This past week, for one evening only, the Virgin Records outlet at Times Square became an Asha Bhosle [Images] store. The in-house DJ played Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar and Aaja Aaja, Main Hoon Pyar Tera, while a couple of hundred desi fans waited patiently, and in an orderly manner, for the Bollywood diva to arrive.

Bhosle was in New York City for her Carnegie Hall concert with the Kronos Quartet and she took time off to promote the release of her new 2 CD set -- Asha Bhosle: Love Supreme (released by the Times Square Records label), a collection of her favourite ghazals and romantic duets. And the fans -- many of them several decades younger than the singer -- turned up to get their CDs autographed and get pictures taken with her.

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"Even though she is of our parents' age, she is still very energetic and youthful," said a very excited, 23-year old Kiran Mishra, of Flushing, NY. Her friend Steve Singh, 30, of Woodbridge, NJ had left work at 2 pm and driven into Manhattan just to make sure he wouldn't miss the event. His timing was perfect. At 5 pm, he was among the first few in the line. Bhosle was scheduled to arrive an hour later.

"I can't believe I'm going to meet her," said Jyoti Gupta, 40 of Roslyn, NY. "She is my idol. I only sing her songs."

A travel agent in Long Island, Gupta left work at 2.30 pm and caught the Long Island Rail Road into Manhattan. But, when she reached Times Square, she had to stop an Indian on the street to ask him the exact location of the Virgin Records store. When her new desi friend Rizwan Syed-Wajahat realised that Gupta was heading to see Bhosle, he changed his plans. Instead of catching a train to his home in Flushing, the 37-year old architect and father of three joined Gupta in the line.

Everyone present had their own favourite Bhosle song. "Dum Maro Dum," said Singh. Anita Soni of East Brunswick, NJ said she liked "Oh Mere Sona Re, because it reminds me of my teenage years, when I saw the movie (Teesri Manzil)." "I like Mera Kuch Saaman," said Seema Anand, who works in the fashion industry. "It is so touching and the movie (Ijaazat) was so beautiful."

Bhosle arrived promptly at 6 pm -- unlike most Bollywood stars who are fashionably late for similar events and then frustrate their fans by making them wait even longer. She waved at fans as she rode down the escalator to the basement level of Virgin Records. The desi press surrounded the singer, but fans soon headed in her direction with their own digital cameras.

The DJ kept announcing that Asha Bhosle was at the basement level autographing her new CD. Some Americans stood and watched with curiosity, but most of Bhosle's fans -- in the line and clicking pictures -- were South Asians.

Dressed in a white silk sari with black ikat border and large diamond earrings, Bhosle sat down for the next hour as she smiled and obliged every fan. She talked to them, giggled and laughed, let them hold her hands and stood up next to them for personal photos. And she autographed the liner notes of each CD in Hindi. I got my CD autographed. It reads: Priye Aseem, Asha Bhosle!