pune the room hosting acclaimed vocalist mahesh kale at patrakar bhavan was full even before he arrived for the sanskrutik katta a series of freestyle cultural exchanges between media persons and eminent personalitieskale who received the national film award for his song in the marathi song katyar kaljat ghusli is a star he spoke about indian classical music how he finds living and teaching music in the us and on reducing the use of the tanpura friday was a special day for him as it was guru purnimathis morning i went to pay my respects to my guru late jitendra abhisheki his household has the chair he would sit on today his picture was there he recountedthese days he divides his time between teaching indian classical music in the us and conducting workshops and performing in india if i do not sing the requisite number of hours in a day something feels amiss it is difficult to go about on your daily routine he saidkale often travels into the hinterlands to speak with and identify talent unlike many he thinks reality shows are good i was in kolhapur where students do not have as much exposure to audiences as mumbai or pune new talent from these places is on shows but their parents must know that these shows are milestones not destinations there is exposure and there is the flipside of distraction from the sudden fame instead of the huge prize money or cars the creators of such shows should provide scholarships with wellknown exponents to enhance the winners talent kale said he was also a judge at a recently concluded show of the kindhe said ragas repackaged into pop fusion raise interest in indian classical musickale is concerned about arts education in school curricula schools must teach fine arts besides music dance or theatre schools should also let their students know about love and compassion otherwise children in india are privileged as they grow up around a lot of art and culture i have students in the us who drive up and down for five hours to attend a onehour class kale saidkale sang two verses about how a guru is his or her friend deity and family keeping with guru purnimas significance