A young Santoor player, Sandip Chatterjee, manifested his strong affinity towards music at the age of eight. His father, Ashoke Chatterjee, one of the International Footballer per excellence of the yester-years, and himself an ardent admirer of Indian Classical Music, encouraged his son's blooming talent to flourish with his personal inspiration.Sandip was accepted as a pupil by the eminent santoor player Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya (Disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar) in the year 1980. He is also taking talim of “Ragdari” and “Layakari” from vocal maestro Pandit Ajay Chakraborty in his music appreciation course last two years. After formal talim in pursuit of Proficiency of the highest order in Raga , Taal and laya, Sandip, an honours graduate in commerce from Calcutta university and a budding cost accountant , has been consolidating his knowledge with emotion , dedication and creativity, under the able guidance of his guru .

History of the Instrument:
The santoor is an instrument with approximately 100 strings which originated in the Himalayan Valley of Kashmir. Originally known as the Shata Tantri Veena (Sanskrit for one hundred strings), it has close relatives in the British and American hammered dulcimer; the Chinese yang chin; and the Eastern European cembalom. Santoor, which originated from the Vedic Vana Veena, is characteristic of the Kashmir Valley and is neither seen nor played anywhere else. The Vana Veena also had strings and was played with sticks.
In the Orient, the fundamentals of this instrument are no doubt very ancient. It seems that the origin of Santoor goes back to Assyrians and Babylonians.

Characteristics of the Instrument:
The Santoor consists of a finely finished trapezium shaped box, with metal strings running across the top. The strings are usually grouped in three strings per note, called courses. Each of the courses is supported by a small wooden bridge, which alternate on either side of the top. Each course is sounded by striking it with a pair of light wooden mallets. 
The sides of the box form a 45° angle. Strings are attached to the left side and tuned by turning metal pegs on the right with a key. Each group of strings is stretched over a movable hard wood bridge. Bridges are placed parallel to the sides of the trapezium. On the right, a line for the low strings, and on the left, one to support the top strings. The left strings can be sounded to either side of the bridges, giving in all three different string systems. With 72 strings  27 different sounds can be obtained, a range of a little over three octaves. 

How it is played:
The Santoor is played by striking the strings with two light sticks (mezrab) held in the three fingers of the right and left hands. Modernists  have covered the tips of the sticks with felt to soften the impact and come close to a piano sonority, but traditional aesthetics require a fine, precise sonority only to be obtained with light hard-wood sticks. Its many strings create an immense variety of resonating sounds which fill the air like waves, and a variety of tonal effects reminiscent of the piano or harp.