Music

Satinder Sartaaj recently performed in Delhi and the show was a big hit. It was also advertised on Facebook and Insta like crazy, so anyone having anything to do with music, even remotely, knew about it. Folks in my wifey’s office were talking about the concert and they asked her if we went to see it. She said no, and then added that this guy was a little too self-obsessed and it’s gotten kinda annoying lately. They were surprised to hear that. What was she even saying? How could we miss that concert…that “legend of a thing”? ...

In recent times as people have become more health-conscious, diagnostic centers have been popping up like mushrooms. With corporations partnering with companies providing such services, this sector has become a money making one. All you need is some capital investment, a few tie-ups and you are ready to go. I needed to get a test done and it became bit of a deal. First the appointment wasn’t confirmed timely, then the diagnostic center messed it up. ...

I stared my first job in 2004 in Mohali and we used in live in phase 5 and then 3B2. There was a music shop in Phase 5 market (Opposite Khalsa Dhaba. I cant recall the name. Probable Some Audio Hut. It is not there any more. The owner guy closed it down and move abroad I think.). As I was a regular customer there so that guy was well known to me. Well before release of any of the new Gurdas Maan albums people started waiting for the audio CDs. Problem was that on release day companies would release only a limited number of copies and shops would run out of stock on the first day itself. In few hours in fact. Because that guy was known to me so he would keep my copy safe and when we went to him after office in the evening he will call me inside and silently hand over the CD wrapped in a paper. Such was this man’s magic. MP3 days had already started but people would make an exception in Gurdas Maan’s case and buy the original CD. ...

This song used to play a lot on radio during my school days. Yesterday from somewhere this line “aj tain mainu maar pawai nan’de” was running in my mind. Then I searched for this song and stumbled upon this live version by Ranjit Kaur. The YouTube description of the video says that it was in Canada in 1982. That makes this song almost three decades old. I was not able to find the album version. So not sure even the album version exists somewhere or not. Here is the album version finally. ...

Like most of Indians my first interaction with Reshma ji’s songs was not via Hero movie’s lambi judai song. It was rather via Radio Pakistan, Lahore. The songs like haye o rabba nahio lagda dil mera and akhian nu rehan de akhian de kol kol were already very famous and used to play regularly on Lahore Radio. But yes it was when lambi judai was recorded that she became a house hold name in India. ...

After the first video from Coke Studio season 6 was released I got a message from one of my friend Fantastic …. http://youtu.be/6StD5G12vjM Par dukh di gal eh hai ki Pakistan te India waale coke studio baaki countries de singer te musicians lai rahe. But not of each other. It’s really painful for me.., Both talk about shrinking boundaries. But not between themselves. So sad !!! That indeed is a bitter truth. In Indian version of the Coke Studio this year there were few non-Indian artists but none of them was from Pakistan. Similarly in this season of Coke Studio Pakistan there are many artists from other countries like Serbia, Turkey and many others but no-one from India. In the last reason one song by Rabbi Shergill was recorded but it never went on air. God knows the reasons. ...

We are in Delhi, attending a Sufi music festival and a singer abc from some xyz country is singing Bulle Shah’s poetry “tere ishq nachaya kar ke thaiya thaiya”. Some hooligans get on to the stage and start raising anti xyz country slogans and obviously the performance is disrupted and the scene is totally different now. Who could do such a stupid act at a Sufi music festival ? . . . . . I think most of you would have guessed the country by now. Let me tell you the event and singer’s name: Sanam Marvi singing at Sufi Sindhi festival. And those murdabaad torch bearers were Shiv Sainiks. ( Here is the link to the piece of news in Hindu) ...

The popularity of Pakistani singers in India is a very well known thing. But the other thing I have always wanted to know is which Indian singers are heard in Pakistan.So thought of writing a blog post to know little more. Of course there is no hidden agenda . Just out of curiosity wanted to know this. It will be great if you could write the name of the singer in the comments. It will be even more awesome if you could few lines as well. ...

Bollywood music is not something that even deserves a blog post but when there is some really really big confusion being spread about some of the legendary symbols of folk, it needs to be talked about. There is a new song stupidly, wrongly, absurdly titled Challa from the movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Lyrics are by Gulzar and the music has been composed by none other than awein hi overrated A R Rahman sahab. ...

My oldest memories of listening to Mehdi Hasan sahib date back to school days when we used to listen to his duet with Noorjehan jado teri dunia ton pyar tur jayega, das fer dunia te ki reh jayega on Radio Pakistan, Lahore. Almost every alternate day this song played on Radio Pakistan, Lahore or Islamabad. I loved Noorjehan’s voice but didn’t know much about Mehdi Hasan. While growing up I became a big fan of Pakistani music and regularly used to listen to it on radio but didn’t know about all the singers. ...