My love affair with ghazals began when I first heard the album “The Unforgettables” by Jagjit and Chitra Singh played on our HMV record player in late 1970s. I was mesmerised by the haunting lyrics and Urdu seemed to be the sweetest language I had ever heard on earth. I immediately resolved to learn Urdu at some point of time in my life. The learning took place much later in the 80s which helped me to read bits of Ghalib and the novel UmraoJan in the original . My knowledge of Urdu is pretty rusty now due to lack of practice. But Jagjit’s death has set the urge within me to brush up my learning once again. Talking about the 70s many like me for the first time recognised ghazal as a genre of music which could be appreciated and loved as a distinct form of art quite different from the popular filmi ghazals which we were used to listening till then. I became a ghazal addict .Thereafter I started buying albums by various singers including some which I did not feel like listening to twice. Jagjit Singh had introduced many new singers at that time . It was because of Jagjit Singh I discovered great singers like Mehdi Hassan and Ghulam Ali. Both Jagjit and Ghulam Ali have been popular performers in Kolkata and I did not miss the opportunity of attending their live programmes several times. Every time it was a wonderful experience. Jagjit is no more .We will not hear his voice anymore .The day after he died I took out all his albums bought over the years and thought of the old times . While I listened to some numbers I smiled at the memories of my ghazal crazy days. Though time has stolen so many things that were once dear to me it has not been able to take away the love for the beautiful poetry which the ghazal composers had written in the shers.Thankyou Jagjit
Acknowledgement : Above picture from
lyricstranslate.com/
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagjit_Singh
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