IIM Lucknow and Tunde Kabab

You cannot think of Lucknow without talking of Tunde kabab. My luck changed for good in 2001 (luck then, not now-couldn't resist this pun). I worked at IIM Lucknow. Some amazing students and colleagues made my life there memorable-Akbar, BK Mohanty, Shailendra Singh, Bharat Bhasker, Vivek Gupta are some I spent a lot of time with. Avinash Mulky, Madhu Karmakar and Vinay of course were a part of a social group too.

 A hailstorm in which Avinash and Vivek pose with evidence.

 Relaxing on the lawn with Mohanty and Harish who was visiting from Delhi.

 My IIMB classmate Manoj Nakra visited. So did Sajeev Menon, and Nidhi from KIAMS with hubby.

Prarthana and Pooja decorating the front of our house. Anjula Gurtoo was our vertical neighbour, and we have stayed in touch ever since.

Shailendra Singh and Kanchan

Rishi Kapoor had a resounding start to his career in Bobby. It was a superhit, and the voice that launched his singing in this film was Shailendra Singh. The songs like Mujhe kuch kehna hai, Main shaayar to nahin, and Hum tum ek kamre mmein band hon, topped the charts for many weeks.

This continued with a few more films, such as Khel Khel Mein in the song Humne tumko dekha and later in a few more like Rafoo Chakker. In Rafoo Chakker, there was also a female singer that was new to Hindi films-Kanchan. Though she sang only in films with Kalyanji Anandji's music, she was very good in some of them, like "Tumko mere dil ne pukara hai bade naaz se"from Rafoo Chakker, and "Laila main laila" from Qurbani. Also, Kya khoob lagti ho from Dharmatma, a duet with Mukesh.

Sharda was another singer who sang only in a few films, but two or three of her songs were very popular. "Titli udi, ud jo chali," for instance. And "Chale jaana zara thehro," from Around The World, with Mukesh. She had a unique voice.