Warming up to the theme, he continues: ``I thought it was important to have Hindi music, though it was not played in discos then. When you go to France, you hear French music. All countries play their own music, why not India?'' More than a decade later, Sarid can boast of having felt ``the pulse of the nation'' one of the most important prerequisites of being a good deejay much before Indi-pop and bhangra finally balle-balleyed their way into the nation's collective consciousness.

So, it should come as no surprise that Ghungroo has released its first non-stop dance mix of Indi-pop and bhangra, featuring giants such as Daler Mehndi, Alisha, Shweta Shetty and Shubha Mudgal. The album, produced by Magnasound, is Ghungroo's second club mix, and will hit the shelves this week.

A club album, by the way, is one among many on Sarid's lists of firsts-in-the-country (along with a stint as a contestant in an international Deejay contest last year, where Sarid went to represent India for the first time and landed at 12th place among 36 deejays), and required a fair amount of pushing. ``The concept didn't exist in India when we decided to come out with it, and I had to really sell it to the music company,'' says Sarid, of the first album released last year by Sony, featuring English remixes. ``Club music in India has a fan following of its own, and I had to tell the company that though they released music by big artists and all that, this had its own place.'' Sony was convinced and the album released, paving its way for the next one of the type that you ``put in, play and forget about'' at your own private parties. ``I have the satisfaction of knowing that I introduced the concept to the country,'' he says proudly.

Though Sarid obviously enjoys his status of pioneer in the world of deejaying, he admits that it has its share of advantages. ``When I started out, there was no set path I could follow, no one I could look up to, and sometimes I missed that lack of direction. As times grew, I just grew along with them,'' he philosophises. His ``growing'' graph shows no sign of a slump. He's already looking forward to his own album of remixes, the third so far, to be released in July. He's a deejay on the move. And there's no stopping him.