Dear Swapan,

I think I remember having communicated with you earlier. I am glad to hear that you have been pursuing your music along with other academic and professional commitments. I gather from your mail that you seem fairly clear with the course that you wish to undertake with your musical pursuit. I would of course hesitate to say with the same degree of confidence, that I would be in a position to ‘spread’ the wealth of Indian music. Indeed, I believe that is something that I cannot for a moment venture to say, only because the tradition has lived through several ages, whether or not people like me choose to be a part of it, let alone contribute to its future prospects! I believe the tradition is far too large for me to consider myself an indispensable part of it, or at any rate make any valuable contribution to its future. I am therefore happy that you have made such an early decision to ‘spread’ this music!

From your email, it is clear that you have had the opportunity to learn from several teachers. I know Suresh Samantji well and am also happy to hear that you are currently being guided by him. I must hasten to add however, that I am not in favour of changing teachers ever so often, as this only leads to a confusion of musical ideas, technique and at times even, repertoire. I will be happy to carry on this discussion on return from the US after a couple of weeks or so. You can contact me on my mobile number xxxxxxxxxx after Sept. 10, and we can decide the best time for you to visit me in Mumbai. We will then discuss the issue threadbare, but for now I can’t assure you that I will be in a position to teach you. There are several reasons for this, and an email will not be sufficient to explain everything to you. It would therefore be best if you made the trip to Mumbai in September.

Regards,

Aneesh

I was in Goa for almost an year and understood ,what a beautiful destination it was to be -not for the beaches ,nor for the culture it encapsulates but for the people it contains.They are so devoted and simple.

One really cannot enjoy Goa in a tour of say 6/7 days by experiencing paragliding,scooba diving ,parachuting and all.Adventure is one thing and divine pleasure is altogether another .

I was staying in Verna- a small town very near to the business capital -Margao.
An ideal town for the freaking out.Going to my workspace by a cycle ,I bought for 1850 bucks.
Nice highway that conncts 3 major cities of the Goa-margao,Panjim and Vasco..

Every alternate evening used to go to Majorda beach ,which happen to be the nearest well known beach from my residence.

Waiting for the weekends ,which are spent mostly out of Verna-sometimes in the Ponda (the religious city for the Hindus)roaming around and having darshan of the Gods/godesses(Shantadurga-Kavalem,Mahalaxmi,Mangeshi,Ramnathi) and sometimes thinking about for the nationl future travelling in a Kadamba bus to longer roads ,alone towards southmost Goa (canacona-my favourite spot) where many days I have spent with myself in the Palolem beach .

It was this beach where I have captured one of the most beautiful scenary in my Camera..

Then I meet Ameya Wadekar-with whom on ETERNO ,I explored the remotest parts of the Goa ,the towns, the festivals and the ultimate.

We spent our weekend evenings -listening and singing the songs in praise of the lord in various temples around Ponda.At home in Wadi and Talvalim ,we accompanied each other for lifting ourselves in the great depth of knowledge in Indian Classical Music.

Initially we picked the raag Yaman-king of all ragas and then Bhim Palaasi .It went for 7 months under the able guidance of Pt.Kamlakar Naik .We used to learn from him on Sundays -where I was just accompanieng with sundry studen artists coming for the vocal traing under him under the AGRA and Dhrupad style of singing..

The delicious fish curry(and especiaaly Machral-Bagda),was the icing on the cake..

So many simple ,enthusiastic and energetic people with their bindaas philosophy to live -will always be with me to the limitless..

What a great philosophy to travel through life’s journey with! Tough one to follow – but nonetheless a nice source of inspiration! Learn from the past. Release yourself from the past. Live the present moment. Enjoy..

I have a great passion for the music that works for the massess.

Initially ,I was disinterested in the music of any kind .When I was only years of age ,my parents got me admitted in to learning of the indian classical music -the percussion or the traditional indian drumming instrument called as Tabla -which was said to be developed by the Ustad Amir Khusro in the 16th century.One can say it was like a blessoing in disguise as I gradually started loving the rythems then swaras and then music as a whole.

