Detangle by Kinjal
Detangle is a podcast created by health psychologist and writer, Dr Kinjal Goyal. Each episode is a conversation with an expert in their field, as they dive deep into their journerys and experiences. The conversations are full of insight and a great way to hear, first hand, how the mind plays a pivotal role in almost everything that we do. The guests range from doctors, to writers, to those in entertainment and of course, those from mental health fields.
Detangle by Kinjal
Detangle with Raghav Sachar
What does it take to transform raw musical talent into a celebrated career? Join us as we explore the extraordinary journey of Mr. Raghav Sacher, a virtuoso musician and India's cultural ambassador multiple times. As a child prodigy, Raghav's musical prowess was evident from the age of four, despite not hailing from a musical family. Influenced by his father's military and police background, Raghav's disciplined approach to his craft has been instrumental in his success. Discover how his impeccable time management skills and respect for punctuality, honed during his education in Australia, have enabled him to balance extensive musical pursuits with family life.
Navigating the transition from an MTV Artist of the Month to a social media maestro, Raghav's journey is one of perseverance and relentless self-improvement. He opens up about the decade-long process of mastering social media, sharing the challenges and strategies that led him to understand his audience. Learn how Raghav harnessed his impatience as a key motivator, acquiring multiple skills such as composing, singing, video production, and even coding to take control of every aspect of his work. Our conversation underscores the importance of self-reliance, continuous learning, and the power of turning impatience into a driving force for success.
Dive into the world of social media content creation with Raghav, where he innovates by blending traditional instruments with modern themes and iconic tunes. This episode also tackles the emotional and mental challenges of sustaining a career in the arts, emphasizing resilience and the acceptance of rejection. We discuss the need for discipline, empathy, and kindness in the music industry, and the importance of balancing passion with recreation. Gain insights into maintaining a work-life balance, the therapeutic value of hobbies, and the significance of planning and adaptability in managing stress. This episode offers a comprehensive look at the life of a dedicated and disciplined artist, providing valuable lessons for anyone on a creative journey.
Welcome to Detangle, where we untangle the complexities of life one conversation at a time. I'm your host, dr Kinjal Goel, a psychologist and a writer. Today we have with us Mr Raghav Satcher, somebody I have recently discovered and, oh my God, am I bowled over. He has been the cultural ambassador for India. As a musician many times. He plays more instruments than I can count on my fingertips. There is so much I can say about him, but I don't think I can do justice. Let me just welcome him. Welcome, mr Raghav. I'm so glad you're on Detangled with me today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Kinjalji. What a pleasure to be with you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:So, Mr Raghav, tell me something about yourself. How would you introduce yourself to my audience in two lines?
Speaker 2:I think the one thing that I can say is music is in my DNA and that's what, basically. I'm eating, drinking, sleeping, pretty much everything is music for me.
Speaker 1:Lovely, so let's get started. Tell us about your journey. Were you always so tuned into music as a child, or were you following different dreams when you were younger?
Speaker 2:No, I've always been into music. It was something that kind of came very naturally to me. I was just four years old when I saw my father play harmonica to my mother, and we don't come from a musical background as such. My father is a retired director general of police. He's also a sena medal ex army officer. He took early retirement and joined IPS. So he was playing the harmonica and I he was playing the song called to my mother and I took it from him and I played it back to him. Oh wow, at that age.
Speaker 2:And so harmonica is a very good instrument in case you, you know, ever want to kind of find out if there is anybody who's inclined towards music from pitch perspective, from rhythm perspective, because it's all in your mouth so you can't actually teach this instrument to anyone. It's a self-taught instrument, it has to be. So this is a great instrument to kind of pick up or, you know, you hand over these instruments to kids and stuff to see whether they are inclined or not and they kind of try and make sense of the instrument. So I started like that. And then at that time there was this program called Chitra Har that used to come, so I would hear any song that would play on Chitra Har, I would be able to play it back. So that basically got my parents really excited and they thought that you know, this is a very interesting talent.
Speaker 2:And then I tried my hands on various different instruments. And as I tried my hands on different instruments, they also very naturally started playing and I didn't have to kind of make too much effort to understand an instrument or you know, before I could execute playing it. And it's still the same, whenever I travel internationally or anything, I just have a tendency of picking up instruments very quickly. So that's, I think, have a tendency of picking up instruments very quickly. So that's, I think, definitely a God gift. And that's how it all began.
