THE WONDER YEARS
“I am an ordinary person, to whom good things have happened. My career in music wasn’t planned. I come from a middle-class family, and on one of our family holidays to Chennai (I am a South Indian, born and brought up in Mumbai, married to a Keralite, and now living in Kolkata), we went to meet my aunt who was the Director of Tourism. She took us out for dinner one evening, to a tiny nightclub called Nine Gems in the basement of the erstwhile Safire Theatre complex, on Mount Road. The outing was a rare treat for me, because I had never really gone out like that before, having lived a very sheltered life at a convent school in Mumbai. And the bigger treat was that there was a band playing there.
You see, music had always been a part of my life, with my two older sisters Indira and Uma forming the famous duo, The Sami Sisters. I was known as the clown of any party, I did fun things, and at the nightclub, my aunt said to me, ‘Why didn’t you get up and sing?’. So I went up on stage and sang Fever by Peggy Lee. My eyes just lit up when I heard the applause and they shouted for more, so I sang some more songs like Jambalaya by The Carpenters. Before I knew it, it was already 45 minutes. It was great fun, and I loved the attention! Later, the owner of the place, Mr. Yashwant Veecumsee, came up and asked whether I would sing at the nightclub for the rest of the week? 20-year-old me said yes, and I went there every night to sing, for which I received a Kanjeevaram sari that was for around ₹120 at the time. It’s crazy, you don’t even get a napkin for that much anymore! Anyway, I soon got a contract to sing in a place called Hotel Savera in Chennai (which still exists). Then there was the Golden Bowl nightclub, and soon I began to sing at all the good ones across India. It was thoroughly fantastic!
My big break happened after I finished singing at the Ritz Hotel in Mumbai one night. It was at a place called Little Heart, and I got an offer from featured an article on me: this in a sari, singing western-jazz, folk, pop, and rock in a nightclub. Up until then, such music was the prerogative and privilege of the Anglo-Indian community to perform, who would dress up in black outfits. And there I was in a well-draped sari, all wellscrubbed. The juxtaposition was probably very strange…my look and the way I sounded were totally different. I think the curiosity drew people in at first, but then they stayed because they liked my music.
