145;Gentle and jovial, Naushad never spoke against anyone146;

Naushadsaab guided me as a singer right from my early days. I was a new singer when I met him in 1948 and he gave me a chance in Chaandni Raat. He was very patient with me. In fact, he was like that with every singer. He would teach us how to sing to the tunes he composed and take us ahead, step by step.

Polite, gentle and jovial, the best part about him was that he never spoke against anyone. He always gave me that special feeling that he could never say no to me for anything. And he proved this two years ago when I invited him to the wedding of my brother Hridaynath8217;s son in Mumbai and insisted on his presence. Even though he was on a wheelchair, he came to the ceremony, was there for quite sometime, talked to people, had some sweets and left. It was a very touching gesture.

I have lots and lots of memories of Naushadsaab and his music. There are so many songs8212;from Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Amar, Deewar, Mere Mehboob, Ganga Jamuna8212;how does one choose one8217;s favourites? But yes, the songs from Mughal-e-Azam have always been special to me, especially Bekas Pe Karam Keejiye and Mohe Panghat Pe. Also the Baiju Bawra songs are very dear to me along with the ones that Mohd Rafi sang for him.

8220;He loved classical music. One thing that did hurt him a lot was contemporary music. He just didn8217;t like today8217;s film music. He would say that people seem to have forgotten our rich culture and classical music tradition and that they need to go back to the roots and derive from the richness of the country8217;s music. He used a lot of folk music in his compositions.

It8217;s sad he is not there anymore to guide the generations ahead.

As told to Sunanda Mehta and Sulakshana Gupta