India, May 17 -- In the smoky, dim-lit bar of Brussels (Belgium) in 1993, Bickram Ghosh sat transfixed. Fresh off his first-ever concert with the Pandit Ravi Shankar, still in his kurta-pyjama, he watched as an African-American musician abandoned his congas mid-performance and began to play his own body - cheeks, chest, arms - music untethered from tradition in a raw, elemental form. Long before that night, rhythm had been the air Bickram breathed. Born into a Kolkata home to two formidable musicians, tabla maestro Pandit Shankar Ghosh and classical vocalist Sanjukta Ghosh, Bikram grew up in California (US), where his parents taught at the Ali Akbar College of Music. The boundary between Indian classical and Western music was porous. Yet his father's fears for his cultural roots led to a decisive return to India when Bickram was five and a half years old. Landing in 1970s Kolkata was a shock to the system amid political unrest, regular power cuts, and the sharp tongue of playground bullies who mocked his accented Bengali. While socially adapting was a slow process, musically, he was navigating two parallel worlds. At his British-influenced school, he formed a band called The Satellites, playing congas to covers of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. At home, his father woke him before dawn for Tabla practice. By the late 1990s, Bickram felt a deep void - his first marriage crumbled and professional acclaim felt hollow. Restless and disillusioned, he withdrew temporarily to search for meaning. It was during this crucible of transformation that Rhythmscape was born: a new language where Indian classical rhythms met jazz, electronica, and global beats on equal footing. The cinematic world soon took notice and Bickram scored music for over 50 films. After a brief stint in acting - where he starred in a successful film - he consciously chose to walk away from cinema's seductive pull, refusing over 35 offers to preserve his identity as a musician first and foremost. Today, Bickram Ghosh stands as a testament to what can happen when tradition is treated not as a limitation but as a living, evolving foundation. In a world too often divided by categories and conventions, Bickram's music reminds us that the most profound artistry lies in the spaces between, in the fearless merging of old and new, East and West, body and instrument. Authors can be contacted at shrd7746@gmail.com and sapna.narayan@gmail.com...