Man with the Golden Voice- Jagjit Singh A Tribute

The man bestowed with the golden Voice –Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh passed away in serene calm on 10 Oct 2011. His age and his voice blossomed and radiated with every passing year akin to the Preserved Vintage Wine which gets matured in barrels.
In the 1970’s when Kishore Kumar/Mohd. Rafi reduced all competition to dust with their melodies Jagjit made his presence felt by belting out his first composition – Unforgettables in 1976.
Though the album made waves it did not translate into work for which he had to sing jingles in scores of advertisements to sustain his livelihood.
Singing in tandem with his wife Chitra he created his own select band of fans by composing songs which could be easily deciphered even by a layman with limited knowledge of Urdu and poetry.
Perhaps the greatest drawback was he could not raise his voice to a high pitch which incidentally worked in his favour in creating that soft and silky voice custom made for his trade mark Ghazals.
A car accident in 1990 killed his teen aged son Vivek which destroyed the singing career of his wife who seemingly lost her voice trying to cope up with the irrepairable loss. Jagjit went solo after a brief lull of around a year.
Any avid fan of his would vouch for the sudden change in the depth of jagjit’s Voice post 1990,which inculcated all the grief, gloom and the melancholy notes so effectively that it was relatively easy to identify the soul of a father who silently mourned for his dead son through the rendition of his songs.
One has to hear his ‘’Na chhiti na koi sandesh ‘’ and ‘’Kagaz ki kashti’’ and I bet it would be difficult to hold back the excess moisture breaking the contours of the eye lashes and cascading down the cheeks, as one could sense the overpowering grief let out in these classics.
It was always seen that he never showed any emotions and was a man of few words and was instrumental in organising concerts for charity as and when requested by scores of NGO’s.
While it would be difficult for his wife who has to continue the journey of Life without him his ardent fans hope that Jagjit Singh would have found solace after REUNITING with his beloved son.
The best compliment perhaps bestowed on him in 1989 was by the renowned Writer Khushwant Singh who said’’ He is a better singer than Mehdi Hassan and a better looker than Dilip Kumar.
As someone rightly said’’ God called Steve Jobs as he wanted an I- Pod and then had to call Jagjit Sngh to fill it up with his melodies.