Speaker 1:Wow. So what I'm hearing right now is when you say music is in your DNA. There is also something else in your DNA which makes you successful, and that is discipline from a life and service that you get from your father. I'm sure there's a lot of discipline in your field as well. Absolutely so. I am a very big fan. You get from your father.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's a lot of discipline in your field as well, absolutely so. Um, I am a very big fan of order. I love being uh, you know, I love and I'm very proud that I'm very, very punctual. I'm very particular about my timing and I think that all has come because of the upbringing as well, because of army, because of that police kind of strict uh you know weightage towards valuing time and everybody's time. That has really really helped me and also it was reiterated when I did my bachelor's of music in australia.
Speaker 2:Um, of course, internationally everybody takes time very, very seriously. In our industry, largely, time is kind of unfortunately not given too much value and that is something that is. That is something that you know kind of should change and I hope it changes. But I mean, I have been in the industry for a while. People who want to be punctual are punctual. People who don't want to be punctual, they can kind of manage by not being punctual. Also, and it's kind of, you know, it's not frowned upon internationally. You can't get away without being punctual and being and value everybody's time equally, no matter what position you're at. So I think discipline is the key aspect of what I do and that's the reason I'm able to do multiple things, because if I didn't have that discipline then I would be wasting my time on a lot of other. You know, basically just trying to get things in order.
Speaker 1:True. So time management is one skill that you have mastered, along with the others, because it helps you keep you know everything sane around you, along with the others, because it helps you keep you know everything sane around you.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and gives me time to spend with my family equally, and the work-life balance is maintained, and there are so many things that kind of fall in line just by just pure time management.
Speaker 1:I completely agree. But how many hours a day do you spend sharpening all these skills that you have?
Speaker 2:But how many hours a day do you spend sharpening all these skills that you have? So you know, this used to be a very conscious effort while I was studying, when I did my bachelor's in music, and when I was studying in school and stuff, I had a lot more time at hand and, of course, the only thing I had to do at that time was to practice and I would do hours and hours and hours and hours of practicing and I was very determined and very dedicated towards that. Of course, as life passes and you know, you have other responsibilities that take over. You have kids, you have meetings, you have so many other things that are happening. Time gets limited. So you have so many other things that are happening. Time gets limited.
Speaker 2:So your practicing of instruments, of like the way I used to, where I would sit down and practice scales, I would sit down and practice breathing techniques All of that, of course, has no room. Unfortunately, I don't have the time only to do that. But the good thing is that because I've, you know, put myself so deeply into music and there is so much content that I have to keep creating, so you're practicing. So, basically, whether I'm taking out time to practice or whether I'm just executing. I am playing the instrument very often, and all instruments very often, and this it's working kind of in a cyclic way for me, which is good, because I have to create content, to create content, I have to play and to play, and you know, so on and so forth. So it, this is a like a good cycle that's being created, which is which is giving me the opportunity to keep playing my instruments far more than what I would usually right?
Speaker 1:do you also believe in the 10 000 hour rule that once you get there, once you've practiced for a certain amount of time, you will get better?
Speaker 2:absolutely so. See this, this basically goes. I do teach as well. I have a school of music as as well. So, um, this is a very, very clear-cut, uh fact of life that if you start, if you put in effort and time into one particular skill and you continuously keep doing that relentlessly, consistently, you are going to get better at it, and at a very good pace, because the learning curve keeps changing. You might start off slow and then suddenly midway you might pick up uh, you know very well. Or it might be the other way around, that you know you've, I mean generally picked up very. Or it might be the other way around that you know you've, I mean generally picked up very quickly and it might slow down in the middle somewhere. So it has a way of kind of balancing itself out. But any form of art, with discipline and consistency, if you're after it at it, you are going to excel in it, for sure.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, mr Agab, you've also aced the social media game. That's how I found you. I mean, once I started listening to you I couldn't stop. I was listening to you on loop, but was this something that you learned, or did it come naturally to you to put yourself out there on social media to, you know, kind of garner an audience there?
