Hi, I’m Zehra, Your DJ for the Evening

Talvin Singh is the rox! Can u name some other desi trance artists? PLEASE!!!?!?!?!?!?!!!!11111one!!!111!!!

Nice writeup. Yeah, it`s Cheb, from his 99 album Shri Durga.

hamidm2:
heheh...thanks for the comments. v. funny :)
as for the indian classics remixed: new ones are popping up ALL the time. hard to keep track....i do try when im at home (im still in Sri lanka doing aid work and believe it or not, i dont bump into new music all that much here..)
i will make some recommendations though...a sri lankan artist. MIA. website is miauk.com. i love her stuff. a great mix of things...the song gulang gulang, which you can listen to on her website is reallllly catchy and lovely. mix of dancehall, rap and reggae.
for something a little more low key try Suheela Raman and Salt rain r Love Trap. Love trap has her doing this song Yeh mera diwanapan. it`s the only song in hindi otherwise it`s all fusion jazzy south india stuff... it`s cool. i think your daughter and you will like it.

can anyone tell me who mixes the song kaisay kaisay sapnay dekhay thay, mainay teray pyar kay liye? it think its cheb-i-sabbah. i love that song and want to buy it while im in s. asia.

and then, there is bathiya and santosh. golden music boys of Sri Lanka. good stuff. they just came out with a new album.

on the remixed classics: i love classics the way that they are. the original is the best and as a Dj, the trick is to find the ones you can dance to, sans remix. having said that, some of the remixes are awesome. the one for yeh vada raha....cheesy as hell but soooo good.

i should stop writing before it turns into a zehra musicology article :)

thanks for reading!!

z.``picking out a new sari to dj hamidm`s daughters weddig`` rizvi.

zehraj,

.........i`ll be sure to look you up 5-10 years, unless my daughter decides to marry a southern baptist or a wahabi who hates music !

........... i am not a big fan of the ``new`` desi music but the other day i heard this cd of old indian songs set to a rather eclectic mix of reggae disco-pop music complete with west indian male background singers - it was funky ! ..........even my daughter, who is a music snob, thought it was ``neat``........ is this a new genre ?

......... and don`t worry about the drunk ``uncles`` at weddings - the poor guys get to let their hair down only once in a while (except for the sikh uncles!)

zeh`r:

:)

lve

t

Dear All,

I loved writing this piece and im so excited chowk put it up.

hush: i dont know, you`ll have to ask them. let me know though, im curious too.

amrita: thus the lime about being an acessory at a wedding. i don`t know HOW many desi weddings ive been to in the states and man, those DJ`s looked bored out of their minds and are so disconnected. it`s sad in a way. it was fun to see how as a woman, dressed in a sari the kinds of DJ standards i could break.

nhk and shore sahib...thanks :) must admit i love the salam-e-ishk rekha image. which is why i used it :)

saminasha: im in sri lanka at the moment...and i havent been in nyc for a while now..traveling. the dj-ing i did was very word of mouth and local...no homepage or anything. if you do want to listen to a great show however, listen to the banana chuntry mix on dhoom fm. sundays 5-7 eatern standard time. i used to co-host that show and the two hosts are SUBERB. tina and sonia. funny, smart, great mix of music. www.dhoomfm.com. for those in nj, 89.3 fm.

vagabound: there is so much daler that i love so it was hard to stay away. i could play some but it wasnt supposed to turn intoa basement bhangra. lots of oldies which was fun to play.

farzana: at this wedding, the couple danced at a jagjit song...that famous one... can`t believe i can`t recall it right now...man, what was it??? it will come back to me. it was sweet. honestly, i love the song, it`s thetime to disco. i think its so great, but that night, i was ready to punch the next person who asked for it.
as for, what really rocks the wedding. it raelly does depend on the families like any wedding around the world. good food, good music, good clothes, gorgeous women. a good amount of testosterone and you got a good wedding.

thanks all for reading. :)
-z.rizvi.

zehra - lol. i never thought the DJ at these dos as having a hard time. most of them seemed absolutely autocratic and completely zoned out, disconnected from all the aunties and uncles and bacha log grinding on the dance floor... so this is how it feels like on other side of the console.....

why do chowk people even let you write!

Zehra

You are alive and well. With a lot of energy & words.

nhk

Zahra, Simply Priceless.
``. It makes me want to be dressed in a bright pink peshwas, covered in gold, adaab-ing him smiling through my eyelashes.``

Great article!

And yes, Rehka is also awesome. Would love to hear you spin-if you do, are dates indicated on a homepage?

DJing is tough if you take out bhangra. Wedding isnt over till you bogey to ``Mehndi laga ke rakhna``

``Shawa`` What is means anyway..

Hi Zehra:

This was a fun read, and also want to tell you that the purpose of giving an American desi perspective is very welcome here, especially all the `behooda` stuff!

It would have been nicer had you added a bit more about what really rocks these weddings. I attended a relative`s shaadi in TO a couple of years ago and the emcee did a half monty and the couple waltzed to ``Kuchch na kaho``. I had real tears in my eyes, which is okay since I am Indian. But the DJ had to go from bhangra to dandiya to rap to Frank Sinatra and everyone was on the floor, whether they were dancing or not. Some were there just to stamp on your feet because they did not like you and could not say so.

But, to be honest, despite my love for Indian classical and slower numbers, `It`s the time to disco` repeated is way better than the shehnai making its ``tooN-tuN-tuN-tooooooooN`` sound. It is like the couple is being made to feel they should give up all worldly desires and opt for sanyas....