{"id":292,"date":"2014-03-14T05:40:14","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T05:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/?page_id=292"},"modified":"2014-03-14T05:40:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T05:40:14","slug":"the-washington-housewife-sets-a-new-trend-star-style","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/?page_id=292","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Housewife Sets a New Trend, Star &#038; Style"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Back To Press Page\" href=\"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/?page_id=12\">Back To Press Page<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Vatsala Mehra &#8211; The Washington Housewife Sets a New Trend, Star &amp; Style, G.B, November 4-17, 1988<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Vatsala Mehra. To ghazal lovers, the name is not an unfamiliar one. Though her voice has been much heard &#8211; so far about eight cassettes of hers have been released (&#8216;Gufta Gu&#8217;, &#8216;Shama Khana -2&#8217;, &#8216;Khazana&#8217;, &#8216;Hasrat&#8217;, etc), Vatsala is now going to be a pioneer in the field of video ghazal cassettes.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, so far it was only audio, now it&#8217;s video. The reputed Garwares are releasing a sixty minute video cassette with eight ghazals by Vatsala Mehra.<\/p>\n<p>Before meeting Vatsala we were pretty sure the lady was wasting her time, and that the cassette would be a flop. But after seeing the cassette and meeting the singer, who oozes self-confidence, we had to revise our opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Said Vatsala, &#8220;It&#8217;s not at all a risk and the Garwares know it. They have spent a lot on the publicity of this cassette. They know it&#8217;s going to be a sure fire hit. The fact that Mr. Chowla himself (vice president of Garwares) is going to back me means he knows he&#8217;s going to make money out of it. He has recognised a winning horse!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The idea of releasing a video music cassette has been in Vatsala&#8217;s mind for a long time. &#8220;At many of my shows, my fans would come to me and tell me how they wished they could watch me on video.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So when Mr. Chowla who had read reports about Vatsala in a newspaper, approached her with his proposal, she accepted with the greatest alacrity.<\/p>\n<p>Since her cassette will have an international market, Vatsala has chosen songs that are popular in different parts of the country. There&#8217;s one song &#8216;Teri Surat.&#8217; which is going to win her a lot of acclaim. Vatsala revealed, &#8220;It&#8217;s popular everywhere. So much so that peoples say, &#8216;agar aap hundred katl karenge to bhi maaf ho jayegi&#8217;, after hearing you sing that song.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vatsala&#8217;s own words, &#8220;Confidence is the name of the game, and of course talent. During the past three years I have realised my worth. Now nobody can shake my confidence. Earlier I used to feel nervous because I used to encounter male singers on shows who would try to play dirty on stage by using foul methods &#8211; getting the musicians to play a wrong note and all of that. But later I saw that the audience wanted to hear more of me than the others. That&#8217;s when I realised I was good. Now I go on shows only with my own musicians, nobody else&#8217;s.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In fact that&#8217;s the reason why she missed an opportunity of performing with her favourite singer Ghulam Ali. &#8220;I was not allowed to take my own musicians, so I opted out. Ghulam Ali may be fantastic, no doubt about that, but I am talented too!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vatsala reminds a few of Begum Akhtar, because like her, she too has a bass voice, but Vatsala insists she has never tried to imitate her. &#8220;Because for me individuality is very important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not, Vatsala, who got married at the age of eighteen and went to settle in Washington, makes it a point to come to India every year for four months to learn music. &#8220;I have a wonderful man as my husband. He knows I&#8217;d wither away without music, so he sends me to India frequently. I used to sing since I was eight years old. Music is in my blood. My father is a Sitar player, my brother a singer. And thank God, my husband knows to appreciate good music.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She added, &#8220;I always wanted to have an identity of my own. I didn&#8217;t want to be just a wife and a mother. So I am happy that today I am known as Vatsala Mehra!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back To Press Page Vatsala Mehra &#8211; The Washington Housewife Sets a New Trend, Star &amp; Style, G.B, November 4-17, 1988 Vatsala Mehra. To ghazal lovers, the name is not an unfamiliar one. Though her voice has been much heard &#8211; so far about eight cassettes of hers have been released (&#8216;Gufta Gu&#8217;, &#8216;Shama Khana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-292","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/292\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}