Pradeep and all,
I had a special celebration of Rafi sahab's birthday. I was in Mumbai and 2 of my very close friends took me to a restautant in Mahim called Goa Portugesa. There is a troupe of 3 singers there who go from table to table singing songs and one of the 3 is a Kashmiri pandit who sings Rafi songs. One of these 2 friends had been there a week earlier and had thought of me. Little did they know that the night we planned to go was also Rafi sahab's birthday! (Earlier that day the other one of the two had also managed to get for me 3 copies of the Rafi stamp from the GPO near VT.) Anyways, we landed up at the restaurant at about 10 pm, and my friend saw the singers and made sure to tell the one who sings Rafi songs that I am a particular Rafi fan and that today is also his birthday. They came in by about 10:30 doing the usual Christmas singing and then a little while later landed up at our table. One of the other 3 plays the guitar and he also did a good job. The Kashmiri pandit was great - he asked me for my requests and there were only 2 he hadn't yet practiced, one of which was Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe - he started with Pukarta Chala Hoon Main and also did Pardesiyon Se Na and several others very well. They went to other tables and finally disappeared. Around midnight my friend called them back and they did several more. The other 2 were ready to go home since they had to come back the next morning, but this guy was so enjoying both the songs and the expression on my face that he didn't want to stop, so as soon as a song was done he'd ask me which other one I'd like, and then convince his 2 friends to stay back. It was an incredible evening.
Whenever any of you goes to Mumbai next, check out this place.
Another highlight of my trip was that I stopped on both ways in Singapore and my 19-year-old cousin who has been brought up in Singapore and doesn't know a word of Hindi had become interested in Rafi after hearing him in "Monsoon Wedding" - she also knew he was the one I was crazy about. So on my layover going towards India, I spent a few hours with her playing songs from different CDs that I had brought and promised on my return trip to help her buy something that she could take back with her to England (she is in college near London). I was there yesterday and we went to Mustafa's and we picked out a classic collection on 2 CDs for her to start with. Then we found a Shammi movie (Tumse Achha Kaun Hai) on VCD with English subtitles and she and I stayed up and watched that that night. She enjoyed it a lot and is looking forward to taking her songs back to England and introducing them to her friends there.
Nalini