Speaker 2:Actually, it's been a very difficult task to do this and when I came into the industry it was 2003. At that time, of course, no social media existed. We were known because I was MTV Artist of the Month or Channel V or one of these things was going on. So at that time you know when we are any which ways catering to an urban audience here. But if, like a, like a security guard, is able to recognize you a rickshaw knows what, who you are, then you would kind of see the feel that, okay, I am penetrating into the masses, which happened when I had initially come into the scene with all of these channels which were very generous at that time towards music and musicians, and we would get a lot of weightage on these channels and that is how we would make our bread and butter, because that fame would give us concerts and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:Of course, all all of that is long gone and social media came into the scene and I tried to make it on social media for the longest time and nothing happened. Really, I've been I mean, of course, as everybody has been. I've been on social media since the inception of social media with Facebook and Instagram stuff. So I have been on Instagram since 2012. And I actually started seeing some results in 2022.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's 10 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so an entire decade I kept trying my level best to understand what people want, how to get them to understand what I'm doing, you know, so on and so forth, but it did not kind of strike a chord at all Not that it was pathetic, but it was not where we are at today. The maximum that I reached, before things started moving in a very quick progression, was 160,000 followers, which were also people who might have kind of followed me, you know, for years and stuff like that, and eventually landed themselves on social media and then found me, the diehard, diehard core fans that have been there for years. And then, of course, I understood what exactly the audience wanted and they wanted and how to execute this and how to give it to them what they want. So I generally function in such a manner that I personally do not like waiting for somebody else to do a job for me, and that has been that impatience, I would say has been a very key motivator for me to kind of go and pick up things on my own.
Speaker 2:So, to give you an idea, I was essentially only a musical person. I would only play multiple instruments, so that was something that came very naturally to me, and instruments are like an extension of me. I can kind of feel them, I can breathe them. They work like an extension of me. So then, when I had to create music, when I did I had to compose music. I had to wait for a composer to come and compose music, which I didn't like, so I started composing on my own.
Speaker 1:Then I like this impatience works impatience works?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely, and has worked wonders for me. Same thing happened for me to become a singer, so I had to wait for singers to come. So if you see my second album, my second album was called 24 Carat and that basically had all my singer friends to come and sing, like Kailash Kher, kunal Ganjawala, sunidhi Chauhan, so many of other friends that have been there to come on and sing. Now I was like dude, I can't keep doing waiting for them and everybody else is so busy, I'll start singing myself. That's how I became a singer. I even became a female vocalist in the middle where there was a film that I was doing called One, two, three, and at about three o'clock in the morning the director said we want a female part in this and we are shooting at six in the morning. So I went into falsetto and I made a female part and it kind of went through. By the time we were done with the shoot I thought I'll call sunidhi to come and change the parts. But they said that they liked what they had heard and who the singer is, and I said it's me. And they said, oh, my god. So that's so. These are just a few things that I kind that started happening.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to wait for people to come and shoot my music videos, so I got into camera. I got into flying the drones, I got into understanding how cameras work, understanding what aperture is, what cinematic everything is. So I put myself and I, instead of investing into people, people getting investing into hiring people to do the job, I invested into the equipment and bought a lot of equipment and I so on and so forth. So I became a website designer, I became a, I started coding to create an app for myself. So generally, I have a tendency of not waiting for anything which has really helped me, I feel, overall, and I think that's something that's the driving force within me.
Speaker 1:So I'm getting so many little masterclass tips from here. When you say that consistency is everything, in practice, consistency also helped you in social media, because you kept at it for a decade till something happened. Yes, patience usually is a virtue, but in your case, not having patience turned out better. I also see this basic raw IQ, which you have just harnessed and put to use. You know, once you can read, write, understand, understand, comprehend. You've just not kept any limits, no boundaries. You've jumped in, tried everything, aced it and moved on.
Speaker 2:How fantastic thank you so much. When you put it like that, it sounds very nice no, I see it like that.
Speaker 1:I'm hearing it all at once, so that's what comes back to me, so it's a very personal journey for me as well when I started my podcast. I'm a psychologist by psychologist. By profession, I'm a writer. My education is completely different, but I didn't have the patience to get somebody to edit my audio, to record my audio, so I'm alone. I'm the only team I have. Great.
Speaker 2:That's how it should be.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So kindred spirits. So tell me, mr Raghav, I have this feeling that artists are very sensitive people. Most of the artists that I have met, they feel deeply, they express deeply and when you're facing a stressful time it definitely impacts your art. But sometimes you have to deal with a low time, but you still have to put your best foot forward and perform for something that you've signed up.
