LATAJI NE EK BAAR NEELA RANG KA SALWAAR AUR KAMEEZ PEHNA . AUR HUNGAAMA HO GAYA

Some people have a strange fascination for the colour white . And Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar is one of them - Ali Peter John

She has worn white saaris and matching blouses and even white jackets and sweaters and shawls ever since she was sixteen and had started singing for films in Mumbai .

Since they then she has been wearing white whether it is for an everyday Recording session, or a show whether it is somewhere in India or New York , Canada , The Royal Albert Hall in London , at the Shanmukananda Hall or the auditoriums in West Indies , Dubai, Bahrain or South Africa or East Africa or any of the Far Eastern countries .

She has worn her trademark white at all weddings , receptions and the few funerals she has attended.

It was only once that she decided to wear a blue salwaar, a matching kameez and a dupata , when she was out of India . Not many people recognised her in the blue colour outfit .

But in the game between celebrities and the media , it is difficult to say how the media will react to a certain event or happening .

That evening , Lataji felt she had escaped from the glare and focus of the cameras , but she was mistaken .

The next morning , a large section of the media not only published her picture in the blue outfit on the front pages but had all kinds of captions below the pictures and most of them said that the "exclusive" pictures was clicked by their photographers while she ( Lataji) was walking out of a casino .

Lataji smiled and even laughed of the issue , but the media kept weaving all kinds of weird stories about Lataji and that blue salwaar kameez .

That was the last time Lataji wore anything colourful and was faithful to her favourite colour spotless white .

She has changed the borders of her saris for different occasions , but the basics colour has always been white.

There are some other men in the industry who prefer wearing white at all times , the reasons for which I have still to know.

I have never seen Gulzar wearing his trousers and kurta stitched especially for him and all his starched white.

His best friend Sanjeev Kumar also loved wearing white trousers and a loose matching kurta and even white chappals .

Raj Kapoor and his wife Krishna loved wearing white for all occasions , except when Raj Kapoor went out of the country.

His brother, Shashi also started wearing white trousers and kurtas when he started putting on weight .

Among the others who loved white were Prakash Mehra , lyricist Anjaan and his PRO brother Gopal Pandey who wore white till he married a a young actress called Tamanna and then he had forgotten white and started wearing the most glaring colours and my assistant editor found his colours so interesting that he referred to him as " that colourful man ".

There was a writer called Anand Romani who hardly had any work , but he always loved wearing white clothes with a rose in his shirt button hole.

And how can I forget my three friends ,Abbas, Mustan and Hussain who have always gone for the the colour white .

And how can anyone in the industry go to a funeral or a prayer meeting for the dead without making themselves holy by wearing white.

In fact , there is an unwritten rule which says that any genuine member of the industry must have two or three pairs of white clothes in their wardrobes , because you never know when you will meet them.

YE SAFED RANG MEIN KUCH TOH HAI . ISME KABHI KABHI KHUDAH AUR PARIYON KA RANG KA EHSAAS HOTA HAI. LEKIN KYA SABHI SAFED RANG PAHNNE WAAE SACH MEIN PAAK AUR SHARIF HOTE HAI ? YE MAIN NAHI KEH SAKTA . YE TOH SIRF KHUDAH YA SAFED RANG PEHNNE WAALE JAANTE HOGE.