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Maharashtra Day celebration. When she
found out that the organisers in Amritsar
were holding her money and were breaking
the contract, she decided to leave without
getting paid at all. She had given her word
to Maharashtra Day and that was more
important to her than to get paid by people
who had broken her trust.
Keeping her calm and providing moral
support to her was often my job. She was
often very anxious and superstitious about
her performance. She would pray backstage
before each concert, and once she got on
stage and surrendered herself to well-tuned
Tanpura notes, the storm in her mind would
calm down. Even if she looked in control and
detached from the outside, many a time she
was like a scared puppy inside her heart. Very
few people got to see that. These few incidents
as she went through school and college years show her strong principles and her softer and
in Mumbai. A loving, caring heart like Taai’s sensitive side.
is a rarity. She was proud of, and devoted to, I am not a writer. I am an engineer by early
Maai. She cared for her two sons, Nihar and training, now Chairman Emeritus of Jacobs
Bibhas, with intense love. She had exceptional Engineering India, and also a devotee and
devotion to God and never missed her daily student of the Jaipur Gharana. I have penned
pooja. She was always modestly and simply down my sincere, heartfelt thoughts written
dressed with minimum accessories. She was after a careful study of Kishoritai’s music
quite superstitious. (She wore the same red and personality during my 45 years of a
Sari for at all her concert till it was worn out). close association with her as a disciple and
She felt a little diffident about her darker a confidant. Many have written about her
complexion and her prominent nose but had music, her personality and her good and bad
a sense of humour to laugh about it. Krishna’s traits. I have tried to shed light on some of
Radha too was dark, she used to say. And she the lesser known aspects of her music and
called herself a descendent of Shivaji because personality.
of her nose. It seems her famous Bandish “Sahela re”
Taai was always true to commitments is still calling. I am still in shock after she
she made. She had a special loyalty to entered her heavenly abode, and it is difficult
Maharashtra. To give an anecdote, at one to accept that our beloved Kishoritai has left
time we went to Amritsar for a concert. us. Ganasaraswati, who endlessly offered
The organisers refused to pay her the her worship to Goddess Saraswati through
pre-determined remuneration unless she her music, has now merged into the Goddess
performed one more concert. We had to herself! The flame has vanished, but the light
return to Mumbai for another concert for will shine forever!
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #38 | AUGUST 2022 27
