<p>(Can you imagine what would have been the fate of Lata Mangeshkar if she was asked to become a fast bowler and Sachin Tendulkar was asked to be a singer!) dialogue from a Amir Khan movie changed the life of Moloy Ghosh, a patient of dysgraphia.<br /><br />(‘Dysgraphia means having severe problems with the written word, which is affected by extreme difficulty with fine-motor skills - in spite of having <br />normal intelligence and ability’. Dysgraphia affects approximately 10 per cent of the population). <br /><br />Moloy underwent surgery for a chronic appendicitis at the age of 15. However, he started experiencing writing problems in his first year of his engineering. His consultations with best neurologists in Kolkata and other places was not of much help. Owing to this disease, despite being a very bright student, Moloy was struggling to clear the papers in the semester examinations.<br /><br /> Then, his aim became to score 35 in the exams (as the minimum pass mark was 35). In fact, after writing every examination Moloy used to write with a red sketch pen on the answer script just begging the examiner to pass him as he was sure that the examiner would not be able to read his hand writing. In the process, he completed his engineering with an aggregate of barely 48 per cent from MIT, Manipal.<br /><br />Despite being a good student and having an ambition to do something new in research and development, he had to settle down for a petty production job, that too with his father’s contacts. His dream of doing MBA from a reputable institute was dashed as he did not have cut off percentage of 50. <br /><br />He studied in a private institute that offered the MBA course. It did not help him and had to do odd jobs to eke out a living. With each passing day, frustration and inferiority complex started mounting and Moloy watched helplessly as his peers and <br />even juniors climbed up the corporate ladder. <br /><br />After his painful stint of 11 years in corporate sector, Moloy, 40, was left jobless, when he was bed-ridden for six months following Hepatitis B attack in 2009. <br /><br />Love for music<br />Despite his inability to write , Moloy, now a resident of Delhi-NCR, never lost his love for one language – music. After watching the movie, Moloy decided to explore employment opportunities through his first love-- music. <br /><br />Well trained in Rabindra Sangeet and with a Sangeet Visharad (senior diploma), Moloy decided to teach students from home. He dusted off his huge collection of music on old 35, 48 and 78 rpm records, but could not play them as his record player was broken and the technology had become obsolete. Nobody was ready to fix the record player; rather, Moloy had to face weird comments while trying to get it <br />repaired. “Sir, aap bhul gaye, yeh 2009 hai, aap to lag raha hai 1909 mein pauch gaye (Sir, you have forgotten this is 2009 not 1909),” was the response from a shopkeeper on seeing the broken record player. <br /> <br />Moloy, however, was not ready to give up as “these were cherished records of legendary artistes like Krishna Chatterjee and Noor Jehan” collected by his father. Instead of throwing in the towel, Moloy decided to convert these old records into CDs on his own and give them a new lease of life.“I decided to do the conversion on my own as I thought that it was time to do something myself,” Moloy said with a smile expressing his determination to pursue his passion.<br /><br />After hours of browsing on internet, Moloy found a software, which he <br />imported from the United States and started working on the scores. Unfortunately, the software was not the right one for old Indian music, specially the traditional Indian instruments like the tabla, dholak, manjira, tanpura etc. Now, the challenge before Moloy was to tailor the software and this is where his engineering degree came in handy. He did some more home work by browsing through some Indian acoustic sites and incorporated the effects into the imported software to get the right sounds, clean up the audio quality and remove the hissing sound to get the desired ‘remastered’ effect.<br /><br />After a few adjustments in the original software, Moloy was able to get the sounds extremely closer to the master tapes. The next step was to get the music lovers know about his expertise in converting old records and audio cassettes into CDs. For this, Moloy booked his space on a wall in the CR Park area as music shops were unwilling to allow him for anything like that.<br /><br />The idea clicked and soon the word spread about the man offering his services. Requests started pouring to convert old records and cassettes into CDs for which Moloy charges Rs 200-300 a piece. <br /><br />To make his work more professional, Moloy gives nostalgic touch to the covers of re-mastered CDs. “I add nostalgic touch to it. We scan the record cover and make a similar one for the CDs,” he said. <br /><br />To pursue his dream, Moloy got the help from his wife, Chandrani, herself a classical singer. “We both love doing this as we are music students. Holding these albums gives us immense pleasure,” Moloy told Deccan Herald. <br /> <br />After his niche target audience of music lovers, Moloy now wants expand it to government institutions having huge archives of gramophone records and <br />audio cassettes. <br /><br /></p>
