Under three different able gurus, he has learnt the styles of the Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra gharanas (the fourth gharana is Kirana) and blended the salient features of these three to create a method of exposition of khayal that has the stamp of his own aesthetic interpretation.

In the past the great Ustad Amir Khan had similarly created a new style of khayal, which was essentially a blending of the styles of Kirana and Bhindi Bazar gharanas. His gayaki was also described as intellectual.

Now, the question is what is 'intellectual' about this way of singing? “The various aspects of our music such as 'alaap, bandish, taan and bhadhat (development or building up of the rendering of a raga) have their own unique features and the artist creates the form of raga by uniting them together,” says Pandit Kashalkar.

"I think that the shortest pause or the of it during the rendition of a raga makes a great difference. Instead of singing it only by trusting one's 'musical instincts' and the taiyari (hard work), one must apply a method that becomes a thread to link these features with each other and build up the final form of the raga. Creating such a method and applying it to create a feeling of calmness to the mind of the listener is the intellectual part of my singing," he says.

In reply to a question as to what is spiritual about Indian classical music, he says: "Unlike Western music, it doesn't appeal to the senses. It is not created to excite the senses, but to soothe them. Our music calms the senses, which in turn induces a spell of introspection in the mind of the listener. It is in this sense that our music is spiritual."

He, however, said that this spirituality should not necessarily be related to the worship of our belief in a deity or god. "A large number of bandishes have words that refer to god but then words are not at all necessary in our music because they aim to create certain feelings in the mind of the listener only through a sound of music and without any help of poetry," he says.