India Calling

Back to India came I - in a bout of confusion, insecurity, and bewilderment.

I was without my parents for the first time in my life. I was 10, and I had come to India to study. The education standards in Spain where quite pathetic. Nothing beats an Indian education.

I land up in Bangalore and move into the extremely welcoming and warm arms of my Aunt Vani, my moms twin sister.

And so began my life with Family No.2- Vani Aunt, Ram Uncle, Nikhil, Nihal, and Ram Uncle's Mom, whom we call "Avva" (kind of like Granny in Telugu).

Nikhil and I are about the same age, so we were/are really close. Nihal was a lot younger. I started going to tuitions to catch up on my math and english, which I was drastically behind in. And in-between these tuitions and Nikhil's school, we would goof off as much as we could.

Back to the music( I don't want to bore you!). Have you ever heard of Philips Top Ten? If my memory serves me well, it was a weekly show, which showed the top ten Bollywood songs. I'll say it again, I am averse to Bollywood music of the present, but back in 1994-95, it wasn't that bad!

Nihal, Nikhil and I would couch up in front of the TV and watch this, and in our hands would lie the famous combination of Peppy and Pepsi(chips and soda).

Most of what we witnessed on Philips top ten, was heavy entertainment value. It would make us laugh a lot, and the tunes were pretty neat to.

One guy in particular was doing really well at the time- Prabhu Deva.

His dancing was out of this world.

• Urvasi Urvasi
• Muqabala
• Chikupuku Chikupuku

These songs were fantastic!

Here are a list of other great songs from 94-95

• Main Khiladi Tu Anadi
• Churake dil mera
• Rangeela re
• Kehna Hi Kya
• Tu Hi Re *
• Tu Cheez badi hai mast
• Ek Ladki Ko Dekha
• Kuch Na Kaho
• Rim Jhim Rim Jhim

Weather the storm

The early 90s was a perfect time to grow up young! Pepsi was marketing the Generation-X, the age of the youngsters. It was time for us to take our place in society, to make things our own.

Barcelona were winning the Primiera League in an emphatic style, crushing other teams with great disdain and arrogance. Leading this red'n'blue army was Romario and Stoichkov, my favourite footballers of all time.

Ace of Base had just entered the musical stage, and became instantly popular around the world, with their up tempo music.

• All That She Wants
• The Sign

These songs became so popular, it was the only thing playing on the radio for a while!

A song worth special mention, is one that my Dad, sis and I would enjoy singing all the time.

• Take The Weather With You- Crowded House

"Wherever you go, always take the weather with you"

Nice line.

My Dad would sing his own rendition: "Wherever you go, always take an umbrella with you". His reasoning being, that if it were raining, and you were always taking the weather with you, then you would have to always take an umbrella with you.

Roja came out in 1992, and we flipped on the music.

• Roja Janeman
• Choti Si Asha

Fantastic songs. Very atypical of conventional Bollywood music.

There was also this phase where I was crazy about this band called:

La Onda Vaselina

Their album happened to be the first CD I ever bought, and the first thing I bought with my own money, which I had saved up, peseta by peseta. When I went to the store and bought the CD, I gave the guy a bag full of coins, and it took him close to ten minutes to count them!

That about wraps up the Spanish episode of my life.

MoonWalking

Neil Armstrong popularised the art of moonwalking. Wait a minute, I meant Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson became hugely successful in the 80s and 90s. I was crazy about his music and his prancing ways. His videos were awesome, and I would watch them day in and day out. I know he is not the same anymore, but those days, he was simply fantastic. It was the beginning of the pop revolution, though lot of his music had rock elements. No wonder he was known as the King of Pop.

in 1988, Moonwalker was released- a movie starring MJ. A fantastic kid movie, where Michael is a singing, dancing, shape changing super hero. A scene which most of you would have seen, is the music video for:

• Smooth Criminal

Its got one of the best dance moves you will ever see. I would wear similar clothes and try my level best to imitate the moves.

Here is a list of my favourite numbers( which had great videos as well):

• Beat it
• Billy Jean
• Dirty Diana

There are several more, which you can discover for yourself.