About Us

Baithak Foundation was started as a weekend activity when our co-founders realised that in spite of all the developments, Indian Classical Music is even today accessible to people from a certain socio-economic background. What started as a weekend activity in 2015, has flourished today into a growing not-for-profit organisation which works with more than 3000 students from 30+ schools ad centres in three cities in India.

Baithak runs a large number of initiatives – from concerts and workshops for underprivileged kids to a fellowship program for young musicians. We also publish books about music and do music research. Check out our programs page to know more about all the initiatives that we run.

Baithak Foundation is an inclusive organisation. If you feel you can contribute to any of our activities in any manner, feel free to reach out to us!

We believe that all Indian art forms are practising art forms – their practice and Sadhana helps us be more sensitive human beings and creates a strong foundation for a meaningful life.

Baithak is just an executing arm; the real credit goes to all our supporters who believe in the cause and have been supporting us generously. Our patrons are :

Pt. Firoz Dastur Memorial Foundation

Shri. Rukmineesh Seva Trust

Precision Foundation, Solapur

Jaldi Cash

And a large number of individual patrons and well-wishers.

Our Work in 2019-20

3 Cities

147 Events

84 Artists

23 Schools

3200 Students

6000+ Total Audience reached

3000 Hours of Archival Music Digitised

Our Team

Mandar Karanjkar

Mandar is a passionate believer in power of music as a tool for all-round development. A a communication consultant, Mandar draws rich corporate experience and also conducts corporate trainings. He is a published author with three books. Mandar is a student of Indian Classical Music and learned from late Pt. Vijay Sardeshmukh.

Dakshayani Athalye

Dakshayani is a law graduate from Pune university and later pursued her higher education from Tata Institute Of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

Dakshayani has multiple years of experience of working with not for profits and in her previous job, worked as CSR leader for a manufacturing company.

Dakshayani is a trained Kirtankar (a traditional for of musical storytelling.)