Bollywood oldies

As a little boy, on our family´s holidays to Spain, I would lie in my tent in the middle of the day tuning in to Moroccan or Algerian radio stations to listen to the strange and exotic music from across the Mediterranean. This knack for what is now called `world music´ (I guess as opposed to unworldly music, by Ligeti, Berio, Penderecki and the likes)has taken me from the Mahreb (Cheb Khaled) and Egypt (Um Khalsum) accross the Levant (Wadi al-Safi) and Pakistan (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) to India. It started with a compilation of Raj Kapoor's early work and it fanned out from there. By now the whole family can sing along tunes like "Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo" without knowing what the songs are all about. Much to my amazement, Youtube has recently seen a bunch of clips from Bollywood oldies. After decades, I finally get to see the faces that go with the music. Well, not actually, because the songs were performed by Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle.