Nandan and I stayed at this hotel called Ranjeet. As far as hotels go it suited my needs but I want to mention that it had a ground floor restaurant with a lounge singer every night. He had a cassette deck and a bunch of tapes and a microphone. He sung old Bollywood songs.
Many Bollywood songs have a male and female part and this guy sung both. I asked Nandan if this was unusual and he said no, hotels with lounge singers are common and lounge singers who sing anything usually sing Bollywood songs, and since Bollywood songs have two voices then the singers sing both. I asked Nandan whether it was socially respectable for a man to sing in a female voice at a restaurant and bar. Nandan said that it was neither respectable nor disrespectable, and that it was an art like any other.
The strangeness of this to me is that in America, when a man sings in a female voice there is usually some association either with the gay or transgender or drag community. At this lounge the singer was hired to entertain a clientele which was almost entirely heterosexual male business travelers with no particular interest in alternative gender or sexuality.
The singer there was good and I listened to him a little all three nights we stayed in Bhopal.