Quick 4 with Kavita Paudwal

Q What’s playing on your iPod?
Well these days, I am indulging in a lot of music from the ’80s and ’90s — the songs of Swedish pop group Ace of Base, American R&B vocal group Boyz II Men, American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, English rock band Duran Duran and the chartbusters of 2013 Bollywood.

Q What do you tune in to, when you feel...
w Down: I listen to the versatile genius, Kishore Kumar.
w Lonely: It’s gotta be RnB or jazz  
w Happy: I listen to dance music

Q What does music mean to you?
A good piece of music and travel shows help me ditch the stress and escape. It’s like a temporal flight of fantasy for me. For instance, Latin music takes me to Brazil and the Blues, straightaway to the Blue Note Jazz Club in downtown New York.

Q Your favourite instrument...
I love the acoustic guitar and the grand piano. There is so much warmth in their sounds. In percussion, it has to be the pakhawaj. It’s played in a particular genre of music called abhanga in Marathi which are bhajans sung by the Maharashtrian sect of Varkaris (pilgrims) in praise of Lord Vithalla, who’s an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
— As told to Pramita Bose