A Success Story: Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy, Music Directors

Brothers in arms

The renowned and self made musical trio Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy share their musical journey and what it takes to pursue ones’ passion with YourStory

Music they say, can unite, cross boundaries and woo people. Wondering what inspiration can drive a software engineer ( Shankar Mahadevan) to quit his profession, an Indian ( Ehsaan Noorani) studying in California to return back to Swades, and an off beat musician (Loy Mendonsa) to get into composing. Passion for the five letter word: MUSIC. Shankar Ehsaan and Loy have created legendary music, with their movie soundtracks for Dil Chahta Hai, Taare Zameen par, Rock On, Karthik Calling Karthik, Wake Up Sid, latest musical hit Housefull and many more. Simply put, the three musketeers of Indian Music are rightly the pioneers of a musical revolution that has changed the face of Bollywood music. In an exclusive conversation with YourStory, they talk about their highs and lows in life and what it takes to excel. An interesting read for all the startup entrepreneurs trying to build value and pursue their passion.
First step forth:
Shankar: “I started learning Hindustani Classical music at an age of five. Though I pursued my engineering, I continued singing. Ehsaan, after composing some advertisements’ jingles pushed me to quit my profession as a software engineer and take up singing. There hasn’t been any looking back ever since then, rather, it has turned out to be a great step!”
Ehsaan: “ I was in Los Angeles studying music. Being the music capital of world, I learnt a lot there. After my return to India, I was involved with jingles. I did that for few years, before we three got together to compose music for our first movie—Dus.”
Loy: “ There was a lot of music in my family and hence I struck my first six strings at an age of thirteen. I went to Delhi after I grew up where I gave music for a lot of television serials like Fauji, Quiz time etc.. On returning back to Mumbai I met Ehsaan through a common friend and instantly we got together to compose music!”
Binding Force
Shankar: “ If I have to be honest, music holds us together! We compose music everywhere and anywhere. While we are traveling, hanging out, or just sitting idle. Breathless was composed during a traffic jam and similarly various others at random situations. Music is what keeps us going.”
Ehsaan: “ The pleasure we derive in creating and playing music is similar. That has been the force that has kept us together during all the lows and highs.”
Loy: “Our diversity has held us together.According to me this factor does the charm in our music. We three come from very different environments and varied school of thought. We learnt different kinds of music and we specialize in different genres. We are the Amar Akbar Anthony of music industry, with each one of us from a different faith.”
Stairway to Success:
Shankar : “ Its been a long journey for the three of us to achieve the name and fame that we share today. Coming from a middle class family, I was educated to have a risk free life post my graduation. To quit all of that and start afresh was a tough task. But one has to take a few tough steps. I had faith in myself and SEL (Shankar Ehsaan Loy) as a whole. The journey has been full of falls and struggles but we have finally got what we deserve. And that’s definitely satisfying.
Ehsaan: “ As Shankar said, it’s been a grueling path. I too, had to come back from California and start my life all over again. The transition was tough but today when I look back, I am glad that I took that decision.
Loy: “There were years when we have waited for that right movie or that right assignment. It has taken a lot of patience from all of us, but we have always stood by each other, shared our happiness , sorrows and struggles. That has been the key.”
Beyond Music:
Shankar: “Our lives revolve around music. Hence there’s music everywhere, in everything that I do. There is a song in my mind for every moment.”
Ehsaan: “I love guitars! I now have a collection of 24 guitars all together and I am glad that I know which one to play when!”
Loy: “ I am a gadget freak. I do make sure to catch up on the scientific developments in any field. I love to read about the same, be it on the web or read books on such topics.”
Message to the youth:
Shankar: “ It is very essential to do what you like! I have incorporated that in my life and here I am, a happy man. Always follow your passion and never let yourself down.”
Ehsaan: “ I am glad that I am doing something in which I derive fun. This has been my dream and I am living it. One thing that’s lacking in today’s generation is the tenacity to work towards their dreams. I think that’s something very essential. Always cherish your dreams.”
Loy: “ In today’s global village, increasingly young people are losing their identity and roots. There is a small Indian sitting inside every one of us, never forget that. It is very essential to be proud of that and reflect it in our identity, in whatever we do!”

