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Publisher Reuben Israel finds time to sing in a choir and will soon perform in an opera.

There could be two distinctly different Reuben Israels in a span of five minutes, one when he is, and the other when he's not, talking about music. The former, overwhelmingly animated; the latter, inadvertently toned down.

While the rest of us pull and push schedules and routines around to squeeze in some time for recreational tidbits, publisher-by-profession Reuben Israel works differently: he takes play "" choir singing, among other things "" as seriously as work.

It's so reassuring to hear someone declare reflectively that he's found the exclusive formula for happiness "" exclusive "" because it works only for him.

"Not being overly ambitious and not necessary striving for excellence in one field is, for me, the formula to some happiness," he says. "My work doesn't suffer because I don't take on impossible projects and allow myself to take time off," he adds.

A publisher by nature, IITian academically, Israel owns a handful of smaller publishing houses: Omega Scientific Publishers, Mosaic Books, Dolphin Press and S.J.I. Services.

Not restricting himself to one particular genre of books, there is, however, a special focus on children's books. "I take up books that I find interesting. I prefer not doing fiction because while marketing it, one needs to create hype around it. It's not my style."

He excitedly flips through the beautifully photographed Birds of India and the Indian Subcontinent, and another coffee table on the legends and lores of Spiti Valley in the north. Variety remains his essence and spills over to off hours, too.

He's been a sports fanatic, loves fooling around with the guitar and has a soft corner for the clarinet. "It's sounds like a voice," dreamily, he says. But in singing base, Israel has found his own ... "I don't have to be the best singer around. If you reach a certain level of competence, the audience will appreciate you and you'll still be entertaining," he's confident.

There's a striking affinity for Western music, classical, popular, jazz and folk, in particular. "I was learning to play the guitar and that's when I started singing along. I had always loved to listen to music but I realised the pleasure of singing oneself is about 10 times more. The level at which you do it doesn't matter. It's the happy feeling that you experience at that particular moment."

Taking singing lessons at Delhi School of Music and now with soprano Situ Singh-Buehler, Israel finds himself happiest when he's doing pop, jazz or folk. "You know the song 'If I were a rich man' from Fiddler On The Roof? I sang that on two occasions for an audience and I truly enjoyed myself. One can establish an informal connection and it all becomes so entertaining," he says.

He's taken part in quite a few operas, and is currently singing in the French opera Carmen, staged this weekend at Kamani auditorium, produced by the Neemrana Music Foundation.

"I prefer singing fun songs in operas, not the serious ones. To me an opera is a joke in itself, the story line is thin and there's not much to it as such. So trying to sound 'serious' just does not come off well!".

And he's one to take practice very, very seriously. The learning CDs play on while he drives to work and rehearsals; at home, earphones do their job. What he does find a bit trying is to sing in languages other than English, but he's winding his way around it, bit by bit. Italian, he says, is the lesser of the evils.

The opera before Carmen, called The Pearl Fishers, also in French, got better after a whole round of shows in India. "I got used to the language and the lyrics that I couldn't even understand. I felt I contributed much more to the shows in Sri Lanka than when we performed in Delhi and Bombay in 2007," he says.

To overcome the language barrier, a team effort goes a long way. "I listen to the French members of the choir and catch on to the words, while they hook on to the note that the rest of us set," he explains.

And not every choir hits the right note, in the broader sense of it. "I know I'm part of the right choir when our voices blend so well that it sounds like one voice. It's like sex. Or da ncing. It's the connection between two people "" the way they are tuned to each other," saying all that, he's still at a loss for words.

And not to overshadow the final act, rehearsals come with a fair share of bonding. One of the groups he's part of, Capital City Minstrels, is excitedly planning a musical trip to Europe. He also practices with the Delhi Chamber Choir which is more traditional, and with the Alliance Francaise choir, singing popular French and jazz.

He marvels at how Western music can be so easily broken into harmony, one for each person, that it makes group singing a real spectacle. "I don't think people realise the pleasure of it. I wish group singing was more popular," he hits a dismal note.

But there's a lot to keep him going. Informally, he's got a little band going with his friends Gautam and Chips, the latter's presence occasional. On days of his absence, instead of the original name Chips and the Shoulders, it's No Chips, Just Shoulders. Sing on, anyway!