Varsha Bhosle

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Varsha as a young girl (sitting on the floor) seen here in a photograph taken around 1961. The other children in the picture are her elder brother Hemant and younger brother Anand (in Mother Asha's lap)

Varsha Bhosle (Hindi वर्षा भोसले) (born 1958)[1] is an Indian journalist and writer based in Mumbai. Varsha Bhosle is the daughter of the Indian celebrity playback singer Asha Bhosle, about whom she has also written. [2]. She wrote regular columns for the Indian web portal Rediff from early 1997 to mid 2003. Before that she wrote a weekly column for The Sunday Observer [3] from mid 1994 to 1998 and Gentleman magazine in 1993[4], as well as for the Times of India.[5] Varsha has also worked as a playback singer in Hindi and Marathi movies and appeared in concerts with her mother.[6] She studied Political Science at Elphinstone College, Mumbai. [7]

[edit] Writing Style

Her writings are conservative, and against Islamism and Islamist terrorism, Leftist politics, Proselitism, and Pseudo-secularism. Her writing style is characterised by the hard-hitting, scathing and not unoften witty polemic. Her introduction on Rediff lists her as the only Indian columnist known to have a fan club on the Internet.[8]

[edit] Career Break

Varsha Bhosle wrote for Rediff until June 2003, when she abruptly went off-line. She was unsubtley asked not to return when Rediff.com owner Ajit Balakrishnan told her that she would be given a pay-cut. In her own words:

You'll be pleased to know that you 'secularists' have a successful and time-tested way of tackling free speech: I am no longer writing for Rediff since its top honcho, Ajit Balakrishnan (also involved with discredited SABRANG communications Communalism Combat), finds me 'very inflammatory.[9][10]

She has not published any articles since Mid 2003. It is anticipated that Varsha will be back on the scene with a book, possibly political non-fiction.

[edit] Personal Life

There is no known public source image of grown-up Varsha. From electoral rolls of Mumbai taken in August 2004, Varsha's age is put at 46.[11] This makes her birth year approximately 1958. These rolls also show that she is married to a Hemant Bhosle. [12] She currently lives in Mumbai with mother Asha and younger brother Anand and his wife Anuja.

[edit] External links

• Column index of Varsha Bhosle at Rediff
• Varsha has been featured once at neoconservative internet magazine Frontpage [13].

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