for the last 10 yrs dubaibased s gopalakrishnan has been sending a carefully curated piece of music to thousands of subscriberswhen one expands the realm of companionship beyond humans the possibilities are endless some chat with trees others complain to the full moon and there are those who enjoy the company of music and share it even with strangersfor the last ten years s gopalakrishnan content head of a radio station in dubai has generously distributed his musical love among a growing community the music arrives like a morning prayer into several thousand inboxes usually accompanied by a thoughtful message connecting the piece to a current event a festival or the weather the misty delhi winter recently evoked raga yaman by a longdead singer on eid recipients might find the video of a brave violinist playing music in a shrine in mosul s gopalakrishnanlike any good radio broadcaster gopalakrishnan creates context for music using references in history and literature or trusting his own imagination so he will somehow link bhimsen joshis shudh kalyan with the video of a depressed dying chimp who suddenly recognised and responded to an old human friend and died in peace or he might connect the image of a roof mural in paris with the poetry of bulleh shah demolish the mosque demolish the templedemolish whatever could be demolishedbut do not demolish someones heart for god dwells in heartswith these beautiful and haunting references he reminds his audience about that unseen unrandom force that is constantly playing music even when no one is listeninggopalakrishnan first fell in love with music at a temple festival in kottayam kerala many years ago the intimacy grew during his tenyear stint in the archives of all india radio in delhi where he spent long hours listening to maestros from both the hindustani and carnatic traditions the central archives of all india radio in delhi is the most amazing storehouse of thousands of hours of recordings of indian musical traditions he says as a society we are terrible at documenting and disseminating our cultural heritage these should be made more open and available given todays technologyhe wanted to make up for this gap so he transformed a personal daily habit into a public service i started sending one track with an anecdotal reference to a very closed group of likeminded friends and gradually friends started adding more and more people today his mailing list includes several thousand grateful music lovers who range from artistes to academics to homemakersamong the recipients of this quaint curated musical offering is historian and author ramachandra guha he recalls a time last year when he was engaged in the boring task of transferring data into his computer and gopals music helped relieve his tedium gopal is a real music lover and enthusiast and he wants to share his joy and love and pleasure with everyone its truly a public service says guha over the years he has added many friends to the mailing list of