Birthday Special: RAFI SAHAAB KI AWAAZ TOH LAAJAWAAB THI , MAGAR UNNKA DIL HI LAAJAWAAB AUR GAJAB KAA THAA... BY LT ALI PETER JOHN

I cannot and l dont think anyone can know the reason why Mohammad Rafi had a constant and almost divine smile on his face , sometimes even in the most odd and difficult circumstances - Ali Peter John

His smile followed him to his cortge ( kafan) when the sky was shedding tears togther with millions of people on the day he died(July 31, 1981) .

His body was inert but his smile was still alive , a fact of life which has been puzzling the minds of people to this day .

Rafi Sahaab always kept his family and especially the women of his family away from film parties , events and functions.

He had nothing against the people and the industry, but he loved to spend time with his wife and children rather than waste his time attending parties where he said people only gossiped about people who were not present and ran down people and their characters . He was a devoud Muslim , but he wanted his children to study in convent schools .

He was never insecure about money , because like he said , 'paisa toh aata jaata raehta hai , lekin insaan ki neeyat haameshaa saath reheti hai ' .

He was asked to sing a song for the actor Chandrashekhar's film "Street Singer" and he sang all the songs for the film without charging Chandrashekhar a rupee.

When he went abroad for the first time , he made it a point to buy gifts for Chandrashekhar and his family .

When Chandrashekhar's daughter got married , Rafi Sahaab was standing with Chandrashekhar to receive the guests . If this was not friendship , l dont know what friendship means .

Rafi Sahaab and Lata Mangeshkar had a professional tiff over royalty . Rafi Sahaab was of the opinion that playback singers should not claim royalty , and Lataji was insistent that singers get royalty .

It was soon after they had resolved their dispute that they were jointly recording a song and half way through the recording , Rafi Sahaab went out of the recording room and stood in a corner and started crying bitterly.

When Lataji's sister Meena Mangeshkar asked Rafi Sahaab why he was crying , Rafi Sahaab looked at Lataji singing and said , "woh dekho, khudah sab se badi den gaa rahi hai.

Hum sab unnke awaaz ke saambe kyaa hai ?" Would any of today's singer react to a competitor the way Rafi Sahaab did ?

Rafi Sahaab never really bothered about money and left all his financial dealings to his brother in law. He had a fixed price of rupees 4 thousand for every song , whatever the genre or the budget of the film .

He was singing for a film called 'Deedar a Yaar ' which was being produced by Jeetendra . Kishore Kumar singing with him .

The millionaire Jeetendra sent 20 thousand rupees to Kishore Kumar as his price for the song .

His production controller asked Jeetendra how much he should pay Rafi Sahaab and Jeetendra told him , "Jitne paise Kishore daa ko diye , utnaa hi Rafi Sahaab ko do" .

The production controller left a packet of money with Rafi Sahaab's brother in law . Rafi Sahaab asked his brother in law how much money there was in the packet .

When his brother in law told him that there was 20 thousand rupees, he asked his brother in law to keep 4 thousand rupees which was his fee and asked his brother in law to return 16 thousand rupees to Jeetendra .

The film Jeetendra made almost ruined him , but he still remembers the honest gesture made by Rafi Sahaab.

There was a music director called Iqbal Quereshi who was doing the music of a film . Iqbal had scored music for a film like "Love In Simla" which had songs sung by Rafi Sahaab .

The great singer had not forgotten Quereshi and sang free for him . Rafi Sahaab and Dilip Kumar had helped Quereshi in getting his daughter married in a grand way in Hyderabad.

There are any number of cases where Rafi Sahaab has sung free . He had sung in almost every language and one of the popular music arrangers was scoring the music for a Konkani film .

The arranger had a dream to make Rafi Sahaab sing for him . The singer not only agreed to sing in a language he didnt know , but did his rehearsals for days and recorded the song in just one take .

The song , ' Maria Oh Maria ' is still one of most popular song in Goa . And needless to say , Rafi Sahaab didnt accept any money from the makers of the film .

Is own room at Rafi Mansion was a simple room with just a few musical instruments, a black telephone and some of his awards . And the room is still kept and maintained as it was in the morning he died .

He had received the Padmashri in after receiving the award , he came to the office of 'Screen ' and told the editor , Mr S S Pillai that he wanted to advertise his award .

Mr Pillai told him that he couldnt publish his ad because their was the emblem of lndia on it.

Rafi Sahaab couldn't understand anything that Mr Pilaai told him and they both couldn't understand what they were telling each other .

Mr Pillai spoke to him in English, the only language he knew besides Malayalam and Rafi Sahaab spoke to Mr Pillai in highest form of Urdu .

I was a newcomer , but Mr Pillai had great faith in me . He called me to his cabin and asked me to talk to Rafi Sahaab and tell him that it was not possible to publish his ad .

I did what l was told and l still remember that sad look on his face which still had. I told him that l could write a full article on him in which l could include the photograph of his Pasmashri award and he was happy like a child.

I did what l had promised and the day my article was published , he called me and thanked me like very few people have thanked me .

This was my second personal encounter with him . The first was when l attended the recording of his song for' Dastak' and had asked for his autograph and he was smiling all the time as he signed his autograph in English .

I could see god's goodness on his face then , and l can see god himself on his face now. Rafi Sahaab as the world knows was a pious Muslim , but when it came to singing , he didnt differentiate between one god an another .

History is proof about how he sang the most popular and holy bhajans and the Urdu ghazals and the Nazns with the same passion .

It is still difficult to how a Muslim like him could sing some of the best Bhajans like ' Mann Hari Darshan Ko Tadpat ' , "Ramji Ki Nikli Sawaari "," Hey Ram , Oh Ram " and " Sunn Duniyaa Ke Raakhwaale" and "Ramji Kahe Siya Se " .

And all these Bhajans were written by a Muslim ( Shakeel Badayune) , sang by a Muslim Rafi Sahaab and composed by a Muslim (Naushad) .

They were the kind of Muslim who believed in secularism long before hollow and mischievous politicians made religion a way to divide and destroy people in the name of god .

July 31 , 1981 was one of the saddest day in the history humanity . That day , the sun cried, the sky cried bitterly , every man and women cried and even god must have cried .

RAFI SAHAAB KI AWAAZ MEIN JAAN THI , ZINDAGI THI , PYAAR THAA , HASSNAA THAA , RONAA THAA AUR DUAA BHI THAA . WOH KHUDAH BANNE WAALE THE , LEKIN JAB KHUDAH NE UNNKI AWAAZ MEIN UNNKE LIYE KHATRAA DEKHAA , TOH UNNHONE UNNKI ZINDAGI CHEEN LI . MAI NAASTIK NAHI HUN , LEKIN JAB BHI RAFI SAHAAB KI MUSKAAN KO DEKHTAA HUN AUR UNKI AWAAZ SUNTAA HOON , NAASTIK BANKAR RAFI SAHAAB KO KHUDAH MAANNE KA DIL CHAHTAA HAI