Jagjit Singh: An Admirer

Uth ke mehfil se mat chale jaana;

Tum se roshan ye kona-kona hai…

…He has gotten up and exited from the gathering, and it’s as though one of the lights in our family room has been snuffed out …

When news of Jagjit Singh’s brain hemorrhage surfaced a couple of weeks back, my first concern was that he should not suffer much – I wanted him to have a peaceful death instead of a hellish life, suffering the worst…Yet, when news broke this morning that he was no more, it still was devastating…

Jaate huye kahte ho, qayaamat ko milenge

Kya khoob qayaamat ka hai goya koi din aur…

(You leave, and promise to meet on Doomsday

How nice! Doomsday, as though, is another day…)

For someone who lived most of his life in India, I had to come to the US to discover the breadth and depth of Jagjit Singh’s genius…While in India, I was never acquainted with his more serious and awesome work, other than his foray into films as a music director. About twelve years back, when we were in California, one day my wife came back from the Cupertino City Library and tossed me a CD of “Echoes”, one of the earlier private music albums of Jagjit-Chitra…I became an instant admirer – in the next three months I had built up my complete collection of his compositions…And since that day, his work has been echoing in our family room and in our cars…And thanks to his music, I was introduced to the world of sher-o-shaayri and have managed to teach myself, to an extent, the silken language of Urdu…

Jagjit Singh was a composer of composers – he will always be my favorite music composer of all-time. It’s always difficult to compose music for poetry that is already written and done, because you know that no adjustments can be made to the words to fit the tune. Unlike a lyricist who writes from the perspective of music since he knows it is meant for a tune, a poet writes from the perspective of consigning his thoughts to paper. That’s where Jagjit’s compositions hit the right chord, time after time, respectfully and beautifully enveloping the words, feel, and mood of the poetry while enhancing them with melody and musical flourishes. Not only that, Jagjit was at the forefront of adopting modern technology in music: he was the first Indian music director to use the digital, multi-track recording system for his albums.

He was an entertainer, a celebrity, a musician-composer par excellence, but the greatest thing about Jagjit Singh is that his compositions, his style of singing, and his voice have this unique quality to find the shortest and quickest way to your heart…To paraphrase Gulzar, Jagjit’s singing style had this ability to reach into your heart, touch it, caress it, rock it gently, and slip it into a state of rest…Because of this unique quality, I never ever felt that his work was mere entertainment or that he was this larger-than-life celebrity about whom you think of only in distant, unrealistic terms…I guess we all can console ourselves saying that thanks to the excellent state of technology, Jagjit Singh’s music and voice are well preserved and will forever resound in our homes. But it is, at best, an inadequate consolation and will never be able to switch that light in the family-room back on…

Kabhi kabhi yoon hi humne, apne jee ko bahlaaye hai;

Jin baaton ko khud nahin samjhe, auron ko samjhaaaya hai…

There is no way I could have known the great man at a personal level, but if the warmth, the gentleness, the subtlety, the diligence, and the dignity that he brought to his work are any indication then I am sure he was a wonderful human being. Though, I have read that he used to do a lot of philanthropy and charity work on the quiet, insisting that it be kept completely discreet. I have heard him live only a couple of times, and even though I have never met him, he was always Jaggu-bhai for me, and will remain that way…

Shaam se aankh mein nami si hai;

Aaj phir aap ki kami si hai…

…A desire that I have always nurtured is that if I do get a chance, I would like to shake hands with just three Indian celebrities – the other two are Gulzar and Rahul Dravid. Alas, the chance to do that with the third one has slipped from my hands…But as that wonderful sher from one of Ghalib’s most famous ghazals (which Jaggu-bhai memorably composed) goes:

Hazaaron khwaahishen aisi, ke har khwaahish pe dam nikle;

Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin, phir bhi kam nikle…

(For such are my desires in multitude, that each would be the death of me;

And for each of the many fulfilled, a multitude yet remain quenched to be…)