Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Harmonica lover from London comes calling

Hello Mr. Desai
Thank you for your email. I am pleased to provide my profile as seen below.

I am a Guajarati born in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad. After schooling in Nadiad I did inter science in Ahmedabad. When completed my Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Diplomas in Vallabh Vidyanagar I went to Tanzania. After working as Electrical Engineer for 5 years I came back to India and introduced a new concept of Electrical services centre in Naroda Industrial Estate, Ahmedabad and worked there for 5 years. Then I moved back to Tanzania and worked there as Electrical contractor for 7 years. Finally I moved to UK in 1985 where I worked as R&D Engineer with Nordson UV Ltd until retired from work in 2007. I live in UK and visit my brother in Ahmedabad every 2 years.

I used to play Harmonica in my college days in 67/68 but lost the touch with harmonica during my working years. In January 2008 when I had some free time I picked up Harmonica after a big break and uploaded some tunes on YouTube for fun and my personal pleasure (http://www.youtube.com/user/Sadashiv45#) The very old harmonica I had is packed up and not repairable (Hohner 64 Chromonica 16 Holes). 4 moths ago I bought 12 Holes Seydel Chromatic Deluxe in “C”.

These days I am improvising on some Bollywood songs based on Bhairavi and gradually move to other Ragas. I have no formal training in music and harmonica playing. I do self study for learning music and improvise on Harmonica.

I am pleased to know that there are so many Harmonica players in Ahmedabad. During my next visit I would like to see you and others.

Best regards

Shirish Swami


Here is a number played by him: