I do my riyaaz in the car, says Tareefan fame Lisa Mishra

Lisa Mishra; (third from right) with team Veere Di Wedding

If you thought the world was a small place, Instagram has just made it smaller, and as musician Lisa Mishra would tell you, "Just keep putting stuff out there. You never know who is watching." Her life has turned upside down in the last few days. Data analyst and coder Mishra, who stays in Chicago, pursues music on the side. She posted an acoustic cover of Badshah's Tareefan on Instagram on May 19. When she woke up the next day, Sonam Kapoor had shared it, and soon she was flying down to Mumbai to record a reprise version of it.

"I code all day, but music is the main obsession. With desi parents, you have to be practical, so I completed my studies and got a good job," says Mishra, 24, over the phone from Chicago. Though she has a desk job, she takes time out to create R&B and hip-hop music on Chicago's local music scene, and has been putting out covers on her YouTube channel for almost 11 years.

"But then I got hooked to Instagram. It's so much easier, just take a smaller video and put it up. The first cover I did like that was Kabira [Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, 2013], and ever since I have been regular. Since the song will be part of a big film [Veere Di Wedding], it's reaching out to so many people, and not just a niche audience."

Asked what advice she will give all those singers who are trying to get noticed on the social media site, and she has an answer down pat. "Don't worry as much as about aesthetic as about quality of your voice. Practise a lot, and hone your craft, because, at the end of the day, that will be noticed. I spend three hours in my car daily, commuting to my workplace, and that's the time I do my riyaaz. I sing a lot," says Mishra.

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