Chandigarh, 25 March 2024 (UTN). There can hardly be any doubt ever that the inimitable duo of Jagjit Singh & Chitra Singh till date remains the best-heard Ghazal Duo in India’s rather the entire world’s music industry so far and there seems to be no one anywhere near their level of soothing renditions still nearly half a decade after 1977 when the duo first shook even the runaway success of the heavily supported and financed Bollywood music. Although the duo’s hard-core fans from all over the world have been regularly celebrating their birthdays in small groups in every nook and corner of the world this year encouraged by the increasing integration and adaptability of the AI-driven karaoke tracks, a large number of these global fans have escalated these tributes to a new level of solo, duet and group performances and lead by a spirited initiative of some of their life long fans, Tejinder Singh Bedi, Dr. Chandar Shekhar Pai, Shekhar Pathak, Ashish Vyas, Shilu Anand, Pardeep Gogna marked the celebrations kicked off on Feb 8 on Jagjit Singh’s birthday further for a month from March 18, the birth date of Chitra Singh.
While Jagjit Singh is fondly remembered by most lovers of music as the Ghazal King, it is only natural that his better half Chitra ji too qualifies to be addressed as the best Ghazal queen India has ever seen. 30 of these even flew to Noida at Tejinder Singh Bedi’s behest to host full-day ghazals meet of the duo and singing together on the very popular Smule singing app and YouTube have already sung nearly 500 solos and duets of the two legends. Chitra Singh has specially thanked all these participating singers through Tejinder Singh Bedi and encouraged them to keep up the good work done so far. Chira Singh recalls with pride that till date she remains the only true disciple of Jagjit Singh though there are many really devout followers and fans of her great husband, who she adds remains even a better composer than just a singer till date who could compose any ghazal, nazam, geet, bhajan in multiple formations and enthralled his audiences with this vast variety in each of his box office live shows anywhere in the world.
The meet in Noida saw the participation of Jagjit-Chitra’s fans from as far as Dallas, (Texas), Dhanbad, Bangalore, Indore, Dehradun, Parwanoo, Chandigarh, Ambala, Panipat besides those from the NCR’s satellite townsc. Life-long fan and disciple of the legend, Tejinder Singh Bedi, Dr.Chandar Shekhar Pai, a leading oncologist from the USA, and Sudhanshu Pathak a wonderful player of Melodica, and many other instruments shared the honors for presenting Trophies to all the participating singers in each category of Solo and duet performances of Jagjit Singh Chitra Singh numbers and Jagjit Singh’s duets with other legends like Lata ji and Asha ji. The full-day-long celebrations saw one solo performance from each of the 30 participating singers and two surprise duets with a surprise partner chosen from a draw of lots, making close to a hundred presentations of the most iconic and popular numbers from the matchless duo. The highlight of this meet was a live Group Singing of the iconic number, ..Zindagi Dhoop, Tum Ghana Saaya, Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho, Kya Gham Kya Chhupa Rahe Ho..by all the participants lead by Tejinder Singh Bedi and the great team of organizers.
Bedi had first met Jagjit Singh at the Kurukshetra hostel of the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh in 1972, after which their first choices for their respective careers being different, both drifted apart for long until Jagjit Singh took the world by storm by his first release – The Unforgettables in 1977 quickly followed by the other equally robust chartbusters, Come Alive and A Milestone, never to look back again where after Bedi met the duo regularly in almost each of their concerts in Delhi after 1978 and adds that their Chandigarh meet was always fondly remembered by the Super Star of Melodies to be later on. Bedi says he remains extremely grateful to Jagjit Singh for not only accepting him as one of his family members and introducing him to each of his siblings and relations too, whenever they could get together in various concerts, hotel rooms, and Jagjit Singh’s parental house in Sahibabad in Ghaziabad and allowing him the sole privilege of addressing him as Jeeti Bhai though in Bedi’s heart of hearts Jagjit continues to dwell as his best mentor, philosopher, guide and Sir always!
Concludes Bedi that such was his intimacy with the legend that no sooner Jagjit ji landed at the Indira Gandhi National Airport, he used to get an instant message about his arrival in the Capital, and even Jagjit’s younger brother, Kartar Singh used to jokingly state that his elder brother’s arrival schedules are always better known to Bedi Sahib only and not even his family as most of the times due to the extremely busy schedules and heavy bookings Jagjit mostly used to return to Mumbai and travel ahead to another city for his concerts just the next morning after the late night performances and found it very difficult to even reach his own nearest family members. And if in a particular concert, Bedi could not reach the venue, he would fondly ask his younger brother Kartar or his concert manager Kuldeep Desai, Aaj Bedi Saab nahin dikhai ditte!!(I could not see Bedi Saab in the audience today!!). What a blessed soul-to-soul, Ruhani relationship it indeed was and is.
Chandigarh, Administrative Correspondent – (Tejinder Singh Bedi).
