Varun Jain, Guitar

Reported by Ira Swasti

Photograph by Jiten Gandhi

Varun Jain was studying for his Master's at University of Warwick when he banged into a Swedish death metal fan and an arpeggiated chords lover. The co-founder of En Route Media, a Mumbai-based manufacturer of LCD screens for taxis, says the two guitarists opened up his “limited” sense of music. Hooked, he learnt to play the instrument despite aching fingers. In 2004, the three friends got together to form a rockband called Elysium—which means heavenly in Greek. The band didn’t last long, but Jain’s love flourished. Today, his acoustic guitar hangs proudly in his office, and he strums it whenever he can. Over the weekends, he brings the house down with his electric guitar. These days he's strumming Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, a classic which was also the inspiration behind his company. “We wanted to build a place where people could do what they loved, and not just work for the sake of it. The song asks you to do that.” There’s nothing better than listening to live music, he adds. He has attended more than 30 concerts so far and cherishes his collection of ticket stubs from them.

Magical concerts
- David Gilmour at Royal Albert Hall, London
- Pearl Jam at Shepherd’s Bush, London
- Alice in Chains at the Scala, London

Set the stage on fire for:
- A charity concert to raise funds for the Pakistan floods in 2006
- A charity concert to raise funds for the University Chapel

His God, and rockstar
David Gilmour, Pink Floyd. “His live concert was the most inspiring guitar performance I’ve ever seen—a 60-year-old man playing flawlessly for three hours. There’s so much emotion in his music. Whenever I listen to it, I want to pick up my guitar and start replicating it.”

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