Flautist's journey from street to the hearts he now resides in

PUNE: Seated on a pavement on FC Road, Baba Jadhav (70) may be easily mistaken for a beggar, often inviting repulsive stares from the passersby. However, the perception changes as soon as he starts playing the flute, musical notes from which fill the atmosphere, capturing the attention of young and old alike.
"I sit here not for alms, but to make people listen to the melodies I play,“ says Jadhav, who refuses to sit idle at home living off his children's earnings at this age.
A self-taught flautist, Jadhav learned the nuances of music by listening to the All In dia Radio. However, unlike the fine tunes that he plays, his musical journey was never easy.“ After I got a flute for myself and started practicing at home, my family members and neighbours started complaining. This is the time when I left home and decided to practice the art at any place where I can sit for a long duration without inviting angry looks from others," he says.
Once he got a hang of the musical instrument, he started practicing relentlessly throughout the day at temples, railway platforms, bus stations and other such places. "I chose these places since people there did not stop me from doing riyaaz,“ Jadhav remini scents.
Now, his daily routine includes coming to FC Road by 6:30pm every day . He spreads a tattered piece of cloth and sits on it with folded knees for around two hours belting out popular Hindi and mainstream songs, entrancing the walkers here. Some stop by , look at him, listen to the music and leave after a song or two, some even make audio recordings of his flute-renditions of popular songs and share the same with their friends far and close.
"I have been hearing him play for almost two years now.And it's almost always that I miss his presence on the street, his music, though, brings me back to him without a fail,“ says Sayali C, a music producer.
Jadhav makes it clear that he does not play for money . "I don't want people to stop by and pay me. I am here to spread the joy of music and give people something pleasant to remember me by ."
However, his music is now set to rise from the pavement to the confines of people's houses in the form of a compact disc (CD) which is being released by Momindia International Culture Organisation.
"I used to see him while passing the street. Each time, it was his music that grabbed the attention of the pedestrians.We are trying to get more and more street artistes to have their own CDs. With this, they can save their music for posterity and also make some money out of it,“ says Mohankumar Bhandari, founder of Momin dia International.
Jadhav recalls his rendezvous at a local studio that happened because of Bhandari. “It was an emotional moment for me. I had not even hoped I would get this far with the music.But entering the studio, completing the recording -however technical it was -was a big thing for someone like me. I would want to take this wherever it can, I am open to all sorts of experiments in music,“ says Jadhav , who recently met with an accident spends most of his at home these days.
“My flute is my khuda, it's my bhagwan and I haven't learned it from any guru because I could not afford the fees,“ he says.