Ustad Rahet Fateh Ali Khan flies in homemade halwa

by Meenakshi Shankar

Aug 06, 2008, Mumbai

We had earlier reported that NDTV Imagine's Lux Junoon Kuchh kar dikhaane ka was a reality show with a tad bit of difference. The show has legends in the musical industry playing mentors to their genres. Earlier, we had reported extreme mentoring by Ila Arun and Anand Raj Anand.

This week, however, the mentoring took a personal touch. Ustad Rahet Fateh Ali Khan lives in Pakistan and flies in every Tuesday for NDTV Imagine's musical reality show shoot. He packs in two days of heavy shooting schedules to fly back to his hometown. He is the mentor for the Sufi genre. Our strong contender from the Sufi genre is Akbar Ali, a Pakistani, who is currently based in Mumbai.

Most of our reality contestants, in their pursuit of stardom, end up chasing their pot of gold in Mumbai, a world away from their safe confines of home and hearth. The stress of being part of this industry,the added baggage of being away from the warm support of family members usually gets to them. Homesickness is a common ailment which sweeps across contestants of reality shows.

And Akbar Ali missed his house and his mother's homemade halwa. He's tried every sweetmeat shop around town for a taste like his mother's treat, but none have come close. But, what shocked him and almost had him near tears was when his mentor produced a box of homemade 'halwa' by his mother who had sent the package across through his mentor.

Emotions rode high for Akbar Ali. A noted singer like Ustadji flying in a box of halwa was too much for the boy to handle. Choked with emotions, the boy could express gratitude to his Ustad and with a taste of his mother's sweet, his singing, beyond doubt, rang in an extra sweet note.