustainable creative employment.
The 26th Mother Teresa International Award, presented in Singapore on August 26, therefore acquires significance beyond the individual recipient. It acknowledges a journey that began with one singer seeking a stage and gradually expanded towards building stages for others.
The award ceremony at Alumni House – The Legacy brought together personalities from Indian cinema, culture and the international community, including filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, actresses Rituparna Sengupta, Padmini Kolhapure and Seema Biswas, Chairman of the Mother Teresa International Award Committee Terence Hamilton Ireland, fashion designer Jaya Mishra, Gauri Ireland and members of Singapore’s Bengali cultural community.
For Ghosh, the honour is less a culmination than an amplification of responsibility.
The progression is almost poetic:
One singer built a band.
The band built a journey.
The journey built an ecosystem.
The ecosystem builds opportunities.
From an international accolade in Singapore to a packed musical celebration in Bengaluru, Supratiek Shyamal Ghosh’s message remains remarkably consistent.
SING TO SAVE.
CHANGING LIVES THROUGH MUSIC.
MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.
Because a voice becomes truly powerful not merely when the world listens to it, but when that voice possesses the generosity to help another voice be heard.
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