Lived in Bangalore, recently? Like, in the last three months?

Oh, and do you tune in to the radio? Telly? Or, even check out the cinema listings in your daily under-the-doorstep delivery?

Heck, do you even just take a walk in the park, or drive around the city?

-- if you've done any of these, and haven't heard of Mungaaru Maley, it's official -- you're either blind, or ignorant, or (worse) both.

But that isn't the point.

It's fine, really, to have the likes of Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan and Kailash Kher sing in the 'tongue' and maim mutilate render some hit Kannada tracks.

So what if a few words sound off-target? So what, if Udit Narayan's linguistic radar goes haywire and he breaks every syllable like it were an EMI for a wretchedly expensive Merc? We'd pass it anyway -- and more importantly, in the interest of national recognition, it's what we want.

I'm all for it, seriously. Kailash Kher's alaaps in a Kannada track -- they sound alright. We buy, we listen.

But, the big question -- are we actually bridging the two? And, as south indians, if we are indeed oh-so-worried about accurate pronunciation, why curse the critics who suggest Mohanlal couldn't speak Hindi to save his life in RGV's Company?

We mock A. R. Rahman's (lack of) ability to sing in English -- and in doing so, we shut the doors for understanding the meaning behind 'Pray for me Bro'.

And we love Bombay Vikings and Leslie Lewis for their precise bullseye English pronunciation, while puking at Sunidhi in her one-off moments of language-twist.

We laugh out loud when Remo Fernandes goes Taa instead of Tha, in pyar to hona hi tha. But, how much credit do we give to the chap for the mindblowing flute song?

At the same time, the two-faced Janus' that we are, we get turned on by Urdu shaayari in Fanaa, while shaking our asses east-west-north-south to the tune of a song that has lyrics like 'I love you oh Sayonee, koi shaque, whats up?'

My point, really, is that we just don't care. And rightly so, in my opinion -- as long as we enjoy ourselves, eh?

But there *are* people who care. People who suddenly start believing that someone's been poking their manhood into their culture and language. And still, they only bother if it affects them regionally, not nationally. And they take offence when videos like this come up on the internet.

So, let the 'fusion', the intercourse, the bonding, the bridging, the raping -- whatever the hell it is -- continue. And do read the comments on that video. Some sensible, some stupid, and overall -- quite hilarious.

And while you're doing that, let me take down two long-overdue to-do notes -- a review of the Maley, and war against Pritamish plagiarism.