Speaker 2:So how do you mitigate this? How do you deal with it? See, I think compartmentalizing is very important, uh, and that is something that comes, that should come again, that is something that will come with discipline because, uh, you cannot let one emotion although I'm excessively emotional, I'm I can cry at a a drop of the hat. I don't watch movies because I get very emotional and then I was like I don't want to keep crying and seeing, so I don't want to cry. If I hear something has happened with somebody, I'll, again, I'm very, very easy to, kind of, you know, get into that situation where I start feeling very deeply, for anybody, for that matter, of course, people who are known to me, I feel far more goes without saying. But having said that, compartmentalizing is very important because, if suppose there is a commitment that you've already taken and there is a situation that has happened which is not physically stopping you from, you know, completing that, what do you call it? Completing that job, whatever job has been taken, because that other person has his own life, has decided to have you perform for them, or done all the efforts, everything that you can think of, to make sure that that particular event for that particular person goes off flawlessly. So that should be the only point of concern for an artist at that particular time, and this is, again, something that is easier said than done.
Speaker 2:But I feel that discipline is something that works very well in this form as well, because it you kind of shut off. You have to shut off yourself from everything else. When you're on stage, when I'm performing, for example, when I'm doing these fashion shows and stuff, and I'm walking the ramp, I'm I'm interacting with the models, I'm playing the instruments, I'm singing, I have to be in pitch, I have to do so many things simultaneously that not a single thought besides what I'm doing at that time can enter my mind. Because my mind, because the focus levels have to be at such great levels even for concerts, adrenaline kind of kind of helps you, uh, you know, achieve that by not letting anything else come come to mind. So again, having uh an emotional situation at that time, of course it's a it's a very difficult task to uh control and you might, uh, you know, burst out by while singing a song, while listening you might, something like that might happen.
Speaker 2:But uh, that does not mean that, for whatever has happened, it doesn't mean that you can uh, or should take the other person's life or, uh, generosity, or whatever that person has done for you. Can't put that on stake. So that is compartmentalizing. So you do your job, you finish it off, do what you have to do. After that, feel how you have to do after that. It's easier said than done. As I mentioned earlier, it's not that easy.
Speaker 1:True. This also brings back memories of a conversation I had with Javed Atta Sahab on the same podcast, and I see the same thing when you're saying that you know somebody has paid for it, somebody has invested their time in it, somebody is expecting you to perform so when.
Speaker 1:Javed Sahab said that always have the deepest respect for your readers and for your audience, which is what you have If you are respecting your host, if you're respecting, like you said, punctuality is basically respecting somebody else's time, correct? So this deep respect takes you a longer way than momentary.
Speaker 1:you know interaction with your own emotions, so this is beautiful absolutely personally speaking, when I listen to something very sad especially tunes it may or may not have lyrics it can move me very deeply. Does it happen to you? If you are playing something intensely sad, you feel that impact just as much as your audience.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, in fact, instruments. Because if you've seen the way the songs that I'm choosing and if whatever the songs are, you must, you should also try and see the instrument that I'm choosing with the song. Now the song can be played. I play 41 instruments. I can play that song 41 different ways. Why would I choose that one particular instrument with that particular song? That is where the sensibility, or the expression, like every instrument has a different expression completely and the beauty is that I have the control on how I want to express on every instrument. So how, for example, if I perform like a kalank track, it is such a beautiful melody. But if I played that melody on a saxophone, it will have a different appeal altogether. As soon as I change that to a clarinet or a tenor recorder, it will totally have a different feel. Clarinet or a tenor recorder, it will totally have a different feel. So how to marry a melody with the instrument is another form of art. This is a song. This will sound very good on a mandolin, for example. For example is played on the mandolin and I also did that reel on the mandolin. But if I actually play that on a flute, it will. The melody is not going to change, but just the vibe of the song will completely differ, and so so nothing against it.
Speaker 2:But uh, you know, to choose the right instrument and to marry it with the song goes a long way toward to kind of emotionally, um, attach other people to that particular song. That's what happens. So, and this is all happening very, on a very subconscious level, because I have chosen an instrument which I feel enhances the song more than what, uh, the song, the, you know, the, probably the vocals could, or more than more than what another instrument could, and that has subconsciously been done already. And when you hear it, you like, and then you kind of get attached to it. Uh, more, you will get attached more to that song.
Speaker 2:To give you an idea, uh, now is such a beautiful song that I have performed it on various instruments. Now, if I actually and in fact I should do that as I'm talking to you, this idea just struck me that, since I have done this song on some seven, eight different instruments, I should probably create a highlight of tu mele dil khile, highlight on different instruments and of course it's such an intense one, yeah, and it sounds completely different on a santur, different on a sax, different on a flute, different on a piccolo, different on a harmonica, and you can keep going on and on, and I have done this song over, I think, about seven, eight, ten instruments already.
Speaker 2:So it just goes to show that how one same song sounds so different on different instruments so what we see as coming naturally to somebody is actually full of intent.
