It didn't quite register at first. So the son repeated the sentence to his mother. The son, JAG, a 31-year-old cutting edge film-maker, told Asha Puthli who 'they' were. 50 Cent. Redman. Ka-No. Notorious BIG. P.Diddy. The kings of hip-hop breakbeats. Artistes known for their shrewd sampling of cutting edge music. Who have picked up her 1970s classic Space Talk and sampled it in so many chart-breaking waves, that once again Asha is hot. With dollar royalties clinking the cash registers.

In 2007 Asha Puthli, Indian-born singer and New York citizen by choice, finds not one but several spotlights on her. Life is a cabaret and Asha is the new beat of Nostalgia. A phrase that is presciently the title of her 1998 album.

Nostalgia is the rhythm of the moment, the flava of the year and Asha is being called Diva. Again. Indian diva of jazz, funk and soul. After over 30 years in USA, her career shows no sign of flagging. She is now a red hot guest artiste on the buzzing electronica music scene. Millions listen to her yoga music albums. And in November 2006, the 7th Bollywood Music Awards took place in Atlantic City and Asha won the Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to global music.

If you've been familiar with Asha's music over the decades, you'll know this too. Her distinctive unusual recordings are pioneering. World beat or bhangra. Jazz or electronica. Pop or fusion. Asha Puthli did them all before anyone else. Herein lies her daring, her fearlessness, her adventure. Remarkable for having done it in an alien environment of New York which in the 80's music industry was almost impossible. Namumkin, as Don says.

Holidaying at her sister's home in Bandra right now as you read this, she exults, "It feels great to be appreciated by the younger generation. It's exciting to be getting all this recognition in the United States once again. When I recall how difficult it was for an Indian woman to survive singing jazz, funk and R&B in New York in the early 70s."

Not only did she survive in an alien, difficult environment, she flourished. Chalking out a career that proudly exhibits 28 (count them) albums! Spanning styles that jump genres. Blues, pop, rock, soul, funk disco, even techno, Wikipedia will provide you names of artistes with whom she has recorded, sung or shared the stage. Barry White (the deep voice that gave the world, You're My Last, You're My Last, You're My Everything), Grace Jones (Slave To The Rhythm), Patti Smith, Don Cherry, Tom Jones, Django Reinhardt. Rolling Stones ?
She has done that too.

Remember Savages? That path breaking Merchant Ivory film of the 70s? Asha played the lead role in that. As she did in Bruno Corbucci's film, The Gang That Sold America. In the 80s, her outré style sense added one more feather to her hat. She became part of the Andy Warhol set, a headliner at Studio 54, a fashion icon dressed by the likes of Manolo Blahnik and shot by Richard Avedon, among the world's most famous photographers.

Yet the paradox of life. The games of Karma. The inexorable march of time. In America, her fan base borders on the reverent and adoring, but in native India, she can drift unnoticed through a crowd unrecognised by the superficial P3 media. Sigh.