Dr. Rupa Marya: Physician, Guitar Player

 

I had a “Driveway Moment” the other day when this interview came on my NPR station. Physician Rupa Marya talks with Dick Gordon, of The Story, about being both a physician, and a guitar player. She is so real, so honest. I’m sure many of us can relate to her story. Here’s some of what she had to say:

 

“Picking up the guitar again, I felt like a jellyfish. I was wobbly and had too many arms, and didn’t know how to make a sound. And so the whole process of re-approaching “How do you make a sound that is clear and true?” became my first question.

 

And from there, it just continued to grow.”

(Dr. Rupa Marya, in an interview with Dick Gordon of American Public Media, for The Story, North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC)

“When I re-approached my guitar after finishing my internship, there was a lot of doubt, a lot of fear, a lot of, “Oh my God, what if I can never write a song again? What if I can’t do this? What if I can’t sing?”

Most doctors that I know have these other passions, these other beautiful sides of themselves. A lot of them don’t go back and pick it up because of the expectation, because of the lifestyle of being a physician.

As a doctor, there are no mistakes that are acceptable when you’re dealing with human lives. But in art, there is no such thing as a mistake. Not because a mistake is unacceptable, but because the attempts that you make, if they’re authentic, are just going off into your own exploration of your artwork.”

HEAR THE WHOLE INTERVIEW HERE

HEAR RUPA & THE APRIL FISHES HERE