Composer's notes (December 31, 2006):
Music is my passion. I love listening to most kinds of music. I have a slight preference for Indian
and Western classical music and a strong preference for light Indian film music, especially the songs
composed by S.D.Burman and R.D.Burman and rendered by Kishore Kumar. I have been singing since my IIT-Bombay
days of 1991-95 and performed twice at the annual "Surbahaar" music concert. In NYC/NJ in the US, I sang as
a part of a local Indian film music band (again called "Surbahaar") and raised money for literacy projects
in India including Pratham, Asha for Education and CRY. Since my wife (Manjiree)
and I moved to London in 2001-2, my singing
took a backstage. It was around this time that I met Anurag Gupta in London, who drew my attention to Puneet
Joshi (aka "Mhow" for IITians) and Kumar Kale singing to their own tunes. I contributed to some lyrics
for their upcoming album and in parallel started composing my own tunes and lyrics. Though I had always
written poetry since childhood, that too had taken a backstage in London. But its all coming back and
coming together now...
Aided by a push from Manjiree and helped by her friend Milind Oak, I met Hrishikesh Ranade, Prajakta Joshi-Ranade
and Narendra Bhide in Pune in 2005. Hrishikesh and Prajakta sang the songs and Narendra arranged the music.
Anurag was instrumental all through, helping with templates for songs at early stage, providing critical feedback
on recorded songs, and, perhaps most imporantly, taking my photo with the guitar during our trip to Devon.
The songs and the music, nurtured for around 18 months in 2005-06, form the soul of my first album
"Yaadon Ke Silsile -
An Ode to Friends and Some Romantic Moods". The photo provides the panache on the album's cover! And,
I have also been singing this year in small parties and fund-raisers for Pratham.
Yaadon Ke Silsile is an effort to create light Indian music melodies. Listen to it in your free time.
Its been a fun ride for me! I hope you enjoy it too. Let me know what you think of it.
Thank you for your attention.
Viral Acharya.
PS: I am grateful to my brother-in-law Paresh Shah for developing the album's website and to my sister-in-law
Radhika Jog for an earlier design.