What you've always wanted to know about india, but didn't know whom to ask...

[dnero73]

what music is the most popular right now in India ?

[arvind_sampath]

hello dnero73!

that's a slightly complicated question to answer when it comes to india. let me try to explain. while most other countries (even those as large as or larger than india), have one common language which is spoken almost all over, india has nothing like this. india is a country with 20 smaller countries in it. you ride 400 miles in the car, cross state borders, and suddenly, people speak a different language, the food smells different, the people are either lighter or darker depending on which direction you're travelling in, and ...you get the picture..
so, like i think you must have guessed by now, the music obviously changes too.

while (i think) bollywood music is our most recognised musical export, almost every state has it's own film industry, and it is very rare to see the local people of one state listen to the music of another...so you have tamil music in chennai, where i stay, telugu music in andhra (hyderabad), hindi in bombay and so on.

so if i have to do full justice to your question, i will have to make a detailed, state-wise listing, but instead, i'm going to try to list the music that is pretty much universally popular all over india, or atleast familiar to most, all over india.

of course, like any other non-western country in the world, india also has its fair share of western music fiends (rock, indie, pop, not so much jazz and classical), but i'll stay away from them for now.

1.) the latest bollywood blockbuster's music:________(just fill in the blank)it changes every week or so, and i for one, am woefully out of touch, but the last time i checked, "jab we met" was topping charts..i think. himesh reshammiya's music is also really being talked about. he makes music for hindi films, but is lately in the news for his tamil soundtrack for the film, "dasavataram" (ten avatars; this is the real deal buddy, not these avatars here...

2.) a.r.rahman's music: he composes music for the hindi, tamil, telugu film scenes...is one of our best, and very popular.

3.)lucky ali is an artist i like for hindi pop, though i don't know how popular he is now.

4.) for ghazals (semi-classical songs), jagjit singh, pankaj udhas, ghulam ali.

5.) for south indian classical, sudha raghunathan, t.m.krishna, nithyashree mahadevan.

6.) in the club circuit, lots of remixes have been going around...dj mixes of old r.d.burman (70s music director) songs, nadeem shravan (late 80s-90s music directors) songs, kishore kumar (60s-80s singer)songs etc.

this is all i can think of right now. i'll add to it if anything comes to me.

cheers!

[j2k4]

Welcome to FST, Arvind...glad for your generous offer to inform.

We could use a bit more of that from other areas, I think.

Hope the burden doesn't become onerous...

[arvind_sampath]

hello j2k4.

thank you for your response, and feel free to ask me whatever you want about india. i will try to help as best i can. and by the way, onerous it definitely is not, more a privilege actually.

cheers!

[Squeamous]

Arvind, is it true that most Indians live on a largely vegetarian diet? I've heard that goat is popular....what about chicken? Do Indians often eat the larger cattle or does their religion preclude that?

[arvind_sampath]

hello squeamous.

it has never ceased to amaze me how differently india is perceived by those living outside it. perception is a very strange beast. of course as i said earlier, india isn't exactly what you would call an easy subject, for those interested in her.

i will have to start an attempt at answering your question, by reminding you, that contrary to popular perception, india isn't, atleast not anymore, a country peopled only by hindus.

we have, and are very proud to have, many minority communities, with sizeable populations, that have always involved themselves in, and contributed great and numerous things to the creation of the indian ethos. the most notable of these are the muslims, who i think at last count, numbered at around 150 million, making them the largest minority in india, and believe it or not, helping india achieve the unique status of being the country with the world's fourth largest muslim population, preceded only by indonesia, pakistan and bangladesh, the latter two, which i suppose some might recall, were once a part of india too.

following the muslims, we have over 25 million christians (roman catholic, syrian catholic, protestant, some local offshoots like the church of south india, etc.), sikhs, who number over 20 million, buddhists, jains, zoroastrians, and also a small community of jews. yes, it wouldn't even be too far-fetched if i were to say that we were "cosmopolitan" even before the word was invented.

if you are wondering why i'm giving you an introduction to indian religion, when your question was about indian food habits, let me explain. in india, food habits are largely a function of two things. one is religion(the caste within that religion also pays a role), and the second is location.

