LATA JI KE JEEVAN ME "BABA", "MAI", "BAL", "TAI", "BHAIYA", "ANNA" AUR "MEETHTHU"... BY ALI PETE JOHN

I often wonder how life must be for all those great people who spend most of their lives in the company of millions of people and then return home to spend a life only with a few of their near and dear ones - Ali Peter John

I still hate to call Lata Mangeshkar, the late Lata Mangeshkar but I am consoled by the fact that a Lata Mangeshkar is born only once in a way and not even God can make her die because God made the mistake of making her immortal, forever.

I had the privilege of following in the footsteps of Lata Ji for more than half a century after I first saw her outside a building called Prabhu Kunj, where my aunt worked as a house help on the third floor and the Mangeshkar family lived on the first floor.

Little did I know during that first encounter with her that I would be a staunch follower of the diminutive lady in white, but that was to be and that was how it was...

It was during our several meetings that I came to know more and more about her and I have revelled in writing about those meetings without indulging in any kind of salacious or degrading kind of writing, but there are some facts which I can reveal now without in any way hurting the soul(do you have a soul, Lata Ji?) of the great singer, the likes of whom I am sure we will never have again...

Lata Ji always referred to her father pandit Denanath Mangeshkar as her "baba" and her mother as "mayi". She served her father and mother with the kind of dedication that could only be compared to a devotee's dedication to his or her God.

She called her sisters "Tai" and their only brother "bal" which means a child and Bal was treated like a child in the family. He is 85 now.

She had other brothers as she grew up and became famous and among them were her "Mukesh Bhaiya", "Madan bhaiya" and "Yusuf bhaiya". She could be as busy as a bee on Raksha Bandhan day, but she made it a point to meet her "bhaiyaa" and tie rakhis around their wrist.

She had a very special brother in the south, in Chennai and his name was Sivaji Ganesan. She genuinely treated him as an elder brother and called him "Anna", which means elder brother.

And the icon from the south reciprocated her feelings by having a special room for her in his vast house, "Anna illam". She invited him to all her family functions and he was a part of all the major achievements of his "younger sister".

He made it a point to fly from Chennai to Pune to attend the inauguration function of Lata's Denanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune. Where there is a spot named after Sivaji Ganesan.

And there is one name which was very dear to Lata Ji and that was "Miththu". There were talks about many of her affairs of the heart. There was talk about her even marrying one or two of her early music directors like Khemchand Prakash.

In fact, I had a friend who even claimed to have proof that she had married a senior composer but now let that be as both are not a part of this world. But I know of one man who she was definitely in love with and that was the former Prince of Dungarpur, Raj Singh.

Lata loved cricket next to music and sometimes she showed signs of loving cricket more than music. She knew everything little thing about cricket and could give the running commentary about a game of cricket being played between any two teams on any ground, anywhere in the world.

She visited almost every ground in every cricket-playing country and the Prince of Dungarpur, Rajsingh was with her most of the time, as he was first a playing cricketer and then a senior official of the Board of Control of cricket in India and also the chairman.

I have it on official and personal sources that they were like and almost lovers and referred to each other as "Miththu". Can anyone imagine Lata Ji calling the senior cricketer and official Rajsingh Dungarpur dressed in a woolen suit "Miththu"?

KEHTE HAI MOHABBAT MEIN WO JAADOO HOTA HAI JO BADE BADO KO , KYA SE KYA KARTA HAI AUR KARTAVYA HAI YE KAHAANI USKI JINDA MISAAL NAHI HAI TO KYA HAI?