<p>(Can you imagine what would have been the fate of Lata Mangeshkar if she was asked to become a fast bowler and Sachin Tendulkar was asked to be a singer!) dialogue from a Amir Khan movie changed the life of Moloy Ghosh, a patient of dysgraphia.<br /><br />(‘Dysgraphia means having severe problems with the written word, which is affected by extreme difficulty with fine-motor skills - in spite of having <br />normal intelligence and ability’. Dysgraphia affects approximately 10 per cent of the population). <br /><br />Moloy underwent surgery for a chronic appendicitis at the age of 15. However, he started experiencing writing problems in his first year of his engineering. His consultations with best neurologists in Kolkata and other places was not of much help. Owing to this disease, despite being a very bright student, Moloy was struggling to clear the papers in the semester examinations.<br /><br /> Then, his aim became to score 35 in the exams (as the minimum pass mark was 35). In fact, after writing every examination Moloy used to write with a red sketch pen on the answer script just begging the examiner to pass him as he was sure that the examiner would not be able to read his hand writing. In the process, he completed his engineering with an aggregate of barely 48 per cent from MIT, Manipal.<br /><br />Despite being a good student and having an ambition to do something new in research and development, he had to settle down for a petty production job, that too with his father’s contacts. His dream of doing MBA from a reputable institute was dashed as he did not have cut off percentage of 50. <br /><br />He studied in a private institute that offered the MBA course. It did not help him and had to do odd jobs to eke out a living. With each passing day, frustration and inferiority complex started mounting and Moloy watched helplessly as his peers and <br />even juniors climbed up the corporate ladder. <br /><br />After his painful stint of 11 years in corporate sector, Moloy, 40, was left jobless, when he was bed-ridden for six months following Hepatitis B attack in 2009. <br /><br />Love for music<br />Despite his inability to write , Moloy, now a resident of Delhi-NCR, never lost his love for one language – music. After watching the movie, Moloy decided to explore employment opportunities through his first love-- music. <br /><br />Well trained in Rabindra Sangeet and with a Sangeet Visharad (senior diploma), Moloy decided to teach students from home. He dusted off his huge collection of music on old 35, 48 and 78 rpm records, but could not play them as his record player was broken and the technology had become obsolete. Nobody was ready to fix the record player; rather, Moloy had to face weird comments while trying to get it <br />repaired. “Sir, aap bhul gaye, yeh 2009 hai, aap to lag raha hai 1909 mein pauch gaye (Sir, you have forgotten this is 2009 not 1909),” was the response from a shopkeeper on seeing the broken record player. <br /> <br />Moloy, however, was not ready to give up as “these were cherished records of legendary artistes like Krishna Chatterjee and Noor Jehan” collected by his father. Instead of throwing in the towel, Moloy decided to convert these old records into CDs on his own and give them a new lease of life.“I decided to do the conversion on my own as I thought that it was time to do something myself,” Moloy said with a smile expressing his determination to pursue his passion.<br /><br />After hours of browsing on internet, Moloy found a software, which he <br />imported from the United States and started working on the scores. Unfortunately, the software was not the right one for old Indian music, specially the traditional Indian instruments like the tabla, dholak, manjira, tanpura etc. Now, the challenge before Moloy was to tailor the software and this is where his engineering degree came in handy. He did some more home work by browsing through some Indian acoustic sites and incorporated the effects into the imported software to get the right sounds, clean up the audio quality and remove the hissing sound to get the desired ‘remastered’ effect.<br /><br />After a few adjustments in the original software, Moloy was able to get the sounds extremely closer to the master tapes. The next step was to get the music lovers know about his expertise in converting old records and audio cassettes into CDs. For this, Moloy booked his space on a wall in the CR Park area as music shops were unwilling to allow him for anything like that.<br /><br />The idea clicked and soon the word spread about the man offering his services. Requests started pouring to convert old records and cassettes into CDs for which Moloy charges Rs 200-300 a piece. <br /><br />To make his work more professional, Moloy gives nostalgic touch to the covers of re-mastered CDs. “I add nostalgic touch to it. We scan the record cover and make a similar one for the CDs,” he said. <br /><br />To pursue his dream, Moloy got the help from his wife, Chandrani, herself a classical singer. “We both love doing this as we are music students. Holding these albums gives us immense pleasure,” Moloy told Deccan Herald. <br /> <br />After his niche target audience of music lovers, Moloy now wants expand it to government institutions having huge archives of gramophone records and <br />audio cassettes. <br /><br /></p>