Speaker 1:As a musician, you have so much intent, you have so much focus on what you're doing, how you're doing, when you're doing, you know what you're picking for it and what we see as an, as an audience, is the culminative effect, the cumulative effect, the whole, yes, joy of you know just the tune absolutely so.
Speaker 2:Everything has been for. From my social media perspective, I'm kind of trying to take care of each and every aspect that you know clothing as well as styling, as well as uh intros, outros, where to put-ins, where not to put, fade-outs, what kind of color correction should be there? What kind of skin tone do we need to maintain? Hair should be a particular way. Accessories should be in such a way that it goes. For example, if I'm wearing I did a Kars tune on a Santur, kar's tune on a santur wearing a sleeveless ganji with a uh, you know, a skull kind of a necklace, so that that entire uh outlook with the santur has never been seen. Only, yeah, it's so. And on top of that, if you're doing a theme which is so beautiful, which is a the kar's theme, but never been played on the santur before, because everybody just tries it on the guitar I've done it on the guitar multiple times, but just taking it into a different realm, because now you're not only.
Speaker 2:This is our TV. You know, this is what MTV used to be. This is the MTV Channel V for us now. And the beauty is you don't have to wait for a programmer to come and slot you in. You are the programmer, you slot yourself in, you decide what you want to perform, you decide how you want to look, you decide when you want it to be on air, and you do that and then let the magic happen.
Speaker 2:And in case you have a marketing team under you, you want to market it, you do that as well. So you basically, in today's day and age, do not need anyone, uh, and then you cross-populate it, uh, on facebook, on on youtube shots and stuff. So this is all data analysis. Largely, that is leading me to do things that I'm doing off late and then, of course, give audience more than what they had expected by getting phenomenal artists like Rekha Bharadwaj, ma'am Sunidhi, sukhvinderji Shahan all of them who've been iconic in their entire field and then change that and twist it with instrumentation. So there is a lot of thought, as you might understand, that has gone into kind of sculpting this entire niche.
Speaker 1:It looks so effortless, but there is so much effort behind looking so effortless. I mean, when you describe the necklace that you're wearing in a curse tune, you know the angst of death which is in the movie and the beauty of the music which is playing. That movie was much ahead of its time.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And what you are doing now is bringing us in sync with what happened then. It's just so stunning. I have goosebumps. So tell me what has been your personal toughest moment in this journey, mentally, physically, any moment which you were like you know, this is it. It's just too much no.
Speaker 2:So these things do keep, uh, you know, happening, and this place or this industry or, um, generally arts is not for the weak-hearted. It's as simple as that, because that that is. That is one thing that I have to say, because you know it is you have to be okay with rejection to start with. If you're a person who cannot take rejection, you're in the wrong field because you cannot. This is such a personal thing. If you put 10 people together and you actually go into their playlist, you will be shocked to see what 10 people like and how deferred it is, no matter even if they are best friends 10 best friends but you go to the playlist and you will be shocked to see, but the rest of it is pretty different. He likes something else, this guy likes something else, this girl likes something else. So, uh, it is a stupid effort to kind of think that it is never going to be the case. No matter what and how cool you are, how good you become, that is never going to be the case. So what you should try and aim for is majority. How many ever people ki bhai chalo? 60% ko pasand hai? 80% ko pasand hai? Wo mujhe apna strike rate high rakhna hai. That how many ever people can you know, appreciate and would appreciate something that I'm doing and keep trying and understanding? The comments keep coming. We keep learning from can't get deterred by these kind of negative things also that happen. So, uh, ups and downs are a very common feature in our profession.
Speaker 2:I came in with a bang. When I came in within 2003, I had a fabulous run, um, I got my first film, which was kabul express, which was with yashi uh, idea you, which is the biggest company that you could have dreamt of. But after that I've never, ever had the opportunity of working with them ever again, although it was a super hit track, music, everything. But that's how life is, that is how it's kind of. Whenever you start thinking that I have arrived, it's never kind of.
Speaker 2:Life teaches you very beautifully that, calm down, you haven't and there is far more to go.
Speaker 2:And so you know, with these things it's so easy to say now, but they take such a toll on you when you are younger, when you have entered the scene, when you have all this talent behind you, when you have the have entered the scene, when you have all this talent behind you, when you have the backing of the education that you have done and you are just there to conquer everything that you can, and the pure energy at that time is very different than the energy now, because experience was not there and experience is something.
