I don’t feel my age at all: Lata Mangeshkar on 88th birthday

By Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, Sep 28 (IANS) Legendary Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar, who turned 88 on Thursday, says age doesn't dampen her spirit and that she has always lived with a hope for a better tomorrow.

"Bahut ho gaya... Aapko kaisa lagta hai... Aap gaati kyun nahin hain... Aapke favourite naye singers kaun hai... Aap apni behen (Asha Bhosle) se kyun nahin milti... Arrey bhai, sab ho chuka hai (It's enough... How do you feel? Why don't you sing? Who are your favourite new singers? Why don't you meet your sister? I have answered all this enough).

"Let's talk about the fun times," she suggested as though she were 18 rather than 88.

With a girlish giggle, Mangeshkar said: "Should I tell you the truth? I don't feel my age at all. I still feel young. I've never been weighed down by my troubles. Everyone has her share of problems in life. Even when I was young and struggling, and I was happy hopping from studio to studio bumping into other strugglers like Kishoreda and Mukesh bhaiyya.

"Those were fun times even when I had to go hungry for the entire day. There was no money in my purse. But there was only hope in my heart. And the belief that no matter how tough the future looked there was always hope for a better tomorrow."

Once during one such hot sweltering day, she had fainted during recording.

She sets the record straight about the incident: "It has wrongly been presumed over the years that I fainted while recording a song with Salilda (Chowdhary). It's nothing like that. Of course his songs were very complex. So were those composed by my brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar. But because of my father's blessings, I was always up to any challenge in the recording studio.

"No, that incident where I fainted did not happen with Salilda. It happened with Naushad saab. We we recording a song on a long hot summer afternoon. You know how Mumbai gets in summer. During those days, there was no air conditioning in the recording studios. And even the ceiling fan was switched off during the final recording. I just fainted."

She laughed at that remembrance, and said: "I had some really fun times. I remember I was recording a duet with Uma Devi who later became the comedienne Tun Tun. Uma Devi was as 'khati-peeti' (well fed) back then as a singer as she was later as an actress.

"So there we were, the two of us singing into the same mike. Back then, duets were recorded on one mike. Me, a frail reed-like pint-sized girl, she quite formidable in her physical Apresence. I was given a stool to stand on, as I had a problem reaching the mike.

"I sang my lines and then when Uma Devi moved forward to sing into the mike and nudged my shoulder, I fell right to the ground."

Loud laughter followed this anecdote.

So whom did she enjoy recording with the most?

"Kishoreda," pat came the reply.

"Recording with him was like one whole session of fun and games. He would make me laugh so much , I could barely sing. I had to stop him. Kishorda, pehle gana phir masti. (first song, and then fun)'. It was especially problematic when we were singing sad duets. Instead of tears of grief, my eyes would be tearful with laughter."

Speaking of her grief-stricken songs, it is said that the whole congregation at the recording wept when she sang Madan Mohan's "Heer" in "Heer Ranjha" and Sachin Dev Burman's "Tum mujhse dur chale jana na" in "Ishq Par Zor Nahin".

"That's true," she said.

"Except for me, they were all crying. I've never been a weeper even when singing the most somber songs. I've always preferred laughter to tears. God has always been kind. I've never been given any reason for tears. I think I cried the most when I lost my father and my mother."

What are her birthday thoughts?

"I can't thank the listeners enough for bearing with me for 70 years. I didn't even how the time flew by. Waqt kaise nikal gaya pataa hi nahin chala (I don't know how time flew by). If I had a chance to live it all again I wouldn't change a thing. Not even that fall from the stool while singing with Uma Devi," she quipped.