Seventy-five and still going strong. That is the message diva Asha Bhosle sent out as she celebrated her 75th birthday by cutting a big cake and releasing yet another album of her songs on September 8.
Showing little signs of fatigue, Asha sang a few lines from her innumerable memorable ditties recorded throughout a career spanning over six decades and reminding everyone that she does not like to be told of her growing age.
Asha was showered with birthday wishes from her elder sister, the legendary Lata Mangeshkar, and she then reminisced her association with her late husband and music composer Rahul Dev Burman.
It was also an occasion for Asha to compare the songs of yesteryears and the current numbers, particularly "item" numbers and how the present-day music was obsessed with rhythm rather than lyrics.
The singer's birthday was a big media event as TV channels played the film sequences featuring her songs and the two most used in this context were "Dum maro dum" from "Hare Rama Hare Kirshna" and "Dil cheez kya hai" from "Umrao Jaan".
It was befitting that on her 75th birthday, Asha would come out with an album called "Precious Platinum", a collection of songs composed by Nitin Ramesh Shankar, that the singer wanted to be different from the current trend in film music.
Ever since Asha begun singing at the age of 16, she has traversed a long way, her voice retaining the same originality and melody, delighting listeners of all ages down the generations. On the way, she has become the world's most recorded singer and the only Indian artiste to be nominated twice for the Grammy awards.
Most of all, she has been able to hold the centre stage of hearts of music lovers in the Indian subcontinent even in the 21st century.