RIP Asha Tai

The younger sister to the better known and more famous Lata Mangeskar, she outlived her and many prominent male singers of her time, especially the poular trio of Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and the fanous music director R.D. Burman whom she married, all who died in their 50s. She was Asha Bhosle, arguably the last singer from the golden era of Bollywood music who passed away today.

Like her elder sister Lata, Asha had longevity in her genes (the other sister was Usha who didn't rise to the same heights as her sisters duo of Lata and Asha). She was destined to live long as predicted by Satya Sai Baba, a famous Godman based in South India. She mentioned this episode in one of her interviews. Once she visited the famous Godman in latter's Puttaparthy Ashram sometime in the 1970s along with her close female friend. The saffron clad Godman smiled at them and told Asha "you will live a long life", while he told her friend - "Take care of your stomach". Very soon her friend died of stomach cancer. Asha lived much longer, passed away today after almost 50 years from this incident at the ripe age of 92.

Initially carrying the tag of Lata's younger sister, Asha carved a niche for herself in the Bollywood industry by rendering her voice to many hit songs, winning multiple awards spanning decades. It is alleged that Lata Mangeshkar, her elder sister used her influence in Bollywood music industry to promote her ahead of other talented female singers of the time, like Hemlata, Sushma Shreshta and Indrani Mukherjee. Those allegations were never proven. Nevertheless she sang many popular and famous songs, especially duets with Kishore Kumar who was at his peak in the 1970s and 80s.

Asha used to praise the versatility of his duet partner Kishore Kumar who would make her laugh to his crazy jokes, often at his expense. Once he made her laugh so much during the recording of a song that she told him - "Dada, please stop cracking jokes. I cannot concentrate on recording". The Mangeskar sisters had a love -hate relationship with the legendary male playback singer. 

His son Amit Kumar mentioned this in an interview - "Baba (Dad) will ask the producer how much money the Mangeskar sisters are charging ? Once the producer replied that Lata Mangeshkar was charging Rs.90,000 per song. A competitive Kishore would demand Rs.100,000 (one lakh), a gargantuan amount those days which the proucer obliged. Bollywood is known to be misogynistic with staggering gender remuneration gap. It is said that Kishore and the Mangeskar sisters later fell apart. Months before he passed away, Kishore Kumar refused to share the same podium with the Mangeskar sisters in a concert held in Bombay (now Mumbai). The eccentric genuius, was also known to be idiosyncratic and occasionally silly. 

Having a long, eventful life with multiple marriages incidentally with her better known elder sister who never married, in passing away Asha marks the end of an era of music industry. RIP Asha Tai. Om 🕉 Shanti.