ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगों...
February 6, 2022 marks the day Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar passed away, and what a loss it is. It’s apt that she received the civilian honor that literally means “Jewel of India” because that is indeed what she was. The news of her death in itself is a shock, but the implications are what scared me even more. There are sentiments I associate with her passing that I was too afraid to voice before, but I don’t imagine there will be a better time for them. The first thought that crossed my mind as I ruminated the implication of her passing was (and forgive me for naming a person outright and for the harshness of my words), I don’t want to live in a world of Neha Kakkar's! What I really meant, I suppose, is that I still want to have music in this world that is more than just digitized voices and background noise to lose your mind to. I am partial to music that expresses emotions of more than what I hear in music that has been coming out since roughly 2015. (And I want to clari...