The singer, who shot to national fame with her song ‘Aayega… aanewala… aayega….aayega‘ in the 1949 Hindi film Mahal and became known as the Nightingale of India, succumbed to COVID-related complications on February 6 at the age of 92
Agencies
MUMBAI: “And though I do believe in rebirth, the only thing I would ask of God for myself is that I should not be born again.”
These are the words of Lata Mangeshkar, India’s nightingale, who died on Saturday at the age of 92.
Lata had expressed this wish in an interview with an Indian daily in May 2000.
In that interview, Late had thanked God for everything in her life.
The melody queen had said, “I remember when I entered the film industry in 1947, my father had just expired. At that point, my only wish was to earn money for my family. The name, fame and adulation which followed by 1948 was God’s wish.
“I had neither expected nor asked for fame. To date, I pray to God before each recording. I constantly thank God saying, ‘I’m not so big, you made me big.’ These thoughts are always on my mind. If He so wishes, everything can finish in a second.”
WHY SHE NEVER MARRIED
When she asked why she never married, Lata had said, “People ask me why I never married. To that I say that, God gave me a job to do and I’m very satisfied with my work. Yes, like everyone else, I do have my moments of sorrow. But my sorrow is very temporary.”
So deep was Lata’s faith in God that she said that one day God will descend on the earth to end injutices. “Though I might not be alive, I firmly believe that God will descend upon this earth once again to set things right. If I were to meet God, I would ask Him to put an end to the injustice in this world. I wish He would tum this world into a beautiful garden where mankind lives in peace,” Lata had said.
SHE WANTED TO MARRY HER IDOL K.L. SAIGAL
Like everyone, young Lata also had her idol. It was Indian cinema’s first super star actor-singer K.L. Saigal.
In the 1930s India, only Saigal’s songs were played in Lata’s conservative household. She grew up, admiring his voice so much so that young Lata started fantasizing about marrying him.
In an interview, Lata had said of her idol, “As far as I can remember, I always wanted to meet K.L.Saigal. As a child, I used to say that ‘I will get married to him after I grow up’ and that’s when my father explained to me that when I’ll be old enough to get married, Saigal saab will be too old enough to get married.”
Lata was 17 when Saigal died in January 1947 and she never got over the regret that she couldn’t meet him.
Speaking about this regret, Lata had once said, “I will always regret not to have met K.L.Saigal, the man of my dreams. But yes, with the help of his brother Mahendra Saigal, I did get a chance to meet his wife Ashaji and his children who gifted me K.L.Saigal saab’s ring.”
ONE STAR LATA DISLIKED
Lata sang over 25,000 songs in over 20 languages in her career of almost eight decades.
She was so gentle that Lata never disliked anyone. But there was one singing legend she never liked. It was G. M. Durrani – the singer star of the 1940s and 50s. Durrani had reportedly made some uncharitable remarks about Lata during their first recording. She vowed never again to sing with him.
READ NEXT: Lata Mangeshkar said Runa Laila was poisoned against her
ALSO READ: Lata’s 10 undiscovered songs