India has more Mobile Telephone than Toilets- UN Reports

According to a recent report published by the United Nations (UN)– India has more mobile phones than toilets. This means that Indians can attend calls on their mobile phone more easily than attending nature’s call. Funny but true. The growth of the India Mobile Phone market and Telecom market is a big success story as far as numbers go. India is the 2nd largest mobile market in the world next to China. The cost of owning a mobile phone and connection is incredibly low these days. It’s quite interesting how they compared mobile phone populating to number of toilets.

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UNITED NATIONS: More people in India, the world's second most crowded country, have access to a mobile telephone than to a toilet, according to a new UN study on how to cut the number of people with inadequate sanitation. "It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said Zafar Adeel, Director of United Nations University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health (IWEH). India has some 545 million cell phones, enough to serve about 45 per cent of the population, but only about 366 million people or 31 per cent of the population had access to improved sanitation in 2008. The recommendations of United Nations University (UNU) released Wednesday are meant to accelerate the pace towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation. If current global trends continue, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) predict there will be a shortfall of 1 billion persons from that sanitation goal by the target date of 2015. "Anyone who shirks the topic as repugnant, minimises it as undignified, or considers unworthy those in need should let others take over for the sake of 1.5 million children and countless others killed each year by contaminated water and unhealthy sanitation," said. Adeel. Among the nine recommendations are the suggestions to adjust the MDG target from a 50 per cent improvement by 2015 to 100 per cent coverage by 2025; and to reassign official development assistance equal to 0.002 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to sanitation. The UNU report cites a rough cost of $300 to build a toilet, including labour, materials and advice. "The world can expect, however, a return of between $3 and $34 for every dollar spent on sanitation, realized through reduced poverty and health costs and higher productivity - an economic and humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions," added Adeel.

The curtain comes down on people's car Maruti

It has been 26 years since the original people's car rolled out on the streets of Delhi. On December 14, 1983, then prime minister Indira Gandhi handed over the keys of the first Maruti 800 to Harpal Singh, a flight operations officer in the Indian Airlines. Bigger and faster cars have since zoomed past the Maruti 800, but its charms have remained undiminished. Be it mileage, reliability, an extensive service network or its high resale value, the Maruti 800 has been the popular choice for years. And just as Singh is remembered as the first owner, so would be 36-year-old Abbas Ahmed. On Wednesday, he became the last owner of the car in the Capital. A dealer in steel cupboards, Ahmed desperately wanted a Maruti 800 - not to be a part of history, he mentioned. He had moved the bank seeking a loan to buy the car but when he realised that it will take time and that the car would not be available from Thursday, he borrowed money from friends and relatives and bought the car on Wednesday evening. Ahmed bought the standard model of the car which comes without air-conditioning. "In the morning I had no idea that the car won't be available in the market from tomorrow. But when I came to know that the loan would take a few days to be sanctioned by which time I would lose the opportunity to buy the car, I decided to buy the car today itself," said Ahmed. His reason for buying the car was no different from the thousands of owners who found the car - priced at Rs 2.06 lakh (ex- showroom on Wednesday) - to be within their budget. Thursday onwards, 13 cities, including the NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, will switch over to Bharat Stage-IV emission norms. The company chose not to upgrade Maruti 800 to the new norms and has instead decided to phase out the car in the metropolitan cities. In the rest of the country, the car will be available for a while longer before they adopt BS-III norms from October. As the curtains come down on the earliest exponent of the small car segment, it also brings to end an era where a Maruti 800 meant more than just a car. It was a friend, as middle-class India found out over two decades. Talking about the Maruti 800, car designer Dilip Chhabria said, "The Maruti 800 revolutionised the car market in the country. However, the sales had come down in the recent years and a phase-out was imminent. The introduction of BS-IV in metropolitan cities only sped up the process of phasing out. There's a lot of sentiment attached to the car which succeeded and gave the car market a new direction in the country." Shaheed, who works as an adviser at a car showroom, has been associated with Maruti since 1984. Having joined the company a year after the car was launched, Shaheed has witnessed its journey through the years. "Maruti has stopped making cars like the Zen but there's still a huge demand for these cars in the market. The same would be the case for the Maruti 800. Any Maruti 800 car would fetch a high resale value," Shaheed said. Now 82, Singh, the car's first owner doesn't remember much about the historic occasion. But his wife Gursharanbir Kaur said, "Our car never failed us. We still own the car and it has never shut down on the road. We bought this car for Rs 54,000 and it was the best investment we made."