Artistic endeavours take time to blossom. It's not like fast food where you slap a burger patty between two buns and you're good to go. It's more like a slow-cooked meal, where you put in hours of effort before the right combination of ingredients complement each other to produce a delectable dish. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a creative project doesn't flower overnight. You plant the seed, water it diligently, watch the sapling grow, and pick the fruit only when the time is ripe.

That's what Sarthak Karkare has done with Maqta, his solo musical avatar. The 24-year-old Mumbaikar is the vocalist for Unohu, one of the more recognisable bands on the country's indie circuit. But he tells us that he'd also been mulling the idea of branching out on his own for a long time. Except, that the market demands of a still-nascent independent music industry clipped his wings. His duties of constantly gigging and touring with Unohu to fill the band's coffers exhausted his creative energies. Then, the lockdown was announced. The music business was forced to hit the brakes and concerts came to a screeching halt. So, suddenly, the youngster had the leisure to stir the pot of his solo project and he eventually released Dor, Maqta's debut single.