There are two ways in which people can view Mumbai. One is that it's a ruthlessly fast-paced city where you'll find yourself left alone if you lag behind. The other is that it's a place that truly allows your work to speak for itself, meaning if you're competent at what you do, the city will open its doors wide for you to walk right in. That's pretty much what happened to Tajdar Junaid, a musician from Kolkata who shifted base here four years ago thinking he'd compose music for a solitary ad jingle. But one thing led to another, and he eventually abandoned his laid-back hometown and adjusted to the frenetic pace of Mumbai.

What had happened is that Junaid had taken his time sitting in Kolkata to compose an album called What Colour is Your Raindrop. It's a deeply introspective body of music, where he's used the guitar as a shovel to dig out life experiences from the deep recesses of his memory and turn them into songs. The tracks were an instant hit, and a director making an ad for an e-book company asked Junaid to come down to Mumbai to compose a jingle for it on similar lines. Once that was done, a track of his was selected for The President, a movie that noted Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf was directing. Then came another film. And soon, more offers kept rolling in like a bag of marbles emptied on the floor. So, little sense remained for him to abandon this success and move back home.