From ‘On Stage with Lata’ by Mohan Deora and Rachana Shah

[interspersed with youtube videos]

My father, who was a very good astrologer, once read my horoscope. He told my mother, ‘Lata is a very good singer. You cannot imagine how famous she will become. She will sing but will not marry.’ His words did come true…..

I have sung at many concerts in India, especially in Kolkata…..the Bengali audience was fantastic. They listened so attentively.

There were some songs that people liked, and I didn’t, but I had to sing them, like ‘Bindiya chamkegi’. I never liked that song even when I had first recorded it. The songs the audience really loved were the haunting melodies like ‘Aayega aanewala’, ‘Kahin deep jale’, ‘Ajaa re pardesi’ and ‘Naina barse rhim jhim rhim jhim’. When it came to duets with Mukesh Bhaiya, people really enjoyed ‘Saawan ka mahina’. I think it amused them because in the song Mukesh Bhaiya has to teach me how to pronounce the word ‘sor’.

Kishore-da would talk a lot between songs. I remember during the Toronto show, he said, ‘Let us sing the duet that you don’t like, and I don’t like either. …..We’ll sing “Chai pe bulaaya hai”’….. I really did not like the song and had in fact told him that we should not sing it. But he often surprised me and did all sorts of crazy things.

…..1985 …..Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu had graciously agreed to come…..he appeared on stage and mesmerized the audience with his elegant way of speaking – he has such a gentle voice and such perfect Urdu.

People have asked me if I have ever suffered from stage fright. I do not believe I have, but I was fearful of making a mistake. So I would prepare myself mentally and give myself ample time……. I didn’t want to hear people say, “This went wrong, that went wrong”……It was not fear, rather the determination to get it right.

I was known for enunciating every word in a song. Everyone thought that the words I sang were always clear, and that I sang in tune. ….When singing on stage, what was essential for me was to be able to hear the harmonium clearly – because it gave me the right pitch. So the arranger / conductor Anil Mohile stood near me as he played the harmonium ……It was reassuring to me that Anil was close at hand.

The audiences at the concerts…..were made up of people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who had settled in the USA and Canada for decades, and they came in thousands to the shows…..I honestly did not expect the kind of reaction we got. Nor could I have ever imagined the tremendous love that I would receive in the Caribbean and in the Fiji islands. …..

-          Mumbai, 4 April 2016, Lata Mangeshkar

In Mumbai, nearly everyone knows that Prabhu Kunj is home to the Mangeshkars. Lataji has a four-bedroom apartment on the first floor and the other flat on the same landing belongs to Asha Bhosle. The Mangeshkars have lived at Prabhu Kunj since the 1960s ……

Another thing that concerned Lataji was the concert venues. She wanted a list of the top auditoriums and to know what kind of sound systems they had, plus details of the stage itself……she was introducing a new level of professionalism….they helped us to think of the Lata Mangeshkar tour as special – the first of its kind in the US and Canada. …. Lata Mangeshkar was the first singer of Indian film music to perform in these illustrious spaces. She would sing on a stage on which the most famous world musicians had appeared.

….7 May [1975], Lataji asked her musicians to assemble the next day in her suite for a rehearsal….Never before had any Indian artist suggested rehearsing before a show.

Anyone who had worked with Lataji in the Indian film industry knew that she was always on time.

….on Friday, 9 May 1975, the hour of the first Lata-Mukesh concert of the tour had arrived. It was a sellout show at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. …..the first musical note of ‘Allah tero naam, Ishwar tero naam’ was heard, a noisy round of applause followed. The orchestra conducted by Anil Mohile was made up of only five musicians but they were just brilliant. Arun Paudwal played the accordion; Ramakant Mhapsekar, the table; Ravi Kandivali, the mandolin; Rajendra Singh, the swarleen; and Suryanarayan Naidu, the table and dholak. …….the audience ….got completely carried away when Mukeshji sang ‘Mera joota hai Japani’, ‘Ansoo bhari hain ye jeevan ki raahen’, ‘Jaane kahaan gaye who din’ and the unforgettable ‘Dil jalta hai to jalne de.’ …….then came the Lata and Mukesh duets….. There was a hush when they sang ‘Aaja re ab mera dil pukara.’ ……The concert ended with two numbers: ‘Aaja re pardesi’ from Madhumati and Mahal’s immortal ‘Aayega aanewala.’ Lataji and Mukeshji had successfully kept the audience captive for three-and-a-half hours. What a way to start the tour!

The response to her shows was the same in every venue and in every city. At San Francisco’s Oakland Coliseum ‘Thandi hawaayen’, ‘Mohe bhool gaye sanwaria’, ