Das Ettan

Yesudas@84: The Story Of A Cultural Phenomenon

India in the 1980s. Air India was probably the only airlines carrier in the country. 

An Air India flight to then Madras was on the tarmac. All the passengers, including a couple of politicians, had boarded but the aircraft was not taking off.

The flight was being held back to allow a VIP to board - he wasn't a politician or a instrument of State. He was, as it happened to be, the one who had flown the most in the airline that year.

We're taking about someone who has sung 40,000 - 60,000 songs with eight national singer awards to boast about.

Who could this gentlemen be and why does the world care when he turns 84?

Read my colleague K Balakumar's story on this South India colossus: https://swarajyamag.com/people/k-j-yesudas-a-pan-indian-phenomenon-much-before-the-usage-was-coined

- Arush Tandon