music of ILaiyaraaja

song : Dilwaale Raat Hai Jawan

singer : Asha Bhosle

album : Mahadev (Hindi movie 1987)

lyrics : Farooq Kaiser

music : Ilaiyaraaja

Trivia: Another great hit from the entertaining 80s! The model featured in this video is the former miss-India and actress Sonu Walia.

The singer needs no introduction. Any music-lover from the Indian sub-continent can easily recognise her sweet voice. She is the living-legend Asha Bhosle.

The music composer Ilaiyaraaja may not be as well known as his protege A.R Rahman (of Slumdog Millionaire fame.) Infact A.R Rahman was a key-boardist in Ilaiyaraaja's orchestra.And Ilaiyaraaja himself started off as a guitarist under the great composer Salil Chowdhury.

In his appearence, Ilaiyaraaja(below) may be mistaken as a south-Indian monk or 'swami'. But it was this soft-spoken & introverted 'swami' who composed all those peppy,chartbusting, Hi-NRG dance hits of the 80s! Though busy in south India, Raaja has also occassionally worked in Hindi music scene.

'Ga Ga' Lady

(photo - Washington Post)

Lady GaGa has dominated the MTV Europe Music Awards this week, winning the best song, best female-artist ,best video and special award for the artsit with largest fan circle. Also known for her neo-burlesque persona & attire, she gave a scintillating stage performance at the venue in Belfast.
Prior to this event, Lady GaGa toured India where she is seen sipping tea (above) during the press conference. She had an interesting revelation to make for her Indian admirers. She said that in Hindi the word 'Ga' means 'to sing'. So her name GaGa - ie. 'to sing-sing' will be specially make her appealing in India. As for hosts, it was a welcome change , especially for a nation where entertainment of 1.2 billion hapless souls are firmly in the hands of one or two Bollywood families and a few cricketers.

Kulfi : the mughlai ice-cream !

Here are a few pictures I picked from the web on Kulfi , an extremely delicious mughlai dessert.