Kya ek devi kabhi mar sakti hai? BY Ali Peter John

My mind has always had the habit of going berserk, but it has not gone as wild as it has first when Dilip Kumar died on July 7th 2021 and i was lucky to survive a nervous break down but i survived - Ali Peter John

And i kept hoping for the best things to happen for all the best people who made my life meaningful and one of them in whom i had the kind of belief devotees dont have for their own gods and goddess was Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar.

My mind and my heart again started behaving in a very strange way when Lataji was admited to the Breach Candy hospital for the second time in 6 months.

The doctors said it was another case of Covid, but i kept asking the question how she could be affected by the virus if she had not even moved out of her room in Prabhukunj and didnt even mingle with her own family members.

Her condition kept growing worse and doctor Pratit Samdhani who was in charge of her treatment said that she would recover soon. But even a doctor like him couldn't do much to make life easy and comfortable for the nightingale.

She proved that she was a daughter of god and came out of the ICU and the entire country and even parts of the world kept praying for her and hoping for her speedy recovery, but it seemed like no one and no god was in a mood to listen to the crowd of prayers for her and she slipped into the worst state and was put on the ventilator again and the prayer grew louder and more intense.

But on the night of February 5 the voice which gave life to the world faded out and there was sudden darkness all over and even in every heart.

Raat toh asi bhi kali hoti hai, lekin us raat, raat ka rang kuch aur he kala ho gaya aur asha ki koi kiran kahi bhi nazar nahi ayai. Koi yeh mane ko tayar hi nahi tha ki swar kokila chali gaye thi is duniya ko chodkar jis duniya ko apni awaz se raah bhi dikhay, rahat bhi de aur mohabbat karni ki ek naya raaz sikhaya.

Unka jana ek bhayank sa haqeekat ho gayi thi jo duniya ko mane ke liye kahi din lage.

The Government of India which had decorated her with the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Vibhushan, Dada saheb Phalke award and the Bharat Ratna declared a 2 day state of mourning all over the Country. It was the first time that a singer or even a star had been honoured like this.

Messages of condolence kept pouring in from millions of people from all over the world, which only showed that she was less of a singer and more of a messiah and a simple human being with a very large heart.

And as the world kept mourning her death, i remembered all the hundreds of times i had met her. My first encounter with her was in the lift of Prabhukunj where my aunt worked as a maid and i was not allowed to enter the building from the front gate and was asked to take the Iron stairs at the back of the building if i had to meet my aunt.

I decided to defy the orders of the society and got into the lift on the ground floor and two security men came running after me. And before they could pull me out or harm me, i saw a woman in white and she was Lata Mangeshkar.

She asked me "Bete kahan jana hai? She lived on the third floor , but made it a point to leave me on the fourth floor and vanished from my sight. For several moments, i didnt know where i was and who was with me.

Years later i was working in screen and i somehow had the urge to talk to the nightingale and stole her no from the diary of my boss and dialed her no. It was the nightingale herself on the other side and i told the voice that i wanted to speak to Lata Mangeshkar and she said "main Lata Mangeshkar he bol rahi hoon" and again i was in a trance and she said "boliye aap kaun hai?" And when i told her who i was, she said "aap likha hua humare ghar mein sab log padte hain. Aap kabhi ghar kyu nahi aate hai?".

I took her invitation with a pinch of salt but the occasions kept coming for me to see her again and again and we became friends, a fact i still cant belive.

She came to every function i invited her to. She released my book on my mother at Prabhukunj and was the host who looked after every minute detail and she had even invited Manoj Kumar and his wife and the well known lawyer Ram Jethmalani.

The crowd of the media was so heavy that she got exasperated and when she could take it no longer she said sorry to me and went back home on the first floor and never came back.

These are just two little incidents about my processional relationship with her. She invited me to all her birthday parties and functions and invited me thrice to visit the Dinant Mangeshkar hospital in Pune.

She had a house of her own in Pune and in a well known resort called Panhala near Kolaphur where she vanished every time she felt disgusted about the state of affairs in Mumbai.

She was a great lover of Cricket and could comment on every bold and also commented on how a player could have played a particular ball and could sit before any TV set for hours and give her own version of her running commentary on every ball, every player and every match played anywhere in the world.

She had visited all the measure playing fields of Cricket in the World. She is also said to have an affair with a leading Cricket board official who belonged to a royal family.

But nothing much had been said about this affair which many still belive is the truth. She ia also said to have married Husanlal Bhagatram and i had a friend who had proof to say that she had married the musician.

