All the things that I am destined to love immensely arrive in my life with a feeling of hatred at start. Same way it began, my love for Ghazals of JagJit Singh, or Ghazals on the whole.
In 1995, I was just a boy of 15 years then, when I first came across the singing of JagJit Singh. My elder brother brought JagJit Singh's 'Face To Face' from one of his friend. Looking at the album's name and songs in it, first thing I asked him was “Ek baat mujhe samaj nahi aati, iski har album ka naam english hota hai par, iski kisi bhi ghazal mein english ka ek alfaz tak nahi dikhta.”
'Tum humesha aise hi karte ho, meri laayi hui har cassette to bhura bhala kehte ho, aur phir kuch hi dino mein itna pasand karte ho ki mujhe waapis hi nahi karne dete.', he said.
In another 10-15 days, I was already head over heels in love with the Ghazals from the album, be it 'Zindagi tune lahun leke diya' or 'Besabab baat bhadane ki zarurat kya hai' I already knew each and every word of those ghazals.
I asked my brother, "Tumare dost ke paas, Jagjit Singh ki aur bhi albums hai kya?"
"Dekha, maine kaha tha na, tum jarur pasand karoge. Arre, Woh to fan hai JagJit ka, uske pass JagJit ki har album hai" he replied. And soon my brother's friend was my friend too. Infact in days to come, at times my brother wondered whose friend he was!
So, that's how this affair started, between me and JagJit Ghazals. For the next 12 years, he ruled my world. I bought all his albums, old and new, and with coming of CD's and internet, those cassettes were replaced with a huge section, completely devoted to JagJit Singh’s Ghazals, in my computer (more than 2 GB of files).
In 2004, I attend a concert of JagJit Singh in Allahabad, during my Masters Degree course. It was a dramatic situation, I had an exam on the very next day, it was a December's cold nights and the location of concert was very far off from my hostel. No one agreed to accompany me saying, “Are you mad! We have an exam tomorrow. We’ll get another chance, in days to come.” Well, I had to go, so I went alone. Bus - rickshaw – walking – 2 hours of effort and here I was in a big open space filled with hundreds of chairs, but at the very last lane in it. It was a big open garden, but yet it wasn't sufficient to hold us all. After a wait of close to 1 hour - during which someone irritated us with his jokes - JagJit arrived on stage, it was close to 10:30 by then, and very cold. But once he started singing, I forgot the cold weather; I forget that its getting late and I won’t be able to have any means to go back and most of all I forget that I have an exam to write on the very next day. Those 3 hours were the moments of my life, listening to the voice I so cherished and loved. Later, when I moved to Pune, I had many chances to attend his concert again, but due to this and that, somehow I always missed them saying 'next time'. But that next chance will never come again. JagJit Singh is no more in this physical world and there won't be anymore Live concerts of his. Now I thank God, and my heart, for persuading me enough on that day to attend that concert. Those 3 hours will be a memory now, there won’t be another one like that, and I am going to cherish it forever.
JagJit Singh is to me, he still is, more than a singer of Ghazals that I loved. He infact made me a poet, a shayar. It was only after listening to his Ghazals that I started writing songs of my own. I remember how- while writing and composing those Ghazals -I used to wish, "If only JagJit Singh could sing these Ghazals of mine!” Many a time I dreamt on how to make JagJit Singh sing those Ghazals of mine; I thought a lot, but made no efforts, it might have turned out to be futile effort, but now I regret not making one. Now JagJit Singh is no more in this world and those Ghazals are going to remain unsung and unheard off... Forever.
Continued in Comment's Section .......
