Yeh zindagi ek ajeeb si paheli hai,

Na teri hai, na meri hai...

That?s the new mantra for Neha Bhasin (picture above) after breaking out of the first Indian popstar band, Viva (picture below). ?It?s nicer to sing solo,? says the Delhi girl, who came to Calcutta for the tsunami fundraising concert, organised by The Telegraph in Schools. ?I am much more in control of the songs and I am responsible for everything that?s happening on stage.?

A bundle of angst and anguish, Neha feels that Viva was not what the doctor ordered for her. ?You always tend to get lost in a group. Even today, I have to tell people, I?m the one from Viva. I have to remind everyone all the time and explain to them the split. Sometimes I sit back and wonder what I have achieved in these two years.?

Neha does, however, acknowledge the importance of the popstars contest in her life. ?It did make my dream of becoming a singer come true. It also brought with it some sort of guarantee and protection. I knew for sure that my parents would have never allowed me to venture to Mumbai on my own. But at the same time, had I made it through a solo talent hunt contest, like the ones happening now, it would have been better.?

Right now, Neha is trying to strike a balance between her twin careers of a film playback singer and an Indipop crooner. ?I have sung the title track for the new Bollywood release Bullet. Getting to sing more playback numbers is on my priority list this year. I am also ready with my first private album, titled Sunn. It should come out in the next couple of months.?

Sunn is something, Neha feels, that will give everyone a taste of what she is capable of, on her own. ?I call it a feel-good album. Although it is the music which should speak for me, I do feel that it is something different from what is being dished out these days. It has a lot of live instruments like the santoor, sitar and even drums. There are eight songs in Sunn, of which you can sit back and listen to four of them and even tap your feet to the other four.?

In the middle of all this, Neha has also managed to write and sing a song just for the tsunami victims. ?It is called Plea to my Lord. I didn?t do it for commercial reasons. It is like a conversation with God where I ask him to wake up. We are now trying to work out a video for it.?

For singer and songwriter Neha, singing is closer to her heart. ?Songwriting is my expression but singing has always been my passion.?