: You've tried very hard to keep your personal life private. May we know the reason? : Actually, there's no particular reason. Every person has their own private life. Another thing is, I stay away from appearing on TV repeatedly, from talking all the time. I don't attend the functions that usually happen in the film industry. Because of this, people think I'm arrogant, but that's not true. I actually get nervous, I get anxious—even for my own stage shows, I get nervous.
And my personal life is really nothing special. (She said this with a gentle smile.)
: You also have a strong connection with spirituality. : Yes. You could say my relationship with spirituality goes back to my childhood. And being connected to music has somehow helped me understand this aspect more deeply. I've practiced Sanskrit a little, tried to understand. And I believe deeply in God, I love to worship and pray.
: What do you want? How do you want people to remember you after death? : "Meri awaaz hai pehchan hai." (My voice is my identity.)
With a gentle smile, Lata Mangeshkar answered this question with her famous song lyric. She went on to say...
I never thought ill of anyone, never harmed anyone. And through music, I wanted to serve my country. I don't know how well I've succeeded, but the desire is immense.
: Do you have any regrets in your life? : No, life moves as it's meant to move. It was meant to move this way!
Lata Mangeshkar was influenced by the philosophy and spirituality of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. By family tradition, she was religious, with deep faith in God in the human heart. Throughout her life, she remained a genuine friend of Bangladesh. During the Liberation War, she immediately stood by us, writing a check for one lakh rupees to the visitors, and at the same time signing over the royalties of several songs to the cause of Bangladesh's independence struggle.
At an award ceremony, while presenting an award to Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan said, "When I go abroad, when people talk about my country, they say with conviction, 'Your country has two treasures—one is the Taj Mahal, and the other is Lata Mangeshkar.'"
Jaya Bachchan says, "No actress could consider herself a star until Lata Mangeshkar sang for her!"
Music director Salil Chowdhury once said after hearing Lata Mangeshkar sing, "If God were to sing, surely He would sing like this."
A. R. Rahman, another gifted artist from the subcontinent, was once invited on stage to present Lata Mangeshkar with a Lifetime Achievement Award. While presenting the award, A. R. Rahman said emotionally, "If my father were alive today, this would be a very significant day for him, because I heard from my mother that my father (who was also a music director) had hung a picture of Lata-ji wearing a white sari in his room. When he woke up in the morning, he would look at that picture and compose music."
Not everyone can pay respect to the great ones—it requires a great heart. Look around you. You'll find many whose hearts harbor only hatred and malice for the great ones. Those who walk carrying the dust from Lata Mangeshkar's feet on their heads—even the dust from their feet these wretched, ignorant, worthless, filthy people are unworthy of. If these fools had the capacity to understand that they could never, in their entire lives, have the fortune of becoming even a speck of dust on the path where Lata-ji has walked! When the shoe looks up at the head's cap, it sees only dust and mud there too.
Sandhya and Bappi followed Lata-ji's path... One by one, the guardians of our consciousness are taking leave. I truly feel a kind of emptiness. When their songs play in the car on the way somewhere, tears keep falling drop by drop. I wonder, why am I crying? Who are they to me? My heart bears witness—they are everything to me! The great teachers who shaped my feelings, may they be well on the other side.