Sound of Music Incarnate

 Hotel Sheraton, Hyderabad was the venue. Yours truly was a rookie freelancer with a major media house. I was with the Features Department basically. Since I used to write rather well and practically everyday despite my Ph.D. studies, the Features Desk Editor granted me this wonderful opportunity. I was to interview THE great Lata Mangeshkar.

We all were to wait for her for a press meet, to be followed by a personal interview. She walked in to the hall, very simple, clad in a white saree with her trademark smile.  Instinctively I stood up. The entire hall followed suit. She started to speak. What a melodious voice! If you were to close your eyes and listen to it, you would think a girl tops in her mid-twenties is talking. Such was the tenderness, softness and gentleness in her spoken voice. Literally it sounded as if hundreds of silver bells were chiming at the same time. Believe me, she was in her seventies!

More was to follow. In the evening concert, she sang till 12-ish. She sang toughest of her songs, given her concert after some twenty five years. She sang for three hours, stood all the time till the end, with a swig of water in between. The young emcee was yawning away, but the smile on Latadi's lips was as fresh as her notes. Well, a great mehfil it was, I loved it like the Bhimsen mehfil I covered. I sent, like the newspaper itself, my write up to Prabhu Kunj. A life time experience indeed!

What to say about her singing? Superb, brilliant, such words seem insufficient to describe her contribution. It was a god gifted voice,  which she honed through extremely dedicated practice. She sang with many great music directors, in different genres and styles. My personal favourites are Madan Mohan ghazals, though I adore all her other greats.

In fact, she started a new way of singing. When she began her singing career, the female voices were mostly slightly thick, rather grainy. Her beautiful soft tender notes initiated a new feminity for Bollywood heroines whom she literally gave an etheral presence.

The best description of her voice could be, I believe, Indians have not three, but four basic needs:  food, clothes, a roof over head, and Lataji's songs that for decades gave a voice to their innermost feel.

Rest in peace, Latadi. Your songs/notes would continue to give us peace forever.

Pratima @ The whole day, I have been back to 26/3, Aai's last rites!