Speaker 2:Live experience of actually physically going through all of these things yourself teaches you a lot more uh and just kind of tells you that you know if, if the, and you've seen the highs and the lows. So if, when the highs were there, the lows came, the lows were there, the highs came, came back, so this up-down, up-down will keep happening for the rest of my life. So even where I am right now, highs, lows, will keep happening. So there's nothing that can be done about it. It's just that you have to kind of detach yourself from excessive praise, detach yourself from excessive criticism and keep doing your job as a very numb uh thing and enjoy the. The good thing that I can say is that I have never worked a single day of my life. That's the one thing I can tell you that I have never, ever worked in my life this is all enjoying it so much I'm loving it.
Speaker 2:I'm happiest being in the studio, creating music, entertaining people. I mean, imagine people have to get up in the morning. They are like you know, they are feeling sad that they have to leave home. They are, they are like in there. Oh my god, I'm going to be stuck in traffic. Oh my god, I'm going to have to go and report to my bosses. I have to finish this spreadsheet. I have to do this excel. All of that. I never have to think about all of that. I'm my own boss. I am very, very disciplined and I function like that, along with my entire office functioning this way. People above me I'm happy to go according to their time. People at my level and below me have to function according to me and my time. So it's a very clear cut. You know ecosystem that I have made for myself. Now, how good it is, how bad it is, I don't know. I think I'm enjoying myself and I think that is what people are able to see online as well.
Speaker 1:And you've just brought the whole sense of Zen right into these two statements. You know, when you say that you can feel deeply as an artist and yet be detached, it says everything. I mean, this is the crux of what I think most artists have to go through sense of detachment and a deep feeling towards everything because you're so sensitive as an artist. Lovely, so tell me, mr Aghav, you've been the cultural ambassador for India. You've been on so many celebrated shows. You've been on Karan Johar's show, you've been on Kapil Sharma's show Everywhere. I mean, I've seen you almost everywhere sometime or the other. Which has been your most memorable experience?
Speaker 2:I think the Commonwealth Games was a very interesting experience because there were so many people who were performing in front of over 100,000 people. That was amazing, in front of over 100,000 people. That was amazing. Then I was also the cultural ambassador for the World Economic Forum in Davos. That was very interesting as well.
Speaker 2:So I love doing these. You know going and being what do you call it? Showcased as an Indian in a Western setting purely because I'm playing Western instruments. At the end of the day, I'm playing all the instruments that were all invented besides the santur and a dhol and some four, five other instruments.
Speaker 2:Everything that you have seen me do is all different instruments of different parts, different people, different countries, and it's all world music. So for me, saxophones, flutes, handpan there are so like handpan I just picked up recently, which is a switzerland. I play the bagpipes, which is scottish. I play the didgeridoo, which is Australian. So I personally love getting newer instruments which are world instruments. So I don't consider myself to just be doing Indian music Abhi hota gaya that you're performing. Your large base of audience is Indian. That's why you're seeing what I'm doing and of course, those songs are phenomenal. But I'm also continuously doing international content which happens on Sunday mornings, if you've seen, which is called Saxy Sundays, which is another tag that we go by on Sundays. Every Sunday morning at 12 o'clock you will see me do international content. Oh lovely I should remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and every Friday in the afternoon at 12 o'clock you'll see me do retro content. Oh lovely, I should remember that. Yeah, and every Friday in the afternoon at 12 o'clock you'll see me do retro content. So we call that retro Fridays. Now, slowly, I'm even branching out into regional. So because we have a lot of requests coming from so many people for regional content, so we might bifurcate and, you know, kind of diversify into regional content as well.
Speaker 2:So, having said that, my main point is this entire thing is a wholesome experience and when you perform these Western instruments in front of an international audience but representing India, that I really feel very proud about India, that I really feel very proud about and I feel I love doing these, these kind of cultural ambassador shows. I've done a lot of them I've done. I've represented India and Japan and Germany, in the UK, in Malaysia, in Australia, in a lot of places, and I really enjoy doing these because, again, as I mentioned, I love, love order and I love discipline and the, the way that these events are executed. They are with top-notch protocol and I have lived my entire life in protocol.
Speaker 2:So I, I understand this like uh, very well, and people kind of get very hassled with protocols.
Speaker 1:How nice, it's so nice to bring those little pieces of your childhood and your personality and your talent and your skill and, just you know, mush it together and make it work.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. So if there is one thing, just one single thing, that you could change about the music industry or social media, what would you change?
