Shaa'ir & Func

So I schlepped over to interview this up-and-coming rock duo, "Shaa'ir & Func" for my freelancing gig at Nirali. If stage-fright had an anti-thesis, it'd be Shaa'ir, aka, Monica Dogra. She's the gorgeous, passionate and astonishingly articulate lead singer and Func's her uber-talented boyfriend, Randolph Correia, whose kind of a big deal back in Bombay, thanks to his band Pentagram (http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1090820). At the risk of sounding creepy, they are intoxicating. Not sure if its Monica's soothing voice (even when she's not singing), Randolph's way of making everything sound effortlessly profound or the fact that they met, fell in love, and formed a band (WHOSE JEALOUS?!? can you say modern-day fairy-tale??). They said they wrote most of their album, "New Day," when they were doing the long distance thing for a whopping 5 months--her in New York, him in Bombay. She mentioned a particularly inspiring poem by someone called Veronica Shofstall, something about learning the difference between chaining a soul and holding a hand. We chatted over cappuccinos, which Randolph, very sweetly whipped up in their cozy upper west side apartment. All in all, a fabulous way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

Stay tuned for a full-fledged article on www.niralimagazine.com

PS: I hate my tape-recorder for shutting down half-way through our two hour interview.