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LATA MANGESHKAR
India's nightingale has died at 92 in India.

The best compliment on her I heard was from a music director.... "We only gave her a quarter (tune, lyrics, orchestra) but she delivered us a Dollar on every song."

The following video summarizes her career but here is what I think was very unique about her:

~ There has been no person in India's last 100 years who has been as loved and respected than she was.
~ She was free from controversies, affairs, legal troubles
~ She started singing at the age of 5
~ Her father was an opera singer who died when she was 13
~. She walked from a studio to studio and was rejected the first 2 to 3 times. The first song she said took the country by storm and she never looked back

~ She was the eldest of children with a 4 siblings and the widow homemaker mother
~ There has not been a single person in the country of 1.4 billion people over 4 generations and her 75 years of active singing who did not or does not know her name and not loved her songs. She was very popular in my grandparents time, my parents' times, my generation and my next generation in their 30s and 40s today.

~ She remained unmarried to take care of her siblings. All lived together all their lives in an apartment for the last 50 years
~ She stopped receiving awards in 1980s. There were no awards in the nation left to give.
~ She sang over 35,000 songs in 40 different Indian languages.
~ She is listed in Guiness Book of World Records of most songs in most languages
~ Every language in she sang in proved to be popular songs in that language
~ TV, radio, newspapers, YouTube, the internet and every media are full of her remembrances today and I am sure it will continue for days and weeks.

~ This is my guess of what will happen now after growing up and living in that land
........
~ There will be a national monument
~ There will be state, national and private awards, roads, buildings, libraries, schools, colleges, hospitals named after her
~ Her birthplace, her first recording studio, her first home will be national treasures
~ There will be a flurry of music schools, foundations, scholarships in her name

~ All 4 siblings became successful singers in their own right. They together dominated Indian and Bollywood music for over 50 years, Nobody else could succeed.

Since her very young age, she loved her camera and was taking pictures of everything and everybody she saw, met and worked with. This includes many renowned personalities, celebrities, moments over at least the last 60 years. She never released those photos. If released, the country and her fans world over will discuss them for decades to come.

There will not be anyone like her.

My most favorite song among her 35,000 is this one. The song is about blooming of the Arabian Jasmine, the beautiful fragrant flower. Mogara = Arabian Jasmine, Phulala = (has) Bloomed.

St-Sinner 9 Feb 6
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An incredible achievement.

Thanks for sharing.

Did her wealth reflect her achievements?

@FrayedBear
Not really. She was known as a very modest person. Most of her charity was to hospitals in the name of her father who died early.

@St-Sinner In other words in an Indian male chauvinist world she was used & abused.

@FrayedBear

No doubt it is male dominated conservative society where women have a distant secondary role in all fields. She was treated badly initially but once she established herself in her early 20s, she began to gain more respect with her singing, character, non-controversy in the next 70 years. People almost worshiped her and from politicians to actors to small potatoes desperately sought her endorsement.

The entire country was closed today and in my memory there has not been any man who came even close to her in being loved and respected across the large land of 1.4 billion people with so much linguistic, cultural diversity. She was a self made success in every sense of the term.

@St-Sinner I would have thought that given all her record sales, tv & film appearances to say nothing of the views on Google's YouTube she should be a multibillionnaire.
You make paltry excuses.

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