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Jhoomo Kailash
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Popular singer Kailash Kher on his latest album and food
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Photo: Sandeep Saxena
Rustic beat Kailash Kher
His voice evokes a hundred emotions, but when it comes to food Kailash Kher has just one condition. “The food should have very little oil. Somehow, in North India, we have this tendency that we equate rich food with oily food. Sometimes there i
s so much oil that you can virtually bathe in it,” says Kailash over a conversation at lunch in a restaurant. He adds, “Food is very important for me for after all it is what separates a god from a demon. I believe the kind of food you eat reflects in your behaviour.”
Kailash has recently come up with an album “Jhoomo Re”, where in the opening track “Bam Lahiri”, he pays tribute to Lord Shiva. Kailash says though he believes in Sufi and nirgun bhakti, he is also inspired by Lord Shiva. “For most he is the God of destruction, to me he is a symbol of love. ”
The struggle
Kailash goes down memory lane when he started from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, to learn music. “Nobody in my family is even remotely connected to music. My father thought it is just a hobby and that I will return soon. But that was not to be. In Delhi, I learnt under more than a dozen gurus and one day on the invitation of a satsang mandali, I went to Mumbai. After reaching Mumbai, I realised that the invitation was only for a day and I could not make it as my base for the struggle ahead. I spent one night at the station (which he says some sections of the media turned into months) and the next day I rented a room which I shared with six people.”
Kailash is peeved at the media’s ignorance. “They don’t ask about what you do, but what you don’t do. Most of the times I am asked why don’t you sing ghazals?” His struggle, including how his first song from the film Chalte Chalte, was re-recorded in Sukhwinder Singh’s voice, is now part of the folklore, but Kailash says that’s part of the game. “I am no longer bitter about such things. One thing that I really missed in those days was home food. So whenever I am in Delhi, I ask my sister Gudiya to cook and bring my favourite food, even if I am staying in a five-star hotel. And then, away from the public glare, we enjoy gobhi-matar and rice pulao.” Kailash says his struggle turned him a non-vegetarian too. “When I went to Singapore for the first time for a show, I was not paid much money. When I went out to eat, I found non-vegetarian food is cheaper than vegetarian, so I decided to go for the non-vegetarian.” Kailash now wants to compose music in films and already has an international project Made in China in his hands, where he has been asked to compose and sing the title track. “I don’t take much time in singing my songs.
But I don’t want to offer some readymade tunes or compose some hey-hey songs describing the beauty of the girl in obvious ways.”
ANUJ KUMAR
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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