There are very few songs which common people can sing to themselves or in Public. The emphasis in given on item numbers which become popular mainly because they are played and shown on TV channels so many times. The best example is song from Dabbang, ‘Munni Badnaam hui’ !

I don’t mean to say that today’s musicians are not talented, however they don’t exercise their talent in right direction and go after the technology  which helps them to blend, alter, copy tunes/beats from old Indian or western songs and they can quickly record and release songs/albums.

There are very few romantic tunes with good quality melody in most films..most songs are dance numbers with cheap lyrics and orchestration.

Unfortunately, in today’s time there are very few good movies made in which there are very few good songs and rarely we come across good melodies.

‘Lata bai is one of the most talented singers of all times in the history of Indian music. Her melodious voice, purity of the notes, variations in singing, everything is so perfect that there can’t be anything better in the world of music.

If you really want to become a good singer, then you better listen to lata bai’s songs daily for an hour.  The songs that I adore the most are ‘Mana Mohana bade jhootey’, ‘Rasik bulama’, ‘Dhire se aaja re akhiyan mein nindiya’, ‘Tu jahan jahan chalega..mera saya’, ‘Agar mujhase muhabbat hai’, ‘Ye zindagi usi ki hai’, ‘Bainya na dharo o bulama’, ‘Jaago Mohan pyare’ …and many more..the list is too long. Whoever composed these songs..Lata bai has made them into master pieces by her golden voice.’

Everybody is wishing her today on her birthday. Songs are played on Radio, TV. How does a common man wish her? Well, its very simple. Just listen to her melodious songs today and pray to god that she lives a healthy and peaceful life.

God bless Lata Bai..

Good communication, togetherness, understanding, helping & appreciating each other are the basis of building strong relationships. In personal life, love and affection play an important role to build long lasting relationships. In professional life communication is the key in building good relationships. In business, building relations can help you to grow your business, increase your presence in the market and help you sustain or survive during adverse market conditions. In personal life, building relations can give you inner satisfaction & content which can lead to a healthy and stable life.

Building relationships give rise to expectations. And fulfilling these expectations become a challenge for most of us. In reality, you can never make the other person happy at all times so one should never get upset about it. One should always make a sincere effort to help the other person and make him understand that he too is equally responsible to fulfill your expectations.

Setting right expectations & sharing your worries/sorrows/concerns, pleasures and happy moments can take your relationships a long way in achieving greater happiness and success in life.

Good luck!

If you really want to treat life as a race or competition then you should be patient & steady like the turtle and not be in haste like the rabbit else you are bound to lose.

Well, if you ask me, I treat life as an adventurous journey, though I realized it little late, but its not too late for me. What about you? Slow down for a while, take a halt if needed, think and then move ahead.

God bless!!

You very well know that the idea of such reality shows is copied (sorry, inspired!!) from the US Television. Rather, most of the reality shows are copied from USA. To involve common people in these shows and make them heroes is something exceptional. The investment is not much but the income by the producers of the channels, the media is too BIG..you cannot imagine. With this, the producers/Channels also get compliments for discovering music talents of India. All looks very good, thoughtful & monetarily beneficial as far as producers, media & the operators are concerned. What about the people who participate in such shows? They invest time, money & efforts and some of them do get rewarded at the end. But the promises made by the producers or distinguished(??) judges that they will bring the finalists in mainstream music (cinema, music albums etc.) are really not fulfilled in reality. There are very few examples like Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal who have made it to the top after winning  these competitions.

Public does get entertained by these shows, but they start getting too much involved in the shows and start investing in the people whom they wish should win. People start voting their favourite competitor by sending SMS worth Rs.5-6 and this generates lot of income for the creators & supporters of these shows.

What about the quality of judges? I really don’t feel like commenting on it. I doubt their judgment & caliber, baring few exceptions.  Anyway, who is bothered to create another Lata, Asha or Rafi. Its money, filling their own pockets which surpasses all other aspirations.

The aspiring talents should really focus on achieving their goals in becoming good singers and continue their riyaz regularly.  Winning or losing these battles should not affect their musical career. Keep learning and continue the swar sadhana as it is going to help you the most.

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.

Well, the younsters do fall in love with western music and hence might have enjoyed & liked ‘Rock on’. But from the music angle, I guess you need to do lot of research & study before you try and make a film related to that subject. We have some great examples in the past – there are infact plenty of films based on Indian folk & classical music for eg: Umarao Jaan, Lekin, Amar Prem, Mughal-E-Azam, Pakeezah, Abhiman, Sargam etc. and on the western side, movies like Karz (ofcourse the old one), Hum kisi se kum nahi, but ‘Rock on’ doesn’t come close to any of these movies to be remembered for long time. The important aspect is ‘originality’ – music should always feel fresh & new then only it will last long or be remembered for decades.

Songs from ‘Dil chahta hai’ are of that quality so the music ‘rocks’. ‘Rock on’ ka to band baj gaya hai – as far as music is concerned. Well, if people start liking the new (so called musical) ’Karz’ then certainly Rock on is much better option, I would say.

We cannot blame the audience after all, unfortunately, there is very little choice with regards to good music.

We are very proud of our rich culture & heritage.  India gave birth to great national leaders, Spiritual gurus, Ayurveda, Yoga, classical music & dance. Today people from other coutries are following and adopting Indian ways and culture which is giving them great satisfaction & peace of mind. And we, the youth of India are wrongly following the western ways & culture and ruining our lives.

Look at the movies, the music we create. It has a huge impact on today’s youth. The purity, richness & classical nature of music is lost somewhere. There are very few people amongst the younger generation who are following Indian music, culture and practising yoga - these are the real means to our progress & attaining a healthy and peaceful life. 

Let us wake up and have a real good start. We still have a chance to improve and bring back the culture that our freedom fighters dreamed about and gave away their lives for it.

God bless us!

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.