AB BUS LATA JI UNKE GHAR ME EK MOGRA KE PHOOLON KI MEHEKTI HUI MALA MEIN BUS GAYI HAI... BY ALI PETER JOHN

I have been the guest of none other than Bharat Ratna and Swar Kokila Lata Mangeshkar in her house at Prabhu kunj several times on her personal invitation and on her birthdays and specially on the 10 days of the Ganpati Pooja before the visarjan - Ali Peter John

And there have been times when I have visited her house even when she was not there, but I couldn't make it to her funeral and shed some more years because of my failure of not bidding her a proper fairwell, but in my heart of hearts i knew that she would understand...

But i had made a promise to myself that I would attend her "terahvi" which was attended by her very close relatives, associates and friends. As I stepped into the apartment where the Mangeshkar lived for more than 60 years, I had a feeling as if I was entering a temple and a large framed photograph of Lata Ji with her favourite mogra flowers all around it caught my attention and as others chanted prayers and hymns, I wondered what would happen to the Mangeshkar family now that the priceless pearl of the family had been lost forever...

Her sister Meena Khadikar is a widow and had moved out of Prabhu kunj after her marriage to Mr. Khadikar and towards the end had moved into the posh building called Casa Grand in the lower parel where her sister Asha Bhosle had moved into one of the most exclusive and expensive apartments in Mumbai.

Her apartment incidentally was bought by Lata and presented to Meena because Lata just didn't have the heart to move out of Prabhu Kunj where she had spent 65 of the best years of her life.

Meena is 91 and Asha is 89 and Asha's son Anand looks after his mother's financial matters and her chain of hotels named "Asha's" which has restaurants in places like the Gulf, London, Singapore, Manchester, Birmingham and Egypt among other places. Her other two children, Varsha have died 10 years ago.

Her sister Usha is a singer who is popular but couldn't make it as big as her sisters and has been a spinster, she is 87. Lata depended on her for a lot of things.

And pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar is the only male member of the family, he is 85 and is the youngest. His wife is Bharti who is said to have kept the family together whenever there is even a sign of any crisis.

They have three children, Adityanath, Radha and Baijnath and only Radha and Baijnath are into serious kind of music.

And Lata had this weakness for being faithful to her office staff and domestic helps and of them, Mr Radhakrishna deshpandey was her personal secretary and Mahesh Rathod was her personal assistant who was with her till she was admitted to hospital for the last time and collapsed and was unconscious for several hours after she died.

As I left the apartment of the Mangeshkar, I saw a huge crowd standing outside and I knew they must be having minds filled with hundreds of questions about the future and the legacy of Lata Mangeshkar and I don't think anything is clear about Lata Ji's will till now. In the meanwhile, every government is trying to pay their tributes to her in some way or the other because for them, she too has now become a "mudda" for election.

AUR LATA JI KE BHAI NE YE SPAST KIYA HAI KI MANGESHKAR PARIVAR KO KOI IMARAT YA PUTLE KI JARURAT NHI HAI KYUKI LATA JI AISE HI AMAR HAI...