Today we have so much music recorded & played and you hear it a lot on the FM channels. But this music it is too loud, heavy & is not soothing to heart. You hardly hear any old melodies on Radio or Tape. Most of us have a hectic life. Work pressure, travelling, conference calls and weekend goes in shopping & doing routine household work. The best way to relax and stay healthy is not by going to pub or discotheques but to do yoga, meditation and listen to some cool music. Some of us may be listening to classical music and relaxing their way out. But not most of us will have liking towards classical music or will understand it.

So, do we have a choice? Yes, we do. Indian music is very rich & devotional in nature. There have been many compositions in the past some heard, some unheard. Let us try to find out and share it through this post. I had a collection of Meera Bhajans sung by Lata Mangeshkar and composed by her brother Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar. All songs are very soothing to your soul.  There is an album called Miraj-E-Gazal composed by Ustad Gulam Ali and sung by Asha Bhosle & Gulam Ali himself. These gazals are very emotional & passionate, will surely relax your mind. I also have a collection of Marathi Bhajans by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi – all classics, they give you real peace of mind. You can always get the best collection of Madan Mohan songs, SD Burman Songs, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar & more from the music shops. But do we get time to listen to these compositions anymore. We prefer going out partying or spend most of our time talking to friends on the mobile.

Well, let us find some time for good music which will relieve us from stress, calm us down & make us feel happy. Readers are requested to suggest more albums here. Thanks.

Swapnil Bandodkar is a well known name today in the marathi film & television world. He has made his mark as an established singer in the marathi music industry with few music albums & film songs to his credit. He became more popular after his songs ‘Radha hi bawari’, ‘Tujha rang mala de’ were released. He has also composed and sung the title song of a famous marathi serial Asambhav on Zee TV Marathi. Swapnil also anchors a show called ‘Punha Tak dhi na dhin’ on ’Me Marathi’. Well, most of us know about this. I would like to write here something which people may not know about Swapnil.

I have known Swapnil from his childhood. He is a child prodigy. At an early age of 8-9 years he has been singing songs like ‘Mana Tarapat hari darshan ko aaj’, ‘Madhuban mein radhika’, ‘Ghungroo tut gaye’ etc.  He and I studied in same school (Kendriya Vidyalaya Powai) and grew in the IIT campus. He is junior to me by 6 years. Amongst females, my sister Shubhangi use to sing and was a popular name in school and won many prizes in music competitions. Similarly, amongst males, Swapnil became the singer in demand at very early age. Like my sister, he too took an initial training in singing from our Music teacher Mrs. Kunda Vaishampayan. Its beacuase of her efforts our school got so many prizes & awards. She even won the Presidents award as the best Music Teacher across CBSE schools. I remember, the year during which we won all the three prizes in the inter-school music competition. We received gold medals in the group singing, solo singing (Swapnil) & instrumental (Tabla – that was me) category. I still have the group photograph with me. After school, Swapnil continued learning classical & light music and joined catering college in Dadar.  He had already decided to make a career in music and went through the struggle, but due to his hardwork & fate he made it finally. I still remember the days when he participated in the first session of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ on Zee TV. During those days, I had plans of working on a music project and had called Swapnil for rehersals. He appeared to be very serious & focused while trying to sing the songs composed by me. I decided then to sign him as a co-singer for my first music album ‘Tumse Hai Pyar’.

Swapnil is a very simple and kind person. He is very talented singer and takes music very seriuosly. I guess, the good teachings (sanskar) by his parents & his gurus has made him an artist & a great individual. Swapnil is very close to me and I wish him great success is his professional and personal life.

This was my first Music Album that I released on February 14, 2005. This album is dedicated to all the passionate lovers around the world. I started writing songs when I finished college and was working for a computer consulting firm. This was the time when I had a strong desire to create music which I would sing for my beloved (??). And my passion for music kept increasing as I wrote one song after the other. Composing a melody was not a difficult task as I use to hear film music a lot and was inspired by Madan Mohan & R D Burman’s music. My sister use to sing hindustani vocal and I use to accompany her on tabla. In the process, I heard a variety of musical forms (Raagas) and the classical music got into my blood & soul at a very early age which created a base for me to create my own music. I could have played Tabla and made a big name as a Tabla artist but somehow there was a music composer within me which dominated the tabla player. I started writing songs and composing them & also recorded them on my music player. People at home started appreciating my efforts and I also felt that I am creating decent compositions. The lyrics were simple, but the compositions had to be complex and good enough. I made an attempt to keep originality in my compositions and tried to create each and every song in different form and mood. The basic mood was ofcourse romantic, but I tried to give various shades of romance & love to my compositions so that it could create a positive impact on the listeners, their romantic feelings.  The title song ‘Tumse hi hai Pyar’ is my best composition, which my friend Swapnil chose to sing when we recorded the songs. My personal favorite is Tumsa Nahi Dekha, but as a musician my best composition has been ‘Meri Zindagi mein aakar’ and it has been beautifully sung by Swapnil. If you want to buy or gift my album to your beloved or a friend, you may log on to www.cdbaby.com (http://cdbaby.com/cd/smsb) and purchase a copy. I have been distributing 100 CD’s every year on valentines day for free. If you are the lucky one you will save some bucks. I would say $6 is a very small investment for your love life to flourish by listening to these songs. I don’t intend to sell my CD through this post but I strongly feel that good music should be listened, shared and appreciated by everyone who has liking in music. I do have plans to produce another album shortly, mostly during 2009. Keep watching!