After 25 years ‘following my passion’, I can confidently say that this decision comes at a price. To pursue your passion as a hobby and to pursue it as your profession are totally different things. If you are good at your job, you’ll get the appreciation that is at the end of the

https://twitter.com/gabbbarsingh/status/1635856176838762496

tunnel, but nobody can bypass that dark tunnel. Sometimes you get the feeling that the tunnel is also adding miles to itself and what seems to be a tunnel might as well be a cave or an abyss. When I joined music as a profession, I was sure I wanted to do songs, especially film

When I was a young, budding composer, P. L. Deshpande - the great PuLa - litterateur, playwright, humorist, standup comedian, music composer, great harmonium player, actor, director - heard my songs and called me to mention his appreciation. He asked me what motivated me to

https://twitter.com/taparam/status/1634906939951058945

compose tunes for classical Marathi poetry. I was young enough to know everything then and had a template for every question. So, I answered confidently, “I wanted to do something different.” The wise man put his arm on my shoulder and said, “Son, you do whatever’s good; the

जरा मोठा धागा

प्रस्तावना
--------
माझ्या अनेक दोषांपैकी एक दोष म्हणजे मला multi-tasking अजिबात जमत नाही. याच दोषाला पोषक असा दुसरा दोष म्हणजे एखादी गोष्ट मनासारखी होत नाही म्हटल्यावर ती करणं सारखं पुढे ढकलणं. एका मुलाखतीत अरूण शौरी म्हणाले होते - "Never let the best be the enemy of your good." हे मला कळलं आहे तरी वळलं नाहीए. याचा परिपाक म्हणजे उत्तम करण्याच्या नादात चांगलं करणंही राहून जातं. अशा तीन गोष्टी मी पुन्हा एकदा निर्धाराने करायला घेतो आहे

गोष्ट पहिली
-----------
गेली अनेक वर्षं मी ठरवत होतो की मी केलेल्या

In Marathi, during the announcement of a play in a theatre, or in a press ad, it is always the writer who is given the honour of the first credit. The director is next. They also get an honorarium for every show. Even today, playwrights have a fan following of their own. In

https://twitter.com/vivekagnihotri/status/1568206576435200000

movies, however, the so-called ‘stars’ gained the front seat. It was only due to the high self-esteem (or ego, as one might see it. Poet Ashok Bagwe says that an artist must have a ‘देखणा अहंकार’ an untranslatable phrase) of writers like Salim Javed (@Javedakhtarjadu) who fought

मीरेवर केलेल्या आख्यानात ओशो असं म्हणतात की कृष्णाच्या मुकुटात खोवलेल्या मोरपिसाला प्रतिकात्मक महत्त्व आहे. जसे मोरपिसात सगळे रंग आहेत, तसेच श्रीकृष्णातही सगळे रंग आहेत. तो योद्धाही आहे आणि योगीही. त्याला शांतीच्या शोधात हिमालयात जावं लागत नाही कारण त्याच्या आतच एक हिमालय आहे! कृष्णाचं सावळं असणंही अर्थपूर्ण आहे. नदीचं पाणी जिथे उथळ असतं तिथे त्याचा तळ दिसतो. पण जसजशी त्याची खोली वाढत जाते, तसं ते गडद होत जातं आणि तळ दिसेनासा होतो. कृष्णाचा तळ दिसत नाही. श्रीकृष्णाचं संपूर्ण प्रतिबिंब मनाच्या काचेवर मावणं अवघडच! म्हणून ओशो म्हणतात की संतसुद्धा

अख़्तर-उल्-इमान, ज्यांना आपण ‘वक़्त’, ‘कानून’, ‘नया दौर’ सारख्या चित्रपटांचे पटकथाकार आणि संवादलेखक म्हणून ओळखतो, हे उर्दूतील प्रसिद्ध शायर होते. शायर असूनही त्यांनी ग़ज़ल हा काव्यप्रकार कधी हाताळला नाही. त्याबाबत त्यांना एकदा विचारलं असता त्यांनी असं उत्तर दिलं – “मी कधी ग़ज़ल लिहिली नाही कारण ग़ालिबने त्यातल्या सर्व शक्यता संपवल्या आहेत!”
मला ग़ज़ल हा काव्यप्रकार म्हणून आणि संगीतप्रकार म्हणूनही अत्यंत प्रिय आहे परंतु अख़्तर-उल्-इमान म्हणतात त्याच कारणासाठी मी ग़ज़ल हा प्रकार इतका हाताळला नाहीए. ग़ज़ल गायकीच्या प्रामुख्याने दोन शाखा आहेत

बाहेर अविरत पाऊस पडतोय. अविरत. Continuously. शाळेत असताना व्याकरणात आपण Present Continuous Tense – अपूर्ण वर्तमानकाळ – शिकलो आहोत. हा अपूर्ण वर्तमानकाळ आपल्याला वाक्यातही आणता येतो आणि काव्यातही! परंतु हा अविरतपणा, अपूर्ण वर्तमानकाळ संगीत रचनेत कसा आणता येईल याचा मी अनेकदा विचार करत असे.

