Lata

I will always think of you as Lata and not as Lataji or Lata didi as I call you in public. I never call God or my mother by any honorific , so why would I do that to you ?...you are that close to my heart. You are and you always will be. 

I tell myself that 92 is a good age to pass away and Lata has given her best to the world , the best and not so best to in later years , but that statement doesn't reach from my brain to my heart , It doesn't stop the flow of tears that started the moment I heard the news. The world without Lata in it will not be the same.

It would not be an exaggeration if I say that I have lived my life through Lata's songs. There was a time in school where I did not know many songs and to discover an unheard song of Lata would be like discovering a treasure. This was before youtube and internet days. I would read periodicals where there would be articles on Hindi film music , write down the lists of songs and then give them to a shop which would make cassettes as per order. And there would be radio programmes on Vividh Bharti . My cassettes were my treasure which unfortunately started becoming outdated during the late nineties . But then I discovered pirated mp3s which were for sale for Rs.20 each outside railway stations. I discovered so many old songs through those mp3s ! Mp3s didn't stay with us even for a decade when the internet revolutionized the world of entertainment and music. Now everything is available at your fingertip.

As I started singing ,I started to understand more about Lata's songs. How much effort I need to take a murki and she does it so easily... How she glides through high notes where it feels like I will die with sheer effort….How she sings without taking breaths and I struggle….The softness and the various expressions she brings in her singing without batting an eyelid...and I can not even achieve 1% of it… That is talent by God's grace and her monumental riyaaz too. Lata is Lata ( always present tense ,her music will be with me forever.) .There will never be anyone like her ever .