"This pony-tail of mine is not just for fashion. I think I have been able to concentrate well on my songs and work only since I started growing this two years back. Consider it as `Samson's hair'.." he laughs. More Palghat accent in his Tamil!!

" My dad passed away when I was a child. Mom, Alamelu Mani, used to teach me music at home. From morning till evening, Carnatic music would flow from our house. Even if I were playing, she would yell at me `Sit down!'. That's how I learnt Carnatic music..

I started learning Hindustani music at the age of 17. Then, when I heard Mehdi Hassan's ghazals, everything changed. After that, I too started singing ghazals and presented some concerts ... I also sang jingles.

I was waiting in a studio one day to record a jingle. Leslie was with me. Just to pass time he sang some jazz, and I started with Sargham of Hindustani music. Then, far away from these, an entirely different type of music was born. That was how `Colonial Cousins' originated.

This album, which is a fusion of Indian and western music, has been very popular among the teens. It was released as an audio cassette two years back and has come out as a video recently in London."

Kumudam's comment:
This video, which is frequently featured on the `MTV Unplugged' programme, gives a unique pride to Hariharan as 'Colonial Cousins' was the first Asian act to make it to 'MTV Unplugged'.

Contributed and translated by G. Padmanaban