No Roadhouse Blues

One August day last year, Jaspal Singh and friend Arjun were sitting around, wondering where they could go to listen to something "not necessarily radical but refreshing". "Then, we thought if no one else is playing interesting rock, why don''t we?" says 31-year-old Jaspal. And so it was that he decided to ditch his globe-trotting marketing career to become Jesse — a disc jockey who plays rock but not ''Roadhouse Blues''.
Barely six months later, he was DJing regularly in Ghetto, Mumbai''s bastion of classic rock, surprising regulars with his ''new'' music."We''re the MBA DJs," chuckles Jesse, who gave up collared shirts along with his MTV marketing job to spin tracks at pubs, collaborate with music groups and compile albums.
"It was easier for me because I was already in the music industry. In fact this ignited the urge." He used to take part in music quizzes in college — his biggest win was for identifying an obscure Pink Floyd track called ''Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in A Cave and Grooving with A Pict''.
Initially, the duo had to do free gigs to break in, and even now the money''s good but irregular. "It''s not easy when you''re not attached to a corporate or institution. The key is to find like-minded people." His wife has been supportive, although some friends did ask him why he was retreating to adolescence when he should have been "settling down".
A year along, there are no regrets but some principles: No cliched songs, no burning CDs (he has a collection of 5,000 at home), no playing in clubs with dress codes and entry fees. The biggest reward of his new job? When someone comes up and asks him about the track he''s playing: "When they come up and say, ''What''s that? Where can I buy it?''"