‘Humility was legendary ‘Didi’ Lata Mangeshkar’s hallmark quality’-- recalls sr. film journalist-author Chaitanya Padukone

Not only was iconic Lata Mangeshkar-Didi humility personified, but even went out of her way to converse with me when I requested her some years ago for an interview - Chaitanya Padukone

This was for her fond verbal tribute—the exclusive opening chapter- to ‘late’ composer-singer R D Burman for my Authored memoirs (2016) book R D BurMania,, Believe me, I was dumbstruck when Lata-Didi herself picked up her landline phone and said “Hello, Namaskar ” in her softmellifluous voice. It was overwhelming when Lata-Didi requested me to call up the next day at noon as she had some guests with her that day.. Owing to some genuinely unavoidable situation , I was unable to call her up the very next day and later connected with her the third day .

What was overwhelming was Lata-Didi ( even at that 85 plus-advanced age) had an awesome alert memory. She said “Weren’ t you supposed to call up yesterday, what happened, is everything okay with you,’ .

That was really overwhelming for me, coming from a legend like Lata-Didi . She shared priceless details of her nostalgic association with Pancham-Da ( RDB) and even added precious inputs on her own, without my asking.

For a particular quirky question relating to a couple of dance-songs that had certain deviations. she very politely urged, that we ‘drop-that-question’ .

As we ended our conversation on a witty note, unassuming Didi said in Marathi, ‘don’t you forget to send me a copy of your authored book, when it is released’. “ That’s when I realized, that even otherwise she is truly the down-to-earth ‘Bharat Ratna’. .

‘Meri aawaz hee pehchaan hai—agar yaad rahe’ ; ‘Rahe na rahe Hum, Mehkaa karenge’ ; and ‘Tum mujhe yunh, Bhula naa Paaoge’ are three ideal classic Hindi film songs which may be ideally dedicated to the memory of ‘late’ supreme singer.

It is a matter of pride for every Indian and music-lover that vocal virtuoso Lata Mangeshkar was conferred with the highest Indian civilian honour of the coveted ‘Bharat Ratna’ (2001) by the Indian Government.

Every music luminary has repeatedly said that Goddess Maa Saraswati Devi permanently resides in Lata’s throat and that her voice is divine. !

An uncanny coincidence, that just the previous day, millions of devotees offered their spiritual obeisance as it was Saraswati Puja Day. The following day, the versatile melody-queen Lata-Didi exited into immortality.