​DELHI MUSIC S​CENE: ROHIT SOLOMON IS A STAR IN THE MAKING by Mihir Srivastava

There was a singer and an accompanist on the guitar.​ Rohit Solomon played guitar in the way that it felt like an orchestra, I could hear beats when there wasn’t any drum.

I was invited to a contributory party where classic Hindi film songs were being sung by two young men while the guests were slowly but surely getting high, not just on music. In that exuberant space, music touched the inner cords.

31 years old Rohit sang while he played guitar with such exceptional prowess, in a style that sounded distinctive. These were the famous numbers we have grown up hearing, so there was a strong nostalgic connection. His voice, to me, felt like a musical instrument, while his guitar sounded like someone singing. I thought he made my favourite Hindi numbers sound so familiarly distinctive.

Rohit is a typical solo performer, some two hundred of them, who perform live in bars or cafés or private parties in Delhi. It is a very competitive unorganised market in Delhi, and, therefore, is very difficult to survive.

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Rohit enjoys ​h​is company the most, he goes to the roof after dinner, to interpret a song or a composition in his quintessential way. And that is joyous experience, for he loses sense of time, a night elapses, it seems, in a few minutes, the chirping of the birds announces the dawn, his spell is broken, a night is well spent, invariably he has found a new way to deal with an old song.

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Many have come and left, some have taken an odd job to survive, one is a security guard in a condominium in Noida, the other is a delivery boy in one of these online retail companies. There are so many horror stories, yet singers from Hindi heartland with ambition in their heart to make it big keep trickling in, unabated.

Rohit has done well, he has been around for nearly five years, and the reason for it is that he loves his music, is not in a very competitive mode, and has a job in a local school that is sufficient to meet his limited needs. He teaches singing, guitar and keyboard. A self-taught multifarious musician, loves spending time with pupils to make them musically attuned.

Unlike many in the unorganised music fraternity in Delhi, he has only his talent to showcase, no tattoo, no doping, no alcohol, no long-dyed blond hair, no torn jeans. He is a boy next door, with an expressive face glowing with half a smile, responsive in a subtle way, the music he emanates is powerful. ‘I’m not one of those musicians who will die young of drug overdose,’ he quips.  

He’s old school in that sense, rehearses every morning, at the wee hours, before leaving for school at 7 am. He enjoys ​h​is company the most, he goes to the roof after dinner, to interpret a song or a composition in his quintessential way. And that is joyous experience, for he loses sense of time, a night elapses, it seems, in a few minutes, the chirping of the birds announces the dawn, his spell is broken, a night is well spent, invariably he has found a new way to deal with an old song. Satisfied, he then goes to his room to get some rest. I won’t mind being his neighbour.

Rohit is a shy man, that’s when he is not playing. With the guitar in his hand, humming a song, he gets into a zone, or transcendence the boundary of self, connecting with the listeners on an individual basis, almost a mystical experience. His soulful singing makes him a performer.

He has had his share of struggle, belongs to a lower middle-class family, his father got severely burnt in a freak accident, and lost his ability to work. His grandfather supported his family, before he and his elder brother started to make a living.

Rohit found his father’s broken guitar; he learned to pull the string on it. A generous friend presented him with a guitar on his 19th birthday. He self-taught him to play, therefore, he does the similar​, differently. Before turning 20, he had made up his mind to be a musician.

A believer in God, and goodness, hardships carved a better musician out of him. Sonu Nigam is his favourite singer. He sings almost as well as he plays the guitar. A distinct voice has a certain pull. And like a good musician, he can sense the mood of his audience. His music upbeats the mood.

He is performing at least two days a week, and plus the job at school. Music is his companion and confidante. In this fast cosmopolitan, he knows his music will take him to a life he envisions. To be known and appreciated for his talent.

Rohit did establish a musical chord with me. and I invited him to a café in khan market to know more about him. He is fairly uncommunicative when you’re not talking about music. So, if you had not found music in your life what would you be? ‘Lost,’ he said.