What possibly can we write about Lata Mangeshkar? Clichés do not do justice to what she meant for generations after generations of South Asians and Hindi/Urdu speaking diasporas across the globe. That she was a legend, she was an icon, she was larger than life, she was an institution, she was a trendsetter won't really express what Lata meant to us. She was beyond all of the rhetoric.
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Lata Mangeshkar was part of our lives and our stories just like she was a part of our parents and their parents lives. She was an integral part of our romance, our happiness, our anger, our frustrations, our grief, our travels, our fun, our journeys, our dreams and our passions. She helped lovers express their emotions and intensity of their love. She helped people express their little joys. She helped people cope with grief. She elevated our mood. She let us forget our pain. Lata ji was an essential part of our weddings. People danced to her songs. They sang her songs. They played her songs. She made people laugh and she made them cry when they needed to. How can we possibly confine her to clichés?
Lata Mangeshkar left many masterpieces for us to live by. Its impossible to write about her music in one post. But just to give an example, take her epic aayega aanewala that she sang for Madhubala for the film Mahal. 73 years after its release, the song fills up the hearts in the same way as it did of generations before us. Its prelude gives us goosebumps even when we've heard the song countless times in all these years.
Lata Mangeshkar deserves to be celebrated. The impact she left would keep her legacy alive for generations to come. Would there ever be another Lata? This is not a pertinent question. Of course there won't be as she was one of a kind, unique, irreplaceable and unmatched. There would however be many aspiring to be like her and this urge would take them to heights.
Goodbye Lata ji. May the world always be filled with your music and your voice. Thank you for enriching our lives. We owe so much to you