Lata Mangeshkar, who ruled the music industry of India, attended school only for a day. On her first day of school, Lata took her younger sister Asha Bhosle, then aged about 10 months, with her and when her teacher objected to it, she angrily went back home never to return again.
She learnt the Marathi alphabet from her house help who taught the singer to read and write the basics. “I must have been about three or four when I asked our servant, Vitthal, who was a teenager at the time, to teach me the Marathi alphabet and how to read and write the basics. I studied Marathi at home,” she told filmmaker-author Nasreen Munni Kabir, who later adapted these conversations as a book titled Lata Mangeshkar…in her own voice.
Lata, however, had attended some nursery classes before. “The teacher used to write ‘Shri Ganeshji’ on the blackboard, and I used to copy it perfectly. I got 10 out of 10.”
At that time, her cousin Vasanti was studying in the third standard at Murlidhar School, a Marathi-medium school just opposite their house in Sangli, Maharashtra. Sometimes she would tag along with her cousin and whenever Vasanti had a music lesson, Lata used to attentively listen to the teacher singing.
“One day, the teacher, pointing at me, asked my cousin: ‘Who is she?’ I jumped up saying: ‘I am Master Deenanath’s daughter!’ She said: ‘He is such a great singer. Can you sing?’ I told her I could sing many raags, and rattled off their names: Malkauns, Hindol, etc. She led me straight off to the staff room where all the teachers were sitting and asked me to sing. So, I sang a classical song based on Hindol. I was four or five,” the book, published by Niyogi, mentioned.
So on the same day, Lata was to join the same school, Asha was around 10 months old at that time. “I took her in my arms and off I went. When I entered the class, I sat down with Asha in my lap. The teacher said firmly: ‘Babies aren’t allowed here.’ I was very angry and got up. I took Asha home and never went back,” Lata recalled.
She learnt Hindi from her cousin Indira and later from a person in Bombay named Lekhraj Sharma. She then went on to learn Urdu, Bengali and a little bit of Punjabi. She tried learning Tamil too and could also understand Sanskrit.
On how she would learn a song, Lata told Kabir: “I first write the lyrics in Hindi, in Devnagari – even if the words are in Urdu or any other language. The music director sings the song to me so I hear the tune as I read the words. I make notes on my page of lyrics, indicating at what point I might stress a particular word. Then I memorise the tune and sing it.”
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Lata died of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai on Sunday. She was hospitalised on January 11 after contracting Covid-19. Her last rites with full state honours will be performed on Sunday at 6.30 pm at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. The central government has also announced that two-day national mourning to be observed in memory of Lata.
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