THERE is no questioning why AR Rahman won the world's most coveted music award. Not that we've heard anyone crying foul but with two Grammies, Rahman has sealed every potential critic's mouth. The debate is no longer what Rahman is doing with a Grammy but what Grammy will do to Rahman.

We know Rahman for his punchy Bollywood scores, and Jai Ho!, for which he won the Oscar and a Grammy, is not the best piece of music he has written. His first Bollywood score Roja and the steaming Chaiya Chaiya are the most popular if not the most acclaimed songs that the maestro has composed till date.

The song from the film Dil Se has been reproduced by the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber in his theatre act Bombay Dreams and also by Baz Lurhmann in Moulin Rouge. Even plastic dolls that danced to Chaiya Chaiya sold like hot cakes in the market -- talk about the song's `commercial success'.

Like the other three Indian musicians (Ravi Shankar, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Zakir Hussain) who have won the Grammy, AR Rahman got his only after his association with a western counterpart. His musical contribution to Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire opened a floodgate of trophies for Rahman. Even the maestro himself was overwhelmed by the prizes. "It's insane," he said.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt got the prize for the album A Meeting By The River which was composed along with the American blues artist Ry Cooder and other fusion artists. Few of us have listened to his music but we all know him for Indianising the guitar, and naming it the Moham Veena.

Ravi Shankar travelled all over the US and Europe performing a lot of concerts during the 60s.

But his association with George Harrision, the Beatles guitarist, got him his first Grammy and two more thereafter. His daughter Norah Jones overshadowed Ravi Shankar by bagging a pile of Grammies (five to be precise) in her debut album.

This seemed like the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Grammy authority, had spanked Ravi Shakar for his misconduct during his tour of the US. But I am veering away from the point.

Grammy Awards has been critisised by many.

Even U2 frontman Bono was initially not convinced with their process of selecting winners. But they gave him enough (22) of those miniature gramophones to convince the sceptic singer.

Time magazine branded Rahman as the `Mozart of Madras' and we all call him that. Now, as the world is going bananas over his song Jai Ho, we should not be affected by the fever, Chaiya Chaiya is our original dance number. Do the country a favour -- remember him for Dil Se not Slumdog Millionaire.