The Kiss of Kismet

Singer-songwriters Asha Puthli and Raveena Aurora talk through their musical journeys, inspirations, challenges, spirit worlds, Punjabi sci-fi princesses, resistance and racism—all while discussing the latter’s newest album.

- ISHA SINGH SAWHNEY

Legendary jazz singer Asha Puthli has captured the world’s imagination for decades. Her soft, lilting vocals have topped charts and been sampled across disco, hip-hop and house; her outré fashion statements embraced pillowcases and Bill Gibb dresses were coveted and imitated by the iconic Donna Summers. Seated opposite Puthli in her Palm Beach pad in Florida is Raveena Aurora, the record-breaking musician who became the first woman of Indian origin to take the stage at Coachella earlier this year, with her performance of Dum Maaro Dum alongside her wink-wink tweet on the origins of the song satirising the Westernisation of Eastern spirituality.

On the 29-year-old’s sophomore album Ashas Awakening, Asha’s Kiss’ is an ethereal, soft offering at the temple of East-meets-West sounds that the R&B star has come to symbolise. The New York-born artiste’s track is a panegyric to Puthli’s legacy: a meeting of two generations, past and present.

Below are snippets from a tender conversation between the two collaborating artistes that elides the years between them.