When singer-songwriter Mehran Hodiwala first appeared on our Instagram feed, what stopped us in our tracks was the sight of the guy holding his guitar in pouring rain and singing. All we could think was, &ldquo;Poor guitar!&rdquo;&nbsp;
Getting a guitar wet in the rain was something our guitarist brother would hate even with the cover on, and this writer has childhood memories of getting an earful for this crime.&nbsp;
When we told Mehran that that&rsquo;s what made us pause, he laughs. &ldquo;Yeah, a lot of people told me this. It started raining in the middle of my song and I couldn&rsquo;t stop because it was finally sounding the way I wanted it to,&rdquo; he confesses, with a hint of embarrassment sneaking into his voice over the phone.
The Thane resident, who turns 19 in November, is a Economics student at St Xavier&rsquo;s College. Once we get past the shock of the wet guitar, Hodiwala&rsquo;s voice rings through the pitter-patter of rain with an autobiographical tale of struggling with mental health as a young man. Hodiwala sings of conversations with his doctor: &ldquo;Mrs Hodiwala, there&rsquo;s nothing at all that you must worry about/ Your kid is fine, it happens all the time/ It&rsquo;s just hormones acting out&rdquo;. We were hooked.&nbsp;
We ask Hodiwala about what the song means. &ldquo;I wrote it in the immediate aftermath of the first few psychiatric sessions I went to. At the time, I was sitting there next to the doctor who was talking to my parents, and all I could think was, &lsquo;Oh, this would make a pretty nice song,&rsquo;&rdquo; he says, and immediately starts laughing.&nbsp;
This episode is from about four months ago; Hodiwala tells us he was feeling &ldquo;under the weather&rdquo;, and with the intention of respecting his privacy, we leave it at that. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d been feeling a little under the weather. That&rsquo;s an understatement. But I told my parents and they were quite supportive,&rdquo; he shares.
He then adds, &ldquo;I think I make the therapist sound a lot worse in the song than he actually was. I think the poor guy was just trying to help.&rdquo; &nbsp;
Hodiwala&rsquo;s mother is a doctor (medical microbiologist) and father is an adman, and it was the latter&rsquo;s obsession with music that has influenced his own musical inclinations. &ldquo;Ever since I was maybe a day old, he&rsquo;s [his father] has been feeding me Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. So I grew up idolising all of them. I always wanted to write like them,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;
Mehran has been writing songs since he was nine and playing the guitar from the age of 10. Cut to now: &ldquo;I am planning to get an album out by next month,&rdquo; he tells us. &nbsp;For now, the song Conversations with my shrink can be found on his Instagram (@_hodiwala_), where it already has 22,000 likes, over a thousand comments, and has been shared over 5000 times.
Not bad for a boy with a guitar and a dream who&rsquo;s caught in the rain.

Mumbai teen Mehran Hodiwala song Conversations with my shrink can be found on his Instagram where it already has 22,000 likes, over a thousand comments

Mumbai teen Mehran Hodiwala creates catchy song to talk about his experience with mental health

For the love of Nagaland

Meet Mehran Hodiwala, 18, whose folk song ‘Conversations with my shrink’ is a raw take 
on mental health that’s resonated with many

The kid is alright, Mrs Hodiwala: Mumbai teen uses music to talk about his experience with mental health

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