Usha Uthup- As received

 Usha Iyer Uthup did not have a pretty face..she did not have a swelt figure either..her skin tone was bordering on the dark, just as mine..

She compounded it by wearing an outsized bindi on her forehead and about 5 kilo of jasmine in the back of her head.

Yet she took the job of a crooner of western music in alcoholic restaurants, a job reserved for anglo indian girls till then, the first desi woman probably to do so.

Jit Paul, the owner of Trincas, Calcutta was also in steel business. I asked him, "Haven't you taken a chance by employing her to sing in front of boozing men in preference to white skinned, semi clad anglo indian women?" 

He shot back, "Have you  been to  Trincas lately? Have you seen how she electrifies the crowd?"

She indeed did. While Jagjit Singh and Chitra were  nuancing  gazals in a restaurant across the street, it was Trincas which occupied the pride of place in park Street.

 Jit Paul admitted to me later that after Usha started singing, Trincas business had expanded many times. 

Later on Usha added an outlandish specs to adorn her face. I have never seen her wear anything other than a saree, a rich one at that and I have never seen her without that huge bindi..

She knew her her voice and  musical repertoire will have the final say, not her looks. They did..they still do.

 

Born a Tambrahm, brought up in Bombay, she made Calcutta her karma Bhoomi. She completely identified herself with Calcutta and was loyal to it as she was to Trincas. In return Calcutta owned her up  and gave her the  key to the city..She was there at all major functions of Calcutta including IPL.

This Usha-Calcutta bond is heart warming at a time when you only see clannishness and divisive rhetoric all around. ...