For me, this year seems to have started with a string of interviews. I have had the opportunity of interviewing as many as five artistes in a span of hardly forty days. The first three interviews were painful, to say the least. These three artistes (whom I interviewed separately) insisted on meeting in a bar or a restaurant. I don't consider either of these to be the best place for an interview. Too crowded. Too much noise. Too many distractions. Ideally, the spot should be some place where the artiste can pick his instrument up and sing parts of the songs or play bits of the compositions he's talking about.

Inevitably, the first three interviews were desultory, constrained affairs with the artistes having to shout their views out to be heard above the din. And in one case, the artiste completely stopped making sense after his third whisky-soda.

So when I had to interview Sanjo and Chandrani, a New Delhi-based composer-songwriter duo, I was pleasantly surprised to see Sanjo pick his residence as the venue for the interview. "All my musical instruments are at home", he said gleefully with childlike enthusiasm, "we can jam a bit as we talk."

Sanjo says that bit about "all my musical instruments" in a casual, offhand manner, and people who don