Remembering ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh on 75th birth anniversary

‘Hothon se choolo tum, mera geet amar kardo’- a famous ghazal sung by renowned ghazal maestro late Jagjit Singh is still ‘amar’ (alive) and so is the singer himself in million of hearts. The king of ghazals, who had the power of transforming his audience to a different world, was a star in his college as well due to his charismatic nature.

‘Hothon se choolo tum, mera geet amar kardo’- a famous ghazal sung by renowned ghazal maestro late Jagjit Singh is still ‘amar’ (alive) and so is the singer himself in million of hearts. The king of ghazals, who had the power of transforming his audience to a different world, was a star in his college as well due to his charismatic nature.

On Feb 8, 1941, nation got a virtuoso of music who gave number of popular ghazals which are still crooned by the music lovers.(HT File Photo)

As his close associate and famous writer Suresh Seth prepares to write a fictional biopic based on Jagjit Singh’s life, Seth reminiscences the good old college days.

Jagjit had a strong Jalandhar connect as he had attained his graduation degree in arts from DAV College in the city and after that he had started his career by singing for All India Radio Jalandhar station.

Seth said that his friendship with Jagjit was so strong that people would call them ‘famous jodi’ of the college.

“Jagjit had a dream of performing at world’s oldest music festival Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan. However, it never came out to be true,” said Seth.

Jagjit Singh left the music industry in void on October 10, 2011 when he died of brain hemorrhage. Before his death, he had visited Jalandhar and given his personal diaries to Seth, which have been kept with full respect and safety since then, all set to be transformed into the biopic.

Vinod Dheer, Drama teacher at All India Radio, who was a junior to him in DAV College, recalls him as a person having chucklesome nature. He had the ability to make the hostel environment light. Everyone would love to listen him. “He would often come to our room and his witty nature would leave everyone amazed,” said Dheer.

Jagjit Singh was popular even during his college days for his witty nature. (HT File Photo)

Reminiscing old days, Suresh Seth said Jagjit was the most pleasant ‘sardar’ who would love to dress up nicely.

“We used to sit together on the same bench, how I can forget him, I know everything about him. He would always say that the ‘saat sur’ of music shows him the way to ‘mukti’,” said Seth.

“‘Hothon se choolo tum, mera geet amar kr do’ was my friend’s favourite ghazal, and his geet will remain amar everywhere and now that I am working on the last biopic of my writing career on him, I will make sure that Jagjit’s every aspect of life comes in front of everyone,” said an emotional Seth.