Buddhadev: I have actually been a practising engineer for 32 years . Coming from a middle class family, I dared not take classical music as my profession because in my younger days classical musicians mostly lived on the verge of starvation . My father was a government servant and my grandfather a hard core advocate to whom music was like a red rag to a bull . So my father couldn't really learn music and when the question mark of my learning music arose, my father remembered his childhood and did not say "No" to me.

IMG: So when exactly did you take interest in music?
                                   
Buddhadev: Let me give you one or two interesting anecdotes of my life . My first tryst with music was at the age of three and a half . One of the most famous vocalists of bygone days was performing on the stage . My parents took their 3 1/2 year old in the hope that by listening to the great maestro "Sa Re Ga Ma" may germinate in his mind. But the result was totally unexpected. The little boy stood up and asked the maestro to promptly ‘Shut up’. "Aap itna shor kya machate ho. Chup ho jaa." Nobody took any notice of me and the maestro continued singing. But I was not to be put off so easily. I stood up on my chair and repeated my advice with renewed vigour until I was whisked away from the hall. That is my musical background. Music was not in my blood as is the case with most fortunate musicians.
                              The next incident was equally amusing and occured when I was five. His uncle,  (pointing to Nayan Ghosh who was standing near the door) the great Pannalal Ghosh, who was at that time 21 and Nikhil (Ghosh) Kaka was just 19. My father was transferred to Barisal, now in Bangladesh, and being a music lover he always patronised the local musicians. So Pannababu and Nikhilkaka became very friendly with us and would come over every
                              Saturday evening for an Adda (informal chat) and would also play some music. Seeing Pannakaka play the flute, I wanted a flute too. My mother believed in those days that playing the flute would cause tuberculosis so there was no question mark of getting a flute. To top it all he had 12 flutes and so I smarting under a sense of injustice couldn’t resist myself. One day my mother overheard me asking Pannakaka for a flute and gave me corporal punishment. The worst punishment for me was to be locked in the bathroom and the light switched off.
                              In total darkness, the room became as fearful as a jungle full of tigers and lions. After an hour or two I secured my release. Pannakaka had already gone away. While parting he had left a gift for me. He had also asked my mother not to beat me. As who knows,"He may be a musician some day".

IMG: Do you have an interest in any other forms of music like Western classical music?
                              
Buddhadev: Yes. Very much. In my childhood I have heard some light compositions like waltzes and then I slowly came to like Classical compositions. The orchestra has always captured my imagination and going through them I found that some of them contain musical lines very akin to some of our Ragas. My interest grew and it has now become a subject of my lecture demonstrations. Western music composers have not learnt our Indian Ragas and put it into their music, neither have our forefathers been inspired by their music while composing Ragas, but there are startling resemblances in certain lines/pieces. This is a very interesting area in which I often take a dive. That is my relation with Western music and I have also been researching with Bandishes (compositions) of Rabindra sangeet. Tagore was a man very well acquainted with Classical music.
                              In addition, to composing lighter variety of songs, he composed some Raga based songs. Some of these songs provide very good material as the lifeline of an instrumental Bandish. So I have developed nearly 25 of them and probably a record will be released in the market in the near future.
                              
IMG: The Western Classical form of music is based on harmony and orchestration whereas ours is based on melody...

Buddhadev: Very true. That is the 1st point from which I always start when I give Lecture-demonstrations. Even in the most grand harmonised passages there is a main melodic line. If you ask a Westerner to hum/whistle a Western tune (s)he cannot produce the entire orchestra, neither can (s)he produce all the different lines that go together simultaenously. (S)He remembers and reproduces the main melodic music "da....da". That is the Blue Danube. It is hidden in different harmonies but this tune is its lifeline. This is the channel through which we enter their music and fall in love with it.

IMG: There is a lot of fusion music being composed today. What is your response to the combining of these "pure" forms of music?
                                    
Buddhadev: So long as there are good interfaces, when some particular line of Western music comes close to a Raga, our instrumentalists or singers can take up from that and develop it on their own lines and come back to the original tune. But my experimentation with Western music merely consists of finding out those beautiful lines which already conform to some of our Ragas, and their orchestration.

IMG: Like what Pandit Ravi Shankar has done?
                                    
Buddhadev: Raviji is a pioneer. Not much has surpassed him till now. But there are many other grounds to cover. In Western music, there is some main theme and melodic line which is developed but in developing it, other instruments may not limit themselves to the notes of that particular Raga only but may use whatever notes come to their minds to enrich the music. But you can do that only with Indian Raga notes and yet have a semblance of a full-blooded symphony orchestra.

Buddhadev: The results vary from musician to musician, depending on their talents and capabilities. Our ragas are not exactly in the same form as they were when they were born. Ragas initially existed in the form of of dhrupads. Sometimes they have a line or track which has undergone a change in form in the course of time. These additions and subtractions are a result of the thinking and research of the hundreds of musicians who have used the raga. Ours, unlike Western classical music has 12 notes and their permutations can give us thousands of ragas. When a new raga is born musicians play with it, toy with it and if even then it is still found unappealing it is ofgen relegated to the waste paper basket. 50-100 years later some other musician may claim to have made a new discovery. These however, are universally accepted only if they survive for another 300 years like our old Kedar, Kamod, Bagashree, Jayjayanti, Desh, Lalit. With the passage of time they have been growing stronger. They show no signs of ageing. If a new found raga survives like these thene I am prepared to call it a raga.