Bilal’s voice can be heard this time over the Himalayas! I have it from a Sherpa, who’s lugging suitcases of foreign mountaineers, no less!

Oh yeah. Bilal Maqsood’s pure white soft reverberations in Strings’ new hit, Mil gaya mil gaya are a revelation to me, and, may be others. Gosh, he sang well, this time. Even the ‘bop’ of the lid of my beverage bottle couldn’t drown out his surge. And to top it all, I detected nuances in his singing. That almost gave me a hiccup!

It’s really terrific to see almost too much of a softee, Bilal Maqsood break a barrier. I expected him to do that sooner or later. Kapadia kept himself, mostly, attached to the guitar strings in this ditty. Fabulous number, but simple enough lyrics. The last song of Strings was also a big hit, phrased Sajni main tere gun gawan, where the whole number was crooned by Faisal, while Bilal added bits. In Mil gaya, Bilal is the main component, while Faisal remains in lower key.

So, finally, Bilal comes out with his own version, because he posed himself to be the weak, silent type! Very nice to see them contribute to this great Pak band that has been on the circuit for the last more than thirty years, if you take it from their formation in 1988. But, if you take it by the date of their first album, in 1990, then there are still two years to go for their 30-year celebrations, though they have already celebrated it!