I started learning from the University pattern ,and slowly I realised that this kind of system is of very less help for the self development of the individual in the domain.It merely gives any sort of freedom and liberty to explore ,as one is bounded with the completion of the syllabus while following the timing constraints.

After doing my Masters in Music , a 9 years course in Tabla-fortunately I started my professional career at Pune and came to meet Pandit Suresh Samant.Believe me after started learning from the legend I understand the language of Tabla,the beauty of music and limitless universe of the artform.

It has always been my inherent habbit to read ,read and explore whatever I could in the varied interests in the various domains -that inculcated my interest in the concept of the east meeting with the west and ultimately open source culture-linux etc..and music initiated this rebellion thoughts in my mind.Became the avid reader of Peyman Nashepour’s ( a great Tombak percusionist from Israel) group on yahoo..

There must not be any gainsayer that investing or spreading in EDUCATION is crucial in reducing the inequalities that fuel desperate violence ,ignorance and discrimination ,but can somebody explain me how making digital technology more widely available should help much?
The Core:
We may be proud of fully wired,computer controlled-smart class rooms that have projectors,microphones,speakers and video cameras to accommodate every kind of audio and visual presentations and distance learning initiative .
Neverthless ,we find that the most engaging lectures are still Talk and Chalk presentations by cursy old souls who have contagious passion for their subjects (how can we produce them now),interestingly some of whom consider “MULTIMEDIA” to consist of using more than one color of chalk:)
The Dilemma:
I have yet to see a smart classroom enrich the learning experience to a degree that comes close to matching the expense of the equipment it contains..Although many of the professors are eager to embrace new technology,their best efforts at powerpoint fails to surpass the impact of traditional lectures from their low tech colleagues(May be their efforts/energy is wasted in preparing powerpoint and animations in lectures and when the time comes they are already enervated).
..Worse still:
As often as not the technology gets in the way of malfunctioning .I expect that most of the reader have more than once watched a presenter stand sweating in front of a blank projector screen while his laptop reboots -again .
The Need:
Rather than emphasising “globally and cheaply available” digital technology we should gain more —
By investing in simple equipments like chalk boards and books,
By sending teachers in training from poor educational systems to places with selected lecture rooms around the country to explore them to really lucid and passionate teaching..
To send expert educators from those select institutions of learning to poor educational systems as an exchange for some time..
Conclusion:
As with other skilled art , it is the tradition of pedgogy that has to be passed on by personal examples and digital education is of scant help here..
The Tail:
As a support of digital education ,I have read and heared many people saying that chalk takes up the talking time .I must say that the chalk’s taking the time is all about the re-energising .The presentor has to give some time for his ideas to express on its own pace ,to think too -when he plays with the chalk and to search for the best method and media to express his thoughts so that those synchronise and harmonise with the spectators and audience.
Friend,chalking is not wasting his/her time ,it’s kind of meditation the teacher is involved into.

Why you should get to know me :
Because there is much more to me than meets the eye, and at least half of it is actually good stuff.
Warning:
I write mostly when I am shaken – So you might find that most of the posts were written when I was feeling low.

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Almost everything in my life has been serendipitous. It was like one rope leading to a point, that I thought was a kind of summit, and then another leading to the next and so here I am as of now after some mind boggling experiences.

Did my Bachelor in Engineering from BIT Durg,Chhattishgarh.
Did a Post Graduate Course from Indian Institute of Technology ,Mumbai..
Did Diploma (PG) from Bitmapper,Pune.
Currently working on Research and Development in Embedded & Product Engineering domain-VLSI/Embedded Technology.
A hardcore educationist and philosopher by thought and action.. :0)

A poet ,a sportsman or a musician , a homeopath or an astrologer is what I would have loved to see myself becoming but the divine power has thought/planned something else for me ,and here I am an engineer ,a scientist -thoroughly enjoying my work,passionately living because of Music(all kinds of especially indian classical -instrumental ,Poetry-Sufi (Mevlana Rumi),Mirza Ghalib,Ahmad Faraz,Faiz Ahmad Faiz being the motivators ,sports and psycho astrology.