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What is about MJ and Indians?

June 26, 2009 12:53 IST
'Michael Jackson was the first international pop singer that many Indians heard,' Jaggu and Tarana, the well-known Mumbai radio jockeys, said on their farewell morning show on Friday morning.

MJ was The King whose popularity in India did not rest with English-speaking-pop-music-listening Indians alone. Jacko was one pop singer known to Indians of all kinds. You could hear his music from a paanwallah's two-in-one or from a taxi driver's tape deck.

Many years ago when Robert Plant was visiting Mumbai, Rediff journalists rushed to get some pictures of the Led Zep star while he shopped in Fort. Seeing the commotion, one passerby remarked confidently: "Yeh Michael Jackson hain (He is Michael Jackson)."

For many in India, English music was Michael Jackson.

A youngster who used to live as a paying guest in Mumbai in the late 1990s remembers an interaction with his landlord who spotted a guitar in his room. His question: "Aap dancer ho? (Are you a dancer) Like Michael Jackson?"

What is about MJ and Indians?

Please write in and tell us your MJ anecdotes.

Did you attend his only concert in India in 1996? If you did, we'd love to hear from you. And do send us your photographs of that memorable event as well. please mail the photographs to movies@rediff.co.in with the subject line 'Michael Jackson in Mumbai.'