The year was 1999. It was a rainy day and a teenager in his final year of college - and also in teens - was watching M-TV. The song being played was ‘Hosh walon ko kabar kya’ from the movie ‘Sarfarosh’. There was some deep magic in the voice of that singer. Mesmerized by it, and driven by the trademark impulsiveness of youth, the teenager headed out in the pouring rain to buy the audio cassette of that movie. Impatient to wait till returning home, he stopped at the auto stand on the way and asked a friend of his there to help him listen to that song once. Little would have that teenager imagined then that the same voice would heal his heart, soothe his soul, protect him from the real world around after half-a-decade, when unfulfilled Love - that inevitable bane of youth – would rip his heart into shreds. The teenager was, of course, me and the owner of that magical voice was none other than the great Jagjit Singh!
Jagjit Singh – show me a man who loves ghazals but hasn’t heard of this name and I would show you the eighth wonder of the world. A name that has become synonymous with ghazals in India, Jagjit sahib rules the hearts of millions of his fans, even many years after his sudden demise.
In life, I have quite a lot of regrets, but there are very few that I would carry to the pyre. Not having listened to this great exponent of the ghazal genre performing ‘live’ is definitely on top of that little list. The only time when we were both in the same city, I was too lazy to cross the vast expanse in that intense Sunday evening traffic. I convinced myself saying that I would listen to him during his next visit here. Little did I know then that it was never to happen. A few months later, he passed away, suddenly and as a shocker to millions of his fans. Today his voice is a permanent thing in my music player, protecting me still from the realities of this human life, soothing my wounds and helping me put to rest some old demons that come haunting often.
About the book, have you seen how fans of movie stars and celebrities make all the efforts to get in proximity with their favorite stars - to see them from close quarters, to touch them and check whether they are real or made of shiny stardust? This book gives you one such experience taking you up close to the gentle giant called Jagjit Singh. This biography is so far the biggest tribute to this great singer. Smooth, flowing and gentle like the man himself, the book maps the journey of his life from his humble beginning to the calm end that took him away from us all in 2011. Reading about the amount of struggle that Jagjit sahib went through makes me wonder as to why should this book not be added to the self-improvement genre too! Running from pillar to post seeking a chance to sing in the movies, traveling without ticket in the trains, depending on the generosity of others for even food and shelter – this great man had gone through it all before attaining a stardom that he very much deserved.
The book also traces his married life with Chitra Singh, another star in the Indian ghazal scene, their companionship both in front of the mike and away from it, the unfortunate loss of their son Vivek to a fatal accident and their different ways of coping with that loss. One unfortunate thing is that after reading through some statements of Chitra Singh, I felt my respect for her fall a couple of notches. She may have been a great singer, but some of her behaviors and statements make her appear a very ordinary woman with jealousy, nagging and mundane ideas. Jagjit sahib, on the contrary though, has gained an even higher place in my heart. Not just because he was a great singer, but he was also a generous philanthropist, never denying assistance to those that came to him in need.
Jagjit Singh – show me a man who loves ghazals but hasn’t heard of this name and I would show you the eighth wonder of the world. A name that has become synonymous with ghazals in India, Jagjit sahib rules the hearts of millions of his fans, even many years after his sudden demise.
In life, I have quite a lot of regrets, but there are very few that I would carry to the pyre. Not having listened to this great exponent of the ghazal genre performing ‘live’ is definitely on top of that little list. The only time when we were both in the same city, I was too lazy to cross the vast expanse in that intense Sunday evening traffic. I convinced myself saying that I would listen to him during his next visit here. Little did I know then that it was never to happen. A few months later, he passed away, suddenly and as a shocker to millions of his fans. Today his voice is a permanent thing in my music player, protecting me still from the realities of this human life, soothing my wounds and helping me put to rest some old demons that come haunting often.
About the book, have you seen how fans of movie stars and celebrities make all the efforts to get in proximity with their favorite stars - to see them from close quarters, to touch them and check whether they are real or made of shiny stardust? This book gives you one such experience taking you up close to the gentle giant called Jagjit Singh. This biography is so far the biggest tribute to this great singer. Smooth, flowing and gentle like the man himself, the book maps the journey of his life from his humble beginning to the calm end that took him away from us all in 2011. Reading about the amount of struggle that Jagjit sahib went through makes me wonder as to why should this book not be added to the self-improvement genre too! Running from pillar to post seeking a chance to sing in the movies, traveling without ticket in the trains, depending on the generosity of others for even food and shelter – this great man had gone through it all before attaining a stardom that he very much deserved.
The book also traces his married life with Chitra Singh, another star in the Indian ghazal scene, their companionship both in front of the mike and away from it, the unfortunate loss of their son Vivek to a fatal accident and their different ways of coping with that loss. One unfortunate thing is that after reading through some statements of Chitra Singh, I felt my respect for her fall a couple of notches. She may have been a great singer, but some of her behaviors and statements make her appear a very ordinary woman with jealousy, nagging and mundane ideas. Jagjit sahib, on the contrary though, has gained an even higher place in my heart. Not just because he was a great singer, but he was also a generous philanthropist, never denying assistance to those that came to him in need.
There is one amusing quality attributed to da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’. It is said that she reflects the mood of the viewer – if you are sad, she will seem sad, and if you are happy, she will appear happy too. I haven’t tested that theory seriously yet, but I have felt that strange quality in the voice of Jagjit sahib. If you listen to him with pain in your heart, the heavy bass voice will not only accentuate that pain but end up wringing tears out of you. Be happy and that gifted voice can raise you even further. The man was sheer magic.
In his magnum opus ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, Viktor Frankl mentions art as one of the ways in which a man can create meaning for his life. Jagjit sahib has created profound meaning for his life by single-handedly reviving the dying art of ghazal, making it accessible and understandable to the public, without reducing its qualities in any way whatsoever for the sake of commercialization and popularization. If many uninformed music lovers like me developed a liking for the elevated genre like ghazal, it was definitely due to this one man and the history will stand testimony to that.
Feeling bad that I could give only five stars to this book. A classic that any Jagjit fan worth his salt should read and own! ❤️
In his magnum opus ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, Viktor Frankl mentions art as one of the ways in which a man can create meaning for his life. Jagjit sahib has created profound meaning for his life by single-handedly reviving the dying art of ghazal, making it accessible and understandable to the public, without reducing its qualities in any way whatsoever for the sake of commercialization and popularization. If many uninformed music lovers like me developed a liking for the elevated genre like ghazal, it was definitely due to this one man and the history will stand testimony to that.
Feeling bad that I could give only five stars to this book. A classic that any Jagjit fan worth his salt should read and own! ❤️
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