Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar Has The Greatest Respect For Our Jawans

Ali Peter John

The first time Lata Mangeshkar showed how much she was concerned about the plight and conditions in which our Jawans were fighting on different borders and in the more hazardous conditions and even sacrificing their lives was when in 1963 she sang that immortal song Ae Mere Watan, Zara yaad karo kurbani. The words were written by Kavi Pradeep and were tuned by Sri Ram Chandra , but the highlight of the song was the soulful voice of Lata Mangeshkar which as legend has it now had brought tears to the eyes of the then Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru . The song is still as fresh as it was when he first rendered it at the open air grounds in New Delhi, soon after the depressing defeat faced by India in the Indo- China war of 1962.

Lata had always been game and has even volunteered to sing free at the shows held to raise funds for the welfare of the Jawan and their families, especially for war widows. She has raised crores of rupees for these shows held for the welfare of the Jawans.

In one of her last messages message o the Jawans which she made when she was 88, (she is 90 now), She said that she had the greatest respect for Jawans who are responsible for "our desh and our desh means one and all of us". She raised her right hand to her forehead and saluted every jawan who was willing to give up his life,so that we could live.

In a moving statement,she again said that she was always willing to do anything that would keep the jawans and their families in a good state. Lata has sung patriotic songs in countless films in various languages, especially Hindi and Marathi.

She once ,when she was in her 60's said in Marathi that what we, the people of India were doing was nothing compared to what the Jawans were doing and also said she sometimes wished that she too was a jawan which is the most respectable job in the country, even more powerful than the job of any Prime Minister or any other minister, governors, actors and musicians.

In what looked like her will, she has said that she would like to do what was best she could do for the Jawans.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Bharat Ratna, Lata Mangeshkar , Jawans