Sound with the right intent has healing powers : Sonu Nigam ...

Reader Kamakshi Khurana was delighted when her favourite singer Sonu Nigam crooned to her after a candid chat

After 14 years of tracking his musical journey, Kamakshi Khurana's dearest wish of meeting him comes true on a muggy May evening. On the second floor of his four-storey bungalow at Versova, just as we take up comfortable corners on the sofas, a fledging little pug toddles into the room. "Come here Santa... my baby," Sonu claps at the pooch scrambling towards his feet. He cuddles it until it calms down. His 24-year-old fan sits across him, awestruck. "This hasn't sunk in yet," she says, blushing. "I know. That's why I'm not talking to you until you feel comfortable," Sonu says, flashing a smile. "Since I was 10, I've followed every article that mentions you, attended all your Mumbai concerts and collected scores of pictures. I'm finally here. This is amazing," she says excitedly. A musical therapist and singer, Kamakshi plunges into her area of interest and asks Sonu if he believes sound has the potential to heal. Sonu explains, "Behind every sound you hear, there is a bigger sound of silence. But it is all about intent. Sound with the wrong intent is superficial. But sound with the right intent, from your soul, has healing powers." As Kamakshi reels off precise factoids on Sonu and his life's philosophy, the singer concedes, "She has definitely followed my life closely." The interaction takes an intriguing turn when she asks - what is that one thing he truly wishes for? Sonu treads spiritual ground, "To me, this life, all this is maya, a farce. If I am alive, then the world is alive for me. For when I die, whatever happens to anybody won't matter because I won't be here. If I'm happy, nothing bothers me. If I can see positivity and goodness inside me, I'm certain I'll see it outside as well." With all the acclaim he has garnered in his career, Sonu is arguably the most popular vocalist of the modern era. Kamakshi wonders how he has handled his adulation without letting it go to his head. "It got to me initially because I had a modest upbringing and I have been working (singing) since I was four. Too much fame at once is hard to handle. But I came around and learnt to appreciate it for what it was," Sonu says. What explains his recent reclusive streak? "In the last five-six years, I have done all that I can do. I wanted to travel more, sing less and think differently. I wanted to experience the wild side. There came a point where I didn't enjoy my life. Shuttling between studios and live shows, it had become dreary and mechanical. If that had continued, I'd have burnt out." Sonu says he has sung only a handful of songs in the last five years because he has consciously turned selective with his work. "That is because I can't work around mediocrity anymore. If I like a song offered to me and I share a good equation with the composer, only then I take it up." Kamakshi asks him about his son Neevaan and Sonu's eyes light up with pride. "He is a very happy child. I touch his feet in the morning because we are the same souls. He is a better version of me," he says. Another affable side of Sonu has been his flair for mimicking singers and music directors. For over a decade, he has wowed TV viewers with hilarious imitations of his contemporaries. As Kamakshi questions Sonu, he puts colour into the conversation by often swinging into side-splitting impressions of everybody from Nadeem-Shravan to Anu Malik. As the rollicking interview draws to an end, Kamakshi requests him to sing her favourite song from his solo album, and she joins him midway. Sonu then ends the evening with the Kal ho na ho title track. As we step out, Kamakshi is wide-eyed as she says, "I feel as if I’ve really grown as a person in those 90 minutes. He truly is as amazing a person as I had expected he would be."