Jagjit Singh sang on stage hours after performing his mother’s last rites, recalls composer Sandesh Shandilya: ‘Definition of an artiste’

He added, “When the performance was over, the organiser came crying to him and he stopped him. He told the organiser not to say a word. The call that he had received at the airport was to inform him of his mother’s demise. He went to Delhi from Mumbai, performed her last rites and flew to Calcutta to do the show the same evening. He is the definition of an artiste.”

Jagjit Singh’s life was indeed marked by tragedy. In 1990, he lost his only son, Vivek Singh, in a road accident at the age of 20. Jagjit had also embraced his wife Chitra Singh’s daughter from her first marriage, Monica. Tragically, their world was shattered again in 2009 when Monica died by suicide. While Jagjit’s music changed deeply after the loss of their son, Chitra withdrew from music altogether.

Jagjit Singh was one of the few artistes who made the ghazal genre popular in mainstream Hindi music. ‘Jhuki Jhuki Si Nazar’, ‘Hoshwalon Ko Khabar Kya’, ‘Chithi Na Koi Sandesh’, ‘Tumko Dekha To Yeh Khayal Aaya’ are some of his most popular film songs. He passed away in October 2011.