RIP Lata Didi

दौलत / Asset
लोग कहते हैं
कुछ सफ़ाई कर लो
बोझ को हल्का कर लो..
पर यह भावुक बोझ नहीं दौलत है
जो आगे भी रहेगी
यादों के रूप में,
जो सदा दौड़ती रही है
और दौड़ती रहेगी
मेरे और हर भारतीय के
रग रग में
बन के संगीत और नगमें...
💖🙏❤️🙏💖
They tell me to clean up,
and get rid of your load…
but it’s not an emotional load
it’s an asset
in the form of memories,
that has always run
and will continue to run
in the veins of mine
and of every Indian
as songs and melodies...

Today is a very unfortunate day for me  personally and for every Indian.

The Nightingale of India, the Queen of Melody, the golden voice of India, and the Bharat Ratna, Lata Mangeshkar, popularly known as Lata Didi left today for heavenly abode at 92. She was admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital after contracting pneumonia and Covid-19 and finally died of multiple organ failure.

But her voice is her identity, that will always echo in the hearts of every Indian. Her divine voice now will also resound in the heaven.

She had started working as an actress at the tender age of 5, but she started singing at 13, when her father died of heart attack. Her singing career spanned for more than seven decades. Lata Didi had recorded thousands of songs in over 36 languages.

She sang for stars of three generations, first for Shobhana Samarth, then for her daughters Nutan and Tanuja and finally for her granddaughter Kajol. Stars have come and gone, but her voice always remained young, evergreen and immortal.

She was the most versatile singer of the Indian film industry. Her genres varied from filmi to classical, ghazal, Bhajan and folk.

Lata Mangeshkar was also a diehard fan of cricket. BCCI was not a rich body in the 1980s, as it is now. She then had helped BCCI garner enough money to reward 1983 World Cup winners. And BCCI always had two tickets reserved for her for every match.

She had received several accolades and honours right from Filmfare, National and Dadasaheb Phalke Awards to Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna and Legion of Honour (the highest civilian award of France). There can’t be more accomplished life.

There is only one Sun, only one Moon, and there has been only one, Lata Didi.

A state funeral will be accorded to her today. Two-day national mourning will be observed in the memory of Lata Mangeshkar and the national flag will be flown at half mast for two days throughout India as a mark of respect.

Yesterday was Saraswati Puja and today our own voice of Saraswati has gone.

Let her soul rest in eternal peace!
Om Shanti!

–Kaushal Kishore