She had always been very close to her family and especially to her younger brother Pandit Ridhaynayt Mangeshkar and his family. There were rumours about her rivalry with her sister Asha Bhosle, but those rumours have not been able to stand the test of time.

She was active till she was in her 70s and slowly eased out of her work schedules and did sing only in a few films which attracted her attention and moved her heart.

By the 80s, she started falling sick and regular attacks of pneumonia kept troubling her till she became inactive and was confined to her room in Prabhukunj from where she was not allowed to move out and then came that dark night of January 8th and her family rushed her in the Breach Candy hospital with signs of Covid and pneumonia.

People kept praying in Mandirs, Masjids and Churches but it seemed that no one was answering the genuine prayers of the people and she was finally put on a ventilator again and she breathed her last at 9:00 clock on the night of February 5th 2022.

The news was kept a secret for a few hours and was declared on the morning of February 6th it was a Sunday and Sunday never looked so dark as any other time. Every man and woman in the street had only one name on their tongue and their lips and their minds.

They couldn't believe that Lata Mangeshkar who was as good as any god or godess had died like any of them. Incidentally, she died on the day of Maa Saraswati Pooja and Saraswati was the goddess she believed in the most.

People say that 92 is a good age to leave this world and go in search of another road which could lead to a place called heaven. But i wonder where Lata ji has gone after her body went up in flames and people kept looking at the rising flames to see if Lata Mangeshkar could be seen in them and going up in glory to meet Maa Saraswati and all the gods and godessess who she worshiped without knowing that she was as powerful as any other god or godess.

People came back from the cremation grounds in Bandh Ganga and cried and screamed and wondered and worried about whether there would be another Lata Mangeshkar again. They didnt have to worry because the gods on high had already reserved a throne for her where she would rule like she ruled on earth.

HAM RAHE NA RAHE, YEH ZAMAANA RAHE NA RAHE,ASMAAN PAR CHAND AUR SITARE RAHE NA RAHE, LATA MANGESHKAR KI WOH GAJAB KI AWAAZ HAMESHAA RAHEGI AUR SHAYAD EK DIN SARE BULADIYON AUR ASMAANO KO CHEERKAR KAHI AUR JAKAR APNA EK NAYA SAMRAJYA BANAYGI.

Log unke amar honki kamna karte hai, lekin Lata Ji ko kisi kamna ki zaroorat nahi. Unka kaam hi unka jannat tha, karam bhi tha aur khushi bhi thi aur ab jab woh is duniya mein nahi bhi rahi unke awaaz hamesha raheehe humne, tumne aur sabne. Is baat par koi shak nahi kar sakta.

Ps i was to attend a musical function in honour of the great lyricist Shailendra and even thought the organizers Soulful Saturday tried their best to keep their show going , their conscience didnt allow them to and the function was postponed to February 20th and i hope February 20th is not another black day in the history of mankind.

That morning i met two women, Geetanjali Shailendra and her daughter Rhythima Shailendra and early that morning i received a message congratulating Soulful Saturday for having a function to remember the glorious songs of Kavi Raj Shailendra.

I know Shailendra held women in high esteem but that morning i discovered that Shailendra was not just a poet of the Comman man but a dynamic force which stood and fought for the dignity of women and the proof was in seeing of how his poetry and his life influence and inspired the women in his house Priyanka,Geetanjali and Rhythima to be not just butterflies and flowers but torches and flames that could burn everything that was evil and wrong in a family, a society, a Country and even the world.

Jai Hoon Shailendra ki jiyo kabhi Lata ji ki tarah mar nahi sakte kyunki Lata ji aur Kavi Shailendra jaise log hazaaron saal mein kabhi kabhi milte hain aur phir Kabhi bhulaye na ja sakete hain.

Aur us kali raat par agar ek suraj ka tukda chamakte hue mujhe dikha , toh woh the mere dost aur Geetanjali ke pati , unki do betiyan , Priyanka aur Rhythima. Agar aapko yaad nahi , toh Shaily ne mere naam joker ka woh gana jise Shailendra ne adhura chod diya tha ek line likar amar kardiya aur uske baad unho ne aur kahi geet likhe jo prasid bhi hue aur jinko naam bhi mila , lekin mere rai mein Shaily ko woh shaan nahi mil saki jo unki chahat bhi thi aur hak bhi tha. Shayad isiliye Shaily ne woh geet ko amar kiya, Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan iske siva jaana kaha.