Karaoke and me!

I love singing and I just need a small audience to get started! I haven't been singing professionally for many years though, but I have always enjoyed karaoke sessions. While I was in Hyderabad I was quite a regular at 10 Downing Street and Bottles and Chimneys (BnC). In fact, I was karaoke jockey (KJ) at 10D for a few weeks.

My first karaoke experience was at an event at the Ice Skating Rink in Calcutta back in the mid 90's when most people didn't even know what karaoke was! I was the host cum emcee. It was a lot of fun and through the 5 days of the event I made quite a few friends. This networking helped me get some more shows later, though back in the day I sang with bands mostly.

Here's a pic of one of the karaoke nights at the Saturday Club in Calcutta.

Singing at the Karaoke Superstar Competition at 10 Downing Street in Hyderabad

I was runners up and I won a lot of goodies which included a blackberry phone!

One of the events at BnC... I won here too!

At BnC with friends!

In Mumbai I have been to Not Just Jazz By The Bay and Soul Fry a couple of times, but Hyderabad joints were fun; probably because of the familiar setting. Though I wish to go out a little more in Mumbai to get familiar with the people here I just don't manage to do so, thanks to the little wonder I have at home! 

It's exactly a month today, Whitney Houston passed away. It's still so hard to accept such a loss. During this period I read so much more about her, listened to some of my favourite songs, and kept lamenting that my dream of meeting her in person will never happen.

Last night Joy gifted an online copy of the Now magazine which has the entire edition on Whitney. It was so lovely to see the amount of love and admiration she got in her life! It's sad that in India people hardly knew her; even the newspapers and a few news channels just did their bare minimum to pay tribute to her. I don't remember if the Indian media took much interest in her in the last 10 years or so, but suddenly after her death there were suddenly waves of information coming out about her! One journalist in his tribute wrote that Whitney popularised classic and gospel music! Her death was compared to Guru Dutt's by a very popular site; I didn't understand the connection!

Why am I even getting into this! There are just too many jokers in this world, and they need not be given a lot of importance. The fact remains and will always remain, I loved Whitney Houston's voice, her songs, and yes, I loved her for the lovely person she was. One doesn't need to know a person to love. She may have left the earth, but her legacy will carry on. The only diva, a true icon, Whitney Houston... you will always be missed...