काही वर्षांपूर्वी प्रा. अशोक बागवेंनी मला एक ग़ज़ल चाल लावण्याकरता दिली होती.

पाऊस हा फुलांचा पाऊस पाकळ्यांचा
डोळे हळूच आता आतून झाकण्याचा

या शब्दांमध्ये Here & Nowचा एक फील होता. हे आत्ता सुरू आहे. कदाचित, ‘पाऊस हा फुलांचा’ असं म्हटल्यामुळे असेल.

#Replug
संगीतकार म्हणून माझ्या कारकीर्दीच्या अगदी सुरुवातीला मंगेश पाडगांवकरांनी मला एक सल्ला दिला होता - "कवितांना तू चाली देतो आहेस हे ठीकच आहे, पण तू गाणं explore कर." तेव्हा ते नेमकं काय सांगत आहेत ते मला नीटसं समजलं नव्हतं पण घरी आल्यावर शांताबाई शेळके यांचा गीतसंग्रह - ‘कळ्यांचे दिवस, फुलांच्या राती’ उघडला आणि शांताबाईंची गीतं पाहायला लागलो. गीत आणि कविता यात नेमका फरक काय आहे यावर अनेक चर्चा, वाद झडले आहेत आणि त्यात मला आत्ता पडायचं नाही. इतकंच सांगतो की शांता शेळकेंचा संग्रह वाचू लागलो आणि मंगेश पाडगांवकर काय सांगू पाहत होते ते माझ्या

I had a boy working for me who was a converted Christian. He was poor and when he came to me was in search of work. My son was in kg at the time and sometimes when I and my wife were away at work, we used to ask him to get our son home by rickshaw for which we paid him some

https://twitter.com/mariawirth1/status/1526930652389527557

additional cash. One day my wife saw that despite taking money for rickshaw he got my son home by bus. She asked him why he didn’t come home in a rickshaw and he said he couldn’t get one. We let it be. One day I got a phone call from a colleague of mine to whom I had sent this

In the summer of 1993, when I was still a confused young man, undecided on what career to choose, I came across a cassette of songs by #Ilaiyaraja in a small shop in Coimbatore, while on a trip to the south with my parents. I was still far away from considering music as a career; I was contemplating to be a writer at that time, having won the prize of best playwright twice in INT and Unmesh competitions. But music was a permanent resident in my mind and lips and I hummed constantly.
I had been introduced to Ilaiyaraja’s music

#Swatantryagaan
A music concert of songs from Indian cinema that contributed to the Indian freedom struggle and after.
It was great fun to conceive and curate this concert and work with such a talented team led by Kamlesh Bhadkamkar. The musicians were some of the finest of our times - Archis Lele, Anil Karanjavkar, Datta Tawde, Hanumant Rawade, Amit Gothivrekar, Varad Kathapurkar, Rahul Deo and Kamlesh himself.
The singers did such a rocking job that

If you notice, even the construction of her sentence in English is grammatically incorrect. This happens due to apathy towards language and not just apathy towards ‘a’ language. The tendency of ‘this much is enough to get the work done’ as against doing the work aesthetically is

https://twitter.com/cestmoiz/status/1519129938003210242

what is at play here. I see the same attitude in Marathi too. What @Nawazuddin_S has said in the viral clip is a problem that I had highlighted in a Marathi thread a few days back. Pt. Satyadev Dube used to say, “If your language is unclear, your thoughts remain ambiguous too.”

#मराठीदिन निमित्त एक मजेशीर गोष्ट. काही वर्षांपूर्वी मुंबईच्या झेवियर्स महाविद्यालयातील काही मुलं मला भेटायला आली.

मला म्हणाली -“सर, झेवियर्स महाविद्यालयात खूप पूर्वीपासून मराठी वाङमय मंडळ आहे परंतु काही कारणाने ते अनेक वर्ष निष्क्रीय होतं. आमचे सर आहेत - शिंदे सर - त्यांनी या मंडळाला पुनुरुज्जिवित करायचं ठरवलं आहे. या मंडळाच्या उद्घाटनाच्या कार्यक्रमाला प्रमुख पाहुणा म्हणून आपण यावं अशी आमची इच्छा आहे. तुम्ही याल का?”

तरूण मुलांशी संवाद साधायला मी कधीही नकार देत नाही. मी त्वरित होकार दिला.

