New trend on Live Preview?


Ask a Hindustani classical musician what he or she will perform at a concert and most likely, you’ll get a lot of humming and hawing or a non-commital dekhenge, kyaa mood bantaa hai…. or something equally ambivalent. Which is what leads me to wonder how...

My land, my state


I meant to write about something else this fortnight but then you see, I got all busy and worked up trying to figure out these new immigration laws that us Indian, but non-Maharashtrian, musicians have to deal with sooner or later. I mean, now that...

One challenge too many !


Please be warned that the contents of this column may prove to be distasteful for persons with strong olfactory responses and delicate constitutions. Any offence or distress caused is totally unintentional because my purpose in writing this piece is solely to draw attention to at...

Mata ke Bhentein


You’ll never ever realize the advantages of living close to a temple if you haven’t had first-hand experience. For years, I have lived (between commuting from city to city for concerts) in a small flat close to the Jhandewalan temple in Paharganj, New Delhi. For...

The Status of the Harmonium


We are in the midst of celebrating 60 years of independent India and since we always celebrate with fanfare, there have been the usual concerts, aka Azadi Express, with a turbaned actor-cum-truant-MP Govinda doing his characteristic dance moves, TV clips on almost every channel with...