What is this album about?
This is the music album from the first season of the Indian edition of the Coke Studio television program format where multilingual artistes and musicians of different genres come together to create unique sounds.

Who is it by?
The album is the coming together of some of the most popular and offbeat musicians from Indian classical, folk, film and non-film genres, like Bombay Jayashree, Rashid Khan, KK, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan, Lesle Lewis, Sabri Brothers, Harshdeep Kaur, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Raghu Dixit, Kailasa, Richa Sharma,Wadali Brothers, Khagen and Mousam Gogoi.

Why should listen to it?
Much like a minute-long trailer giving a snapshot of what a movie is about, this album made for easy listening, gives a fair idea of Indian music through its melding of bits and pieces of various genres, so one can then go on and delve deeper into the genres that one enjoys.

The traditional leheriya is usually in the colours red and yellow. While the technique is used for sarees and odhnis (veils), the leheriya is favoured by the men to add a touch of resplendence in the form of turbans. It is said that the wave pattern is worn mainly during the monsoon and was traditionally favoured by the Rajputs.

Traditional Indian wrestling is known as kushti (koosh-thee) or pehelwani (pay-hel-vaani). In days of yore, it enjoyed great patronage among the royals, some of whom, even took up the sport, then called mallayudh (mull-a-yudhh). Walk into traditional wrestling club (called akhada = a-khaa-daa) in an Indian village and you are bound to notice a statue or print of a muscular Hanuman from the Ramayana being venerated by trainees, seeking both mental strength to deal with the discipline required for the rigorous training as well as the physical prowess to wrestle even the most formidable of opponents. The Pandava brother, Bheema from the Mahabharata is depicted as a great wrestler and a symbol of immense strength. Wrestlers practise and fight in a prepared earthern pit, wearing only a loincloth, smearing their bodies with red dust as an offering of respect to the earth as well as for better grip during a fight. Part of the training includes the use of a pillar, mallakhamb (Mull-a-khamb) to exercise stretches and twists to make their bodies lithe and their spines, supple. Mallakhamb has now become a breakaway sport in its own right. Among Indians to enter the international wrestling scene, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav became the first Indian wrestler to win a medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, but it would take a good 56 years for another Indian to break the dry spell. Sushil Kumar not only won a bronze in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he also became the first Indian to win a medal in two consecutive Olympics, by winning the Silver in this year’s London Olympics.

Punjabi is the official language of Punjab, and according to the 2001 Indian census, there are 29,102,477 speakers of the language in the country. The language is written in the Gurmukhi script (literally meaning ‘from the mouth of the Guru’) created by the Sikh Guru, Angad. The Sikh community revere a holy scripture called the Guru Granth Sahib, which is a compilation of Punjabi spiritual poetry of Guru Nanak, other Sikh Gurus as well as poets from other religions and communities. Sufi poetry in Punjabi is simple, with everyday concepts used to symbolise the relationship between man and god. The notable poets were Sheikh Farid, Shah Hussain and Bulle Shah. Kissa is a form of ballad based on tragic folklore with rich details of Punjabi life, social mores and culture and the most famous ones are Heer Ranjha by Waris Shah, Yusuf Zuleikha by Hafiz Barkhudar and Kissa Puran Bhagat by Kadir Yaar. Among modern Punjabi writers and poets, Bhai Vir Singh, Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam, Gurdial Singh and Kartar Singh Duggal are some of the most respected names. A large part of modern Punjabi literature is centered around the Partition of India and Pakistan.