Read the thread. Sai Deepak is right. This problem is more with humanities departments who shut themselves to any different opinion in the name of ‘hurtful’ speech. I have seen that it’s mostly the professors who are totally incapable and are, in fact, afraid to entertain a

https://twitter.com/jsaideepak/status/1497217310179803136

position that is different from theirs. Notice that it is the demand for cancellation which is more hurtful, almost abusive and insulting to a human being. Sai is being gracious here and has not retreated from having a dialogue with students of any ideological bent. I have

I don’t think this is a problem with just individuals. Urban life and lifestyle has been a major culprit in this. We have been able to increase our standard of living but not the standard of life. Let me compare this to a phenomenon that I observed in Indian film music. -1

https://twitter.com/granny_1857/status/1483001596275429379

Till early 80s composers and arrangers worked mostly with acoustic instruments. Emphasis was on the ‘composition’ and not on the ‘sound’. ‘Sound’ was an ornament not the soul of the song. With the advent of the synthesiser, things started changing. -2

I stopped subscribing to newspapers since last two to three years. Resubscribed them (mostly financial ones) only for my son. But I, too, am disappointed with the quality of newspapers and the journalism. There was a time when TOI and the Express had reviews of music concerts,

https://twitter.com/m_vijapurkar/status/1483411962536943619

art exhibitions, theatre. That stopped - at least in the Mumbai editions. The English newspapers refused to entertain any material that was to do with the Marathi ethos. I remember when senior journalist Ambareesh Mishra had interviewed me for winning the best playwright award

Please do help the young man. I’ll benefit from some suggestions too. From my side I can suggest @c_aashish and @anayjoglekar. I would really love to hear from analysts who are from different hues of the political spectrum too. But what I have found in the last few years is this-

https://twitter.com/anuraginamdar/status/1483309725668507648

People from the media who support the Congress show a lot of disdain for people who don’t agree with them. Same is true for some media persons who support the BJP too. This language of ‘bhakts’, ‘andhbhakts’ is high on rhetoric but it erodes your credibility. Bias is ok as

प्रभाकर जोग
काही गोष्टी केवळ मराठी मुलुखातच घडू शकतात. तीन संगीतकार वेगवेगळ्या भूमिकेत येऊन एकत्र एक गाणं करतात हे इतर कुठे घडलं असेल असं माझ्या तरी ऐकिवात नाही. एक संगीतकार गाण्याची सुरावट रचतो. त्या संगीत रचनेचे सूर नोटेशनच्या रूपाने तो दुसऱ्या संगीतकाराला पोस्टकार्डावर लिहून धाडतो. दुसरा संगीतकार गीतकाराच्या भूमिकेत शिरून त्या पत्ररूपाने आलेल्या सुरावटीवर फार सुंदर शब्द लिहितो आणि मग ते गाणं एक तिसरा संगीतकार गायकाचा सदरा घालून गातो! प्रतिभेच्या या त्रिधारा एकत्र येऊन जो गीतरूपी प्रयाग झाला आहे ते सुप्रसिद्ध गीत आहे –

On social media, there is no filter. Things people say on Twitter would never be said if the person was sitting across you, if you had a personal relationship with the person. I see a lot of friends speak very vehemently on topics I would never agree on. I see to it that I never

https://twitter.com/raggedtag/status/1454067487054577665

argue with them on Twitter. Twitter conversations have a tendency to degenerate faster than food kept outside in summers and escalate faster than a fire in a dried forest. I also notice with great gratitude that these same friends who may not subscribe to my views also

I was in my college on the 12th of March. It was 2:10 and my lectures were over. I used to walk home from Ru via Gadkari Chowk and then to my house in Prabhadevi. A friend persuaded me to drink a cup of tea in the canteen before proceeding home. I said no, and he insisted -

https://twitter.com/nareshbareth/status/1430930313870553095

so I stayed back. The moment I drank the last drop of tea in my glass there was a loud blast and the glass pane of the canteen window cracked because of it. We thought there was a cylinder blast. When I walked out of my college campus, and came to the main road, I saw a man -

#छंद_ओठातले
पर्व १ भाग ६

‘चार दिवस सासूचे’ मालिका नुकतीच प्रदर्शित व्हायला सुरुवात झाली होती. एका समारंभात मला मराठीतला एक सुप्रसिद्ध दिग्दर्शक भेटला. मला पाहिल्याबरोबर तो जरा छद्मी हसला आणि म्हणाला – “अरे काय गाणं केलंस तू हे? चार दिवस सासूचे?! अशी काय चाल केलीस?” 1/18 त्याच्या प्रश्नातला कुत्सित सूर माझ्यापासून लपून राहिला नव्हता. पण मीही त्याच्याबरोबर हसलो आणि म्हणालो – “मला मजा आली म्हणून!”
‘चार दिवस सासूचे’ या मालिकेच्या शीर्षकात चारच दिवस असले तरी ही मालिका तब्बल अकरा वर्षं चालली. अनेक वर्षं ते गाणं लोकांच्या ओठांवर राहिलं. 2/18