zaraa aankh mein bhar lo paani...

Mumbai: Bharat’s ‘ratna’ Lata Mangeshkar was cremated with full state honours here on Sunday, her life and death testimony that the end of an era is not always a cliché and sometimes carries a ring of truth that imprints itself into lasting memory. She was 92.

Mangeshkar, whose voice stirred millions of hearts everyday and who will forever be counted as one of India’s greats with an estimated 25,000 songs in an almost eight-decade career, died in Mumbai’s Breach Candy hospital on Sunday morning due to multiple organ failure.

Flames licked the rapidly darkening sky as her brother Hridyanath Mangeshkar lit the funeral pyre at Shivaji Park and a nation held its collective breath as it were, many searching through their mental -- and digital -- songbooks to identify their favourite Mangeshkar number. The haunting strains of Rahein na rahein hum, mehka karenge, Ae mere watan ke logon and Nam gum jaayega played in the backdrop as politicians, film stars and the many thousands whose lives she had touched with her music paid their last respects to her. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also in Shivaji Park to pay tribute to the singer whose name was written into legend long before she took her last breath.

Also there were Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, MNS supremo Raj Thackeray and actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Earlier in the afternoon, as a flowerbedecked cortege went from her Peddar Road home to Shivaji Park, surging crowds of mourners walked along, many thousands lined the 10-kilometre route and millions tuned into their screens -- to say goodbye to the woman who had been an integral part of their lives.

Mangeshkar, one of India’s most well known and well loved personalities who voiced songs for actors down generations, died at 8.12 am, almost a month after she admitted to hospital with mild Covid symptoms, her doctor said.

She was also diagnosed with pneumonia. The government announced a two-day “state mourning” for the singer, who had a prodigious career in not just Hindi and Marathi but in more than 30 other Indian languages, and across classical and other genres. The national flag will fly at half mast from February 6 to February 7 throughout India. There will also be no official entertainment in this period.

The Indore-born Mangeshkar is survived by her siblings Meena, Asha, Usha and Hridaynath. Her coffin was draped in the Tricolour and placed on the hearse draped in white flowers with a giant photograph of the singer known as “Nightingale of India”, “melody queen” or simply “Lata didi”.

As millions mourned her and said thank you for your music, the tributes came pouring in with President Ram Nath Kovind and Modi leading a heartbroken nation in remembering her. But hers was an appeal that transcended boundaries.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Sri Lanka’s Mahinda Rajapakse and Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari were among those who condoled the death of the singing maestro. “Lata-ji’s demise is heart-breaking for me, as it is for millions the world over. In her vast range of songs, rendering the essence and beauty of India, generations found expression of their inner-most emotions. A Bharat Ratna, Lata-ji’s accomplishments will remain incomparable,” Kovind said.  (PTI)