Twinkle tries out Assamese dishes at Delicacy in Guwahati. Picture by Eastern Projections

The city is no stranger to celebrity singers from reality television shows. Be it Voice of India Debojit Saha, winner of Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa or Rahul Vaidya and Prajakta Shukre, finalists of Indian Idol, the city’s music connoisseurs have heard and enjoyed them all.

But when Twinkle Vajyapee and Vishwaas Rai, popularly known as Twinkle-Vishwaas of Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa “Ek Main Aur Ek Tu” contest, recently performed live for the music-loving crowd at Utsav 2006, at Sonaram H.S. School Ground, Bharalumukh, connoisseurs kept asking for more.

Both Twinkle and Vishwaas had reached the top four in the contest before being eliminated by SMS voting.

“We received a grand reception as soon as we landed in the city. When we performed, the enthusiastic listeners responded very well to the numbers sung by us,” said Twinkle.

Her singing partner Vishwaas said, “Music lovers of the city are quite learned here and hummed and danced to all our songs and that is really inspiring for newcomers like us.”

Some of the songs performed by the duo were Jiya Dharak Dharak, the title track of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and Mujhe Nou Lakha Manga De. Although they like to call themselves newcomers, both the singers have been signed by music directors of Bollywood after their brilliant performances at Ek Main Aur Ek Tu.

Vishwaas is all set to release his solo album Aankhee where he has scored the music, written the lyrics and even produced it. He has also sung for the music director duo Vishal-Shekhar in the yet to be released film Dum Ali Ali.

Twinkle, on the other hand, has done playback singing for four new music directors and is also set to release her album Sajna where Ismail Durbar has scored the music.

“Since my childhood, I wanted to be a performer, singing and enthralling audiences. After Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, I am fulfilling my childhood dreams and performing in a large number of concerts,” said Twinkle, who hails from Lucknow and is a trained classical singer. So is Vishwaas, who is from Allahabad. Both are confident of making it big in Bollywood.

During their two-day stint in Guwahati, both visited several historical sites of the city. The duo was mobbed by young fans seeking their autographs.

Twinkle, who will soon make her debut in Bateeian, a television serial, was very excited about tasting traditional Assamese cuisine.

After visiting Kamakhya temple on Wednesday morning, she visited Delicacy, a newly-opened restaurant, which boasts of traditional dishes of the Northeast. She ordered mah dal (black dal), joha rice, green herbs, ari fish fry, mutton curry cooked in Assamese style, lemon pickle, bamboo shoot pickle and Naga pickle.

Twinkle, whose mother is a Bengali, said the food reminded her of her grandmother’s cooking.

Beauty basics

The city is witnessing a boom in the beauty business and that can be judged from the number of parlours mushrooming in every nook and cranny.

With the rise in demand to look absolutely ravishing, especially among the young crowd, the demand for trained persons in the beauty business is also rising.

Modern Art and Designing Institute, a city-based school at Noonmati, has started a course aimed at training people in various aspects of beauty, applied aesthetics and hair dressing. “Initially, we are providing free training to aspiring beauticians. The aim of the course is to train complete beauticians who are good in all the departments, including hair-cutting and dressing, treatment of problems related to the skin and all other related aspects,” said a faculty member of the institute.

“Today everyone wants to look good and that requires a little amount of grooming and pampering of the skin, body and hair. Thus the industry demands a large number of well- trained beauticians and we are trying to produce such experts.”

At present, the city has more than 400 small and big parlours, according to an estimate by the industry.