Speaker 2:um, I think, to start with, if there's anything I would like to change about the music industry, I would like it to be more earnest and and more transparent and more welcoming towards newer talent or, you know, ego should not be a part of this entire exercise. I feel because, uh, that that kind of creates unnecessary unrest. Now, no, two people are going to be the same, of course, and emotions of you know something that I might not feel bad about, you might feel bad about, but people at a higher position, level music labels, people sitting who are governing this, if that kind of, again, it boils everything, boils down to discipline, order, punctuality. There is so much that kind of backtracks to all of this, all of this, that, as soon, as you have all of these things in order, respect time um how do you call it?
Speaker 2:feeling for another person? Empathy, kindness? Yeah, empathy, kindness. Everything is so connected to these two things, uh discipline and punctuality that you will not even realize how deep-rooted these issues are and how difficult it is for so many people to kind of get around it. I feel very sad actually for people who have so much talent and so much, so many opportunities, but unfortunately they are not able to. You know, get get up, get up on time, get going, and and that is what uh, eventually will hold you back because it kind of uh, I see, either you're disciplined or you're not disciplined. It's as simple as that. You can't be midway, so, and and it then has degrees of discipline, of course that how disciplined can you actually get with each and everything?
Speaker 2:And time management. If there is one thing I have to put maximum amount of weightage to in this conversation, or anybody's conversation, is is time management, because it teaches you way too many things and all of this that I, we just said that you know, be be conscious of somebody else, be kind, kind to the other person. Empathy of all of this is connected to time management, because if you're not respecting that person's time only and making the person wait or or whatever the situation may be. People generally also like just to show my weight around. Yeah, fashionably late, fashionably late, so that is something that doesn't. It doesn't exist only internationally, it just does not exist. So here I saw you waiting.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's an unsaid uh ego trip yeah, it's an unsaid soft power which people want to wield yeah, which doesn't mean I mean there is no reason.
Speaker 2:There is absolutely no reason. I don't see an ounce worth of a reason to be doing that and instead, if there can be delay I'm not saying that you cannot be delayed, but again, if there is a delay there is, you know that you're getting delayed. It's not that the delay is going to happen at the time that you're going to reach. You are delayed and you know you're delayed. All you that you're going to reach, you are delayed and you know you're delayed. All you need to do is inform the other person or request the other person or all of this.
Speaker 2:See, now this becomes kindness, it's courtesy it's kindness that kind of attitude is something that I personally don't, uh, I don't appreciate it. Also, and whoever has met me, worked with me singers know this very well, people who kind of kind of know me very well, they know this very well that if I have called him for dinner, he'll be here five minutes early. So they, you know they now operate along around it because I can't be late. I just can't.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. I love this. I'm having so much fun just listening to this. So when I speak to my podcast guests, mr Raghav, I have a very personal question I ask all of them. It is my favorite favorite question in the podcast. We all have a physical first aid box, right Some band-aids, painkillers for those little cuts and bruises when we need to take care of ourselves. But what if you were to have a mental first aid box, something you could just open after a bad emotional day and feel happy? What would you put in your emotional first aid box?
Speaker 2:see the the best thing I can tell you about my work and my life is that, uh, I'm always at a meditative state, purely because people who? So I am doing that constantly, and I'm not doing one. I'm doing 40 different, along with singing, along with composing, and everything is equally interesting for me. So, for me, for me, if there is something that is troubling me, luckily it all kind of settles as soon as I have an instrument in my hand. But there are a lot of times that I don't feel like doing that, also because this is work. This is actually at the end of the day. I'm doing this all day, all day long, right? So there might be placed times when I don't want to do that. So the other thing that immediately takes my attention away is any kind of sport activity. So I was very again growing up in the army and police kind of a situation. We've had access to a lot of sporting equipment and that is very highly encouraged. So I was.
Speaker 2:I love swimming. Swimming is a phenomenal form of meditation for me, because it's absolute quiet and it's orderly and you're doing laps after lap after lap. While I'm doing that, I'm doing my Hanuman Chalisa or I'm doing my other pujas that I want to do that and that kind of calms me down While I am in. I like to be optimized. That is how I would like to put it, that I like. I like my time to be optimized. Instead of sitting and watching something or going on Instagram and, you know, watching reels or doing something, unless it is something that is for my education I would rather spend my time in finishing off chores while I'm in the car or probably again doing a little bit of puja, so swimming being one of them. The other thing that I love, absolutely love doing is playing golf. I'm an ardent golfer and I have a set of friends who I play with every now and then, um, so that that is therapeutic for me, because you're out in the nature, you're in green grass, you're playing, you're playing with friends, sitting after that having a couple of beers, you're chilling out.