but of course, like you had noted, there are millions of hindus, who are purely vegetarian; some of the more austere brahmins from past generations (people from my family, like my grandmother) would even stay away from onions and garlic, considering them "impure" vehetables. my grandmother for one, even goes squeamish when she sees an advert for packaged chicken on t.v...but this traditionalism has largely become a rarity. just to use my habits as a counterpoint to hers, i would like to say that i am a brahmin, but you would be hard pressed to find that out from my food habits. i enjoy chicken and goat, and am especially fond of seafood, though none of this culinary exploration happens at home... and if you're thinking, ha, this guy must be an exception, well, you couldn't be more wrong. most of my (brahmin) friends are as liberal (or spoilt, depending on which side you approach this from) as i am. and the millions and millions (actually they are the majority, amongst hindus) of "lower" class hindus, have never shared the brahmin's taboos, so they are all very regular in their meat eating. amongst them, chicken is the most popular, goat and fish are tied at second place.

another community that shares the (traditional) brahmin's aversion to meat, are the jains. without much doubt, i can say that they are even more rigorous in their opposition, and even jains of my generation very rarely venture out of the safe four walls of their vegetarian existence.

amongst the muslims, goat wins hands down. their recipes for mutton (goat) are legendary and theories abound that most of these have been been passed down from the great royal kitchens of the mughals. to this day, a well-made mughal biryani (a spicy rice dish with well-marinated mutton)remains one of the muslim community's most well kept secrets. of course, they are also very fond of beef, and the best beef dishes you will taste in india, will definitely be made by able muslim hands, beef being still "the big taboo" to almost all hindus.

after all, it is this idealogy that has no doubt given rise to americanisms like "holy cow!". yes, to hindus anywhere, the cow is believed to be "gau mata" or the cow mother...she is respected and revered as a provider (much like a mother is), and as the vehicle of the god shiva (most gods in our pantheon have different animal vehicles). most traditional festivals like the south indian harvest festival called pongal, begin with offerings and prayers made to her. so, for most hindus, even thinking about eating a cow, is sacrilege. and there are much, much fewer hindus (even the experimental ones) that would take to beef, in the same way that they would to say, goat, chicken or fish. but that said, beef is quite common, and also quite popular if i dare say, with the "lower" classes of hindus. if that comes across as a bit of a paradox, i don't know what to say. that's india for you...

now travelling to the south western and western coastline areas, where there are dense concentrations of our christian population, in places like goa (once under portuguese control), mangalore etc., an entirely different culinary landscape is revealed. goans are very serious about their pork, meat that most hindus detest, and muslims consider as big a "taboo" as beef is to hindus.

as an aside, i would also like to share a few other unusual culinary observations that i have made. on a recent trip to the southern state of kerala, i stumbled upon a joint which makes the most wonderful frog's legs(i'm sure most indians can't believe their eyes now.....and believe it or not, many hindus (including "high" class ones) were in attendance there. so there you go, another paradox.

and these are only the ones i know...i'm sure there are so many i don't.


cheers!

[100%]

Do they still show the flag and play the national anthem before every movie in the cinema?
(and everyone stands & holds hand over heart)

[arvind_sampath]

hmmm...100%, seems like you are quite familiar with india. maybe you've been here, 5-10 years ago (or have heard about this from a friend)? anyway, this has totally disappeared...the last i remember seeing it was maybe around 8 years back. and the holding the hand over the heart bit is quite an exaggeration (i for one have never seen that!), and it almost makes us sound like the nazis or something....but yes, people do stand up(this is something we all have grown up doing during our national anthem; we're also expected to sing along, or atleast try to).

nice to see this question from you...i'm sure most indians have never thought about this. this indian, for one, has never thought about it, and about why it doesn't still exist...

and, flimsy as it may sound, the only explanation i can try to give you for this, would be that this is maybe, one amongst many things, that the waves of change (that have been sweeping through our country since the 90s), have forever taken away from us.

and as the cliche goes, we being in the midst of this change, might be a little slow on the uptake when it comes to understanding it, and might require the eyes of a foreigner, to really understand, and to see it anew.

thank you for your eyes, 100%. if there are other things (which i remember) that change has stolen from us, i will try to mention them here.

[thewizeard]

Welcome to FST, Arvind...glad for your generous offer to inform.

We could use a bit more of that from other areas, I think.

Hope the burden doesn't become onerous...

Perhaps a worthy candidate for mod for FST's Indian and central Asian operations..be prepared, arvind_sampath, for that coveted pm from rossco, who is a geek, in aboiut 5 years time...

[bigboab]

Welcome to FST, Arvind...glad for your generous offer to inform.

We could use a bit more of that from other areas, I think.

Hope the burden doesn't become onerous...

Perhaps a worthy candidate for mod for FST's Indian and central Asian operations..be prepared, arvind_sampath, for that coveted pm from rossco, who is a geek, in aboiut 5 years time...

I thought he was a Geek now.