Reaching out through music

Cancer survivor teaches music for free and organises fundraisers

In the dark days when he was diagnosed with cancer of the intestine, the only thing that saw Gopal Keshav Joglekar through was music. Now the cancer survivor has put his musical talent to good use: He teaches 180 students music, free of cost.

Any money that they give as guru dakshina — most pay him about Rs50 — goes towards palliative care.

Joglekar’s music school is called, appropriately, ‘We Can Sir’ (WCS). “Whenever I meet cancer patients, I tell them if I could pull through 28 radiation and 24 chemotherapy sessions, then so can they,” he says.

When he turns 70 on November 19, Joglekar will celebrate his birthday with a concert where he will play in an orchestra with other cancer survivors. He will follow it up with another concert later in the year. Both will be fundraisers for cancer patients.

“For the show later this year, we plan to invite politicians like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former BJP MP Ram Naik and former prime minister VP Singh to showcase their own personal battles against the dreaded disease. We hope this will inspire others to fight cancer,” says Anil Londhe, co-founder of WCS, who lost his wife to cancer.

Joglekar, who worked with Mahindra Spycier, says irregular hours and too much coffee may have led to his cancer. “After 18 months of treatment, I overcame the disease in 1997 and decided to channel my energies into teaching,” he says.