Ashish Kate - Euphoria: The Story Of Palash Sen

Dedicated to all Euphoria fans and friends across the
universe the Dhoomers and the Euphorians who have
enriched the band with love and support over the years.

Euphoria has reached an iconic stature. Its wonderful when your sound can be described with a term. When you listen to Euphorias music, you know its Hind Rock. They have created their own music genre. And in years to come, when it will be an accepted category, its going to be pioneered by Palash and the boys.

Shaan, singer and musician

July 2007, Pune. I was sitting in my cousin Adityas bedroom waiting on the phone to ring. Palash sent a text on my cellphone saying hed call at around 11:30 p.m., which was about ten minutes ago. I had a feeling his recording session had been delayed, and he wouldnt be able to speak with me tonight. From all my previous conversations with him he seemed like the busy kind. We had already postponed our meeting a few times. In effect, we lost the entire month of June just trying to find time to speak.

He was always on the move. He should have been a traveller a nomadic gypsy looking for inner peace. After all, thats what this book was about. A few minutes later, the phone rang. I answered it right away.

Hi, Ashish, where are we today? Palash said, starting off the conversation I always wanted to make.

Before anything, I confirmed if late nights were okay with him. I had a feeling he was an early sleeper. From all his interviews that I had read, he seemed like the sensible kind. But I was wrong after all. He was the insensible kind a mad doctor who loved strumming his guitar in the wee hours of the morning, waking up his friends, perhaps irritating his wife, and ending up with a song at the end of it all.

I have always been amazed by the underdog story. In retrospect, Palash Sen was hardly an underdog: he had played music his entire life. And he was good at it. But somehow there had always been a sense of anxiety that people had regarding him. He was considered to be irritable and cranky, not to mention his Bengali roots fuelling the clich furthermore.

Perhaps his going commercial (in terms of underground music) was the notorious reputation he was stuck with or had to live with. Either way, people have been curious about him ever since his first video Dhoom was aired.

There was nothing of its kind in the late 1990s. And Palashs cinematic face caught the countrys eye. Everyone knew then that there would be some kind of progress. Bands came in. Musical scores changed. And Euphoria had something to do with it. There was an emotive element in their music, something most bands pine for and few possess. They were able to capture the essence of Indian pop culture and separate it from the borrowed Western pop culture. Their videos were colourful, their sound was percussive and their songwriting was separate from the clich works of other Indian popular songs.

I knew that I was going to get Palash into some kind of trouble, not necessarily from society or critics, but mostly himself. I was going to tell his story while he was still alive, which to most people was a bad idea. So we started off talking about what we didnt want this book to be written entirely for commercial reasons or to pompously hide behind the curtain of the very music he had made.

I had a feeling we were going to stir things like in a music studio where musicians got together and jam except we were jamming with words, with speech, with questions and answers that mattered to him as much as they mattered to the ones who knew him and the ones who were going to know him. But we had to clear a few things first. We had to settle in, give a direction to this wild goose chase and level out the invisible philosophical world that settles in with any creative work.

Palash reflected on his life and reworked his time through the answers he gave me. He remembered people who were once there. And my cousin Aditya sat in the room listening to our conversation. What was going to be some kind of a storytelling became even more personal. At times he broke the noise of his voice with a deep silence that echoed through the telephone lines into my ear. Sometimes when I listen to that recording, I realize, neither he nor I could ever remake that magic.

Good evening.

Yes. To you too. Its a brilliant night.

Im going to get you into some trouble here.s

Why am I not surprised? (He wasnt surprised I was getting him into trouble.)

Biographers are the ones who dig deep into their subjects life in order to reveal. See, revelation is their goal. And I think I may have stepped into the shoes of one right now. But whats it like at your end?

Hmm, (Pauses) the other side. Its full of questions. Im supposed to give you answers but I have questions first. Mostly to myself. And maybe you can help me answer. But Ive got some for you too. Its a two-way street. Perhaps thats what a biographers job really is. But Im not convinced this is the beginning of a biography. Doesnt feel like one anyway. (Pauses)I know a few things about biographers. Apart from being the explorers that they are, they are also the ones who help a person understand the account of his or her life. In this case, it gives me a chance to relate to what has happened in my own life.

You are my subject. But thats my perspective. How do you relate to this?

Im making your quest my own.

Im interested in your past, present and future.

So am I. I started thinking once that I knew someone would be interested in knowing. I wouldnt have done it otherwise. Thats the whole point of telling stories, I guess. The good thing is I have a very sharp memory in terms of people, who did what for me and vice versa. And that is something I need to study, because Id like to be thankful to everybody. This book project is your way of celebrating me, and my way of celebrating so many people. Because its important to celebrate people.

Would you consider this a kind of auto-analysis?

Some kind of analysis for sure. Too early to tell what kind. And it is a big deal. People dont understand how important it is. I come from showbiz, and it can be a difficult world. But its a part of growing up, not something Im good at. But at the stage where I am in my life and career, I have to take the next big step. And what the next step will be, I really dont know. There is a lot that I have published over the years. The question is, what do I do next? What happens when youre thirsty again? Thats a serious question. So the wise thing to do at a reflective age is to look back and understand the ground that you stand on. Analysis is imperative to me. Its a never-ending fight. So you choose to put an end to it when you are ready for a few hard punches. Because really, its a dialogue with yourself, and the knowing of things. Its acceptance, its making peace with yourself. And that requires a lot of strength and courage. Im doing this because it gives me a chance to get stronger. Im not done. Euphoria has some amazing music ahead of itself. And were going to make it. And play concerts that lift the roof. There are events I need to remember and tell. They will make sense now. Because they didnt before. And maybe because there are other things in my life than Euphoria, like my family for instance.

Do you really see yourself at a reflective age? Youre not that old, are you?

Okay, Im not entirely sure Im at a reflective age. Not from a rock n roll point of view anyway. Reflective was Sting in his fifties. Havent read the book yet, Broken Music its called. I want to make time for it. (Pauses) But really, there is much to reflect on. Im keen on jumping again. And Im towards the end of a chapter that took ten years to write. And that chapter started when I closed another chapter which took ten years to write. So two decades down, I want to be careful about chapter three. Because if that one takes ten years to write, I want to be careful about what Im writing. Look, do I have a choice? You have to understand, there are things that went into Euphoria that were quite complicated. Its taken a hell of an effort to keep us going. Nobody wanted Euphoria to work. Or even survive. Strange as it may sound, a few from within Euphoria dont want it to work even now. But Im stubborn. (Laughs)