{"id":2055,"date":"2016-07-19T21:28:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T15:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/jagjit-singh-our-saint-of-endless-sorrows\/"},"modified":"2016-07-19T21:28:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T15:58:25","slug":"jagjit-singh-our-saint-of-endless-sorrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2055","title":{"rendered":"Jagjit Singh, Our Saint of Endless Sorrows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>spent three years of my life watching the sun set on not just the day, but also my life, as I sat by the seaside, sipping on Jim Beam mixed with water, from a plastic bottle. My lone companion on these evenings would be a coconut tree at the promenade, that stood testimony to the cacophony of my heart, <\/p>crashing into<\/span><\/a> a million pieces as the waves met the rocks every evening. <\/span>\n\nThe only thing that made it all bearable \u2013 and impossibly cinematic \u2013 was listening to Jagjit Singh ghazals. <\/span>\n\nYes, I dealt with <\/span>heartbreak<\/span><\/a> in the most Bollywood way possible. If it weren\u2019t for the discovery of the warmth that his music brought to my heart, I sincerely believe I would have offed myself by now. Every time, I missed the home that wasn\u2019t, I would find myself at my favourite spot on Carter Road, drowning my sorrows in the ghazal maestro\u2019s voice. Often, I\u2019d drink a quarter of whisky neat from the bottle, and call it a night only after I\u2019d cried myself to sleep with my headphones still on, wallowing in the fresh pain of my very first <\/span>real break-up<\/span><\/a>, my marriage. <\/span>\n\n\u201cBaat niklegi toh bahut door talak jaayegi,\u201d would play on loop like a lullaby and give me hope in those trying times, Jagjit\u2019s voice fleshing out the visual details of my sorrow. It was a strange feeling \u2013 his voice pacifying my anger, slowly casting its spell on me through the evening, and then eventually <\/span>calming the storm<\/span><\/a> within me. <\/span>\n\nI\u2019d discovered Jagjit Singh rather late in life, when I was about 19, thanks to my then boyfriend, now separated husband, who had gifted me his album <\/span>Life Story CD 1<\/span><\/i> when we\u2019d just started dating. A small note inside it read, \u201c\u2018Yeh daulat bhi le lo\u2019 se shuru karna, dheere dheere puri album sunne ka mann karega (Start with \u2018Yeh daulat bhi le lo\u2019; you\u2019ll want to listen to the whole album with time.)\u201d At first, I listened to the song only in the hope of impressing my boyfriend, but only ended up being enchanted by his voice. <\/span>\n\nBy the time I was married, I knew almost every anecdote Ghazaljeet Singh (as Gulzar once referred to him) shared about his life while singing in live concerts. Watching the concerts over a quarter of Old Monk had become the only saving grace of my <\/span>already doomed marriage<\/span><\/a>. Among other things, I gleaned from Jagjit\u2019s own battles, his struggle, and how broken his own life was after the death of his son. <\/span>\n

He rewrote the way traditional ghazals were written, composed, and sung, even in his movie ventures, not once compromising on the nuances of the poetry<\/blockquote>\nAll of this context completely changed the way I listened to his tunes. I made mental notes of the lovely stories he told; of his first big break with the bhajan \u201cLaagi Ram bhajan ni lagni\u201d in a Gujarati movie called <\/span>Bahurupi<\/span><\/i>; how it took him almost a decade to record \u201cBaat niklegi\u201d when HMV gave him his first LP deal. I learnt that even in the deep throes of sadness and in the most serious situation, Jagjit retained his sense of humour. <\/span>\n\nI didn\u2019t know it then, but I would draw on this quiet strength later in life. <\/span>\n\nAs someone who had grown up on a staple diet of boy bands (not very proud of this) \u2013 white folks who spoke the same language as we aspired to \u2013 Jagjit Singh offered an insight into a familiar, yet remote world. He made ghazals and Urdu poetry accessible to those of us who had never entered a mushaira, in the form of live concerts. He rewrote the way traditional ghazals were written, composed, and sung, even in his movie ventures, not once compromising on the nuances of the poetry. Even now I wonder if there is a love song greater than \u201cTumko dekha toh yeh khayal aaya,\u201d which seeks solace even in the presence of the beloved? <\/span>\n\nBut the greatest beauty of listening to Jagjit Singh, as with any great artist, is that it was easy to believe that he spoke to you, and only you. You could find a song that fit only <\/span>your<\/span><\/i> situation. \u00a0<\/span>\n\n\u201cMain kaise kahoon jaaneman,\u201d a not-so-popular movie song even now reminds me of the good times, the ones that were few and far between, that <\/span>my husband and I<\/span><\/a> shared. I still remember the day I walked out of my marital home. Headphones plugged in, I listened to, \u201cUnko dekhe se jo aa jaati hai munh par raunak\u201d on my way from Worli to Colaba on loop. I dropped my bags home and rushed to the seaside because only the waves and Jagjit Singh understood me. After my first evening of crying inconsolably, with a quarter of liquid courage, I went back home with renewed energy. On days when I felt like I had reached the point of no return, I listened to Jagjit give soul to Ghalib\u2019s words in \u201c<\/span>Dil hi toh hai na sang-o-khisht\u201d.<\/span>\n\nMy heartache found new meaning and I reached out to myself in ways I never knew I could. <\/span>If I were to compartmentalise my heart into different rooms, all the vacuum left behind by my last heartbreak would probably be filled by Jagjit Singh\u2019s haunting voice. The voice that assured you, even when it broke your heart, that everything would be alright. <\/span>\n\nI moved on. I lit the pyre of my relationship. But Jagjit Singh still stays with me. <\/span>\n\nBreak your heart once and let Jagjit Singh\u2019s voice take over \u2013 it\u2019s worth it. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I were to compartmentalise my heart into different rooms, all the vacuum left behind by my last heartbreak would be filled by Jagjit Singh\u2019s haunting voice. The voice that assured you, even when it broke your heart, that everything would be alright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":2056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[4140,4141,4142,4021],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-endless-sorrows","tag-jagjit","tag-saint","tag-singh"],"yoast_head":"\nJagjit Singh, Our Saint of Endless Sorrows<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If I were to compartmentalise my heart into different rooms, all the vacuum left behind by my last heartbreak would be filled by Jagjit Singh\u2019s haunting voice. 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