Speaker 2:So all of these things are very it's very important to have balance. Work-life balance is so important that if it is missed, then you know, then it can. Things can get very lopsided very quickly. If I just keep doing music, music, music, I don't go, don't pay attention to my kids, I don't play golf, I don't go for swimming, I don't go to the gym. I will completely get saturated very quickly. So it is very important both way.
Speaker 2:So my in my schedule I have a 6, 6, 30 getting up time every day.
Speaker 2:No matter what happens, I have that, those one and a half, two hours of with my kids to drop them to the bus or whatever with my dog, so that is a very wholesome time. I have that two hours of dedicated workout, whether it's swimming, one, one and a half hours, whether it's gym. Then I have my entire day at the office and again by around 6, 6.30, 7 latest, I'm back home, take the kids to bed, spend, spend time with my wife and you start with the same process all over again the next day. Of course, within this then you have travel, then you have everything, so emotionally, so many things that keep happening. You know somebody has pissed you off at work, something has happened in a you know family setting, somebody has done something to your kid, your child is not well, there are so many other things. So as soon as that stress hits me because of the routine being so strict and particular, I'm already playing an instrument for a reel about 10 minutes down the line with that stress.
Speaker 2:That has already calmed me down to whatever extent it could. I'm back into stressing for that one particular thing, then I've entered a meeting. So if I have again idle mind is a devil's workshop and if I had not compartmentalized everything but perfectly, everything perfectly, then that would have you know, it would have taken me deeper into stressing deeply. Not that I don't stress. One of the worst things that I can tell you about myself is that I'm an overthinker and I take stress about every damn thing that you can think about.
Speaker 1:Because if it's not orderly, you can't handle the chaos, and life is all about chaos eventually.
Speaker 2:Yes. So when this happens now, of course, as I'm aging, I'm trying to kind of not, because I'm also a planner, I like to plan things. So what happens is I automatically start this is the situation, this will be its plan B automatically start that. This is the situation, this will be its plan B, this will be its plan C. So imagine so much effort going into everything that if this didn't happen, then what to do? It's like you're playing chess with every situation. If this move doesn't work, then what is my next move? If this move doesn't work, then what is my next move? So that can consume a lot of your mental peace, but luckily, as I mentioned that I have to keep shifting things in my life, somebody else, but something else, will take my attention away and luckily, and thank god, it's an instrument or something creative, beautiful is there?
Speaker 1:before we come to a close and to our closing remarks, do you have any question for me as a psychologist?
Speaker 2:I would love to know that, since you are meeting so many, you know people who you are interviewing in so many brilliant minds. A few of them you've told me already uh, what is your take, or what is that one common thing that you're finding amongst all of these people that you've interviewed that makes them what they are?
Speaker 1:I think it's more of grit than anything else. It's that grit, it's that hard work which people put in. So we see these in biographies. We read a couple of stories, we know the rats to riches stories, but you'll be surprised at how many people did not have their professions when they were younger. They were in completely different fields. But once they said, okay, we are going to do this and work hard at it, they all found success. And everybody has one thing to say that it did not come to them very easily. So nothing was served on a platter, nothing was inherent. But once they started working hard at it, it became their passion. So they didn't discover their passion, they created it, which is one thing I find common to most guests which is so inspiring that we don't need to tell our children you know, look for your passion, find your passion. You can also create your passion.
Speaker 1:Work hard towards something and see it bloom correct, which is wonderful oh, very well said, thank you well, mr raghav, I have never imagined or fathomed that I would have such a beautiful discussion with you, articulating every thought so intensely with me. My pleasure, so beautiful. I mean, your music is absolutely stunning. I would encourage my entire audience. Please go to Mr Satcher's page. It is on Instagram at Raghav Satcher, correct?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Please find him, listen to him. There is so much depth in every instrument. We struggle to play one, if at all, and here we have an artist playing more than 40 instruments. It is nothing but deep, deep passion and hard work. Mr Raghav, I have enjoyed this conversation. I've enjoyed your discipline. I can see your past, present, future all coming together so beautifully. Thank you so much. I know you've been so busy. You've been traveling, but you've taken the time out today being on my show. I'm just so honored.
Speaker 2:My pleasure, my pleasure. Kinjaldi, thank you so much for lovely words and, yes, keep listening and there's much more coming up soon.
Speaker 1:Well, we shall be waiting. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:All right.
