/>Mumbai have been talking about her impending divorce, and she shrugs, "I've been hearing these rumours for years. They don't make a difference to me.

As long as my husband and I know what we mean to each other, people's opinions cannot influence our relationship. I'm right now with my husband and in-laws for Diwali. We've had an unconventional long-distance marriage for years. People can keep speculating."

Alka admits being a single working woman in Mumbai has its disadvantages. "Life does get very lonely for me, specially after a hard day's work when I return home there's nobody waiting for me. When people tell me, 'How nice, your life is like one long honyemoon'. I tell them it's not so hunky-dory.

I've lived almost my entire married life alone, and so has he. My husband visits me and my daughter in Mumbai. And I often visit his family home in Delhi.

But I guess the secret of our togetherness is that we're not together all the time, what with everyone's tolerance level being what it is."

Alka admits she's an impatient person. "I can't sit in one place. It's too boring."

Alka's daughter doesn't want to be a singer. "Ever since she was a child she wanted to get into direction. So unlike me...where my mother made up my mind about me being a singer when I was a child.

My daughter will be joining Subhash Ghai's institute Whistling Woods. She's 16, but still a baby for me. She has become taller than me. People say she looks like me, so make what you will of that."

With her surprisingly controlled and emotional renditions of the Mujras in J.P. Dutta's Umrao Jaan, Alka feels she's on the threshold of a new phase in her career. "Going by the way things are moving in the music industry I had given up hope of ever getting anything substantial.

You know, compared with what one hears these days I feel the songs I've sung belong to a golden era. I just reduced the volume of work. After twenty-five years of singing I didn't want to just go on singing for a lark. I only wanted to do work that would take me ahead. Umrao Jaan was god-sent"

Did Alka have Asha Bhosle's renderings for Rekha in Umrao Jaan in mind? "I belong more to Lataji's school of singing than Ashaji's. Just because Ashaji had sung in the earlier Umrao Jaan I didn't need to be influenced by her.

When I was told I was going to be Umrao's voice I was very excited. That they've used only one voice for Aishwarya Rai is very sensible. Normally we've four different voices singing for the same person. While I sang the songs of Umrao, I was literally eating breathing and sleeping those songs. I used to rehearse for four hours every day. J.P Dutta Saab was easy to please.

I think I was hard on myself. I've sung many beautiful songs for JP Saab's earlier films, like Humen jabse mohabbat ho gayi hai in Border. Thank God melody lives in his films. Otherwise this melodious side of me would have suffocated to death."

Alka confesses she was restless and bored by the songs that she was getting. "And if other singers are reaping the harvest that's fine, though I must say many of the new voices sound quite similar to one another.

There was a time when I recorded as many as three-four songs a day. If I want I could still do that. But I don't want to be part of the rat race any more. I can't believe I've survived for twenty-five years. I entered the recording studios as a child, and virtually grown up singing.

While others my age went to pubs and dated, I sang in studios, and I've no regrets. Just like I've no regrets losing out on songs today. I just say I'm busy..."

She sighs, "I'm very fortunate to have got everything in life. The one regret that I have is that I lost my dad very early in my life. He was my friend."

Does she think she has achieved enough? "Bilkul nahin. I never feel I've sung what I want to do. Now I want to sing what I haven't so far...like the Ghazal. That I've got to do Umrao Jaan. Now I'm spoilt by these songs. Now I'm going to be even more fussy about what I choose to sing.

I always had set high standards for myself. When I started singing in the early 1980s I was barely a child. My singing needed to be polished. I've been extremely self-critical, Now I feel my voice is at its peak."

What next? "I'm too scared about what will come next. I want to do a raga-based album. As for film songs, I can't lose heart. I'm sure something like Umrao Jaan will come again. I'm also singing for Jodha-Akbar ...again For Aishwarya, though I suspect this time the songs will be in the background."

She thinks, and speaks. "When you've someone like Aishwarya putting across your voice your singing gets an added luster. Lata Didi's mind-blowing songs got the right faces like Meena Kumari and Madhubala. It makes so much of a difference."

Alka loves singing duets with all the prevalent voices. "When I used to sing with Kumar Sanu I felt he had a lot of romance in his voice. I was always cautious about the romantic aspect to my voice. With Sonu Nigam...he's so well-prepared!

And since he takes so many harkats (raga-curves) in his rendition, music directors ask me to tone down my harkat. You know the male singers tell me they've to be on their toes while singing with me.

Udit Narayan actually sings after me. He first listens to what I sing and then sings after me. In a couple of songs when he sang before me, he actually came back and sang again after he heard what I had done."

Happy with life, Alka is 40 now. "But artistes always remain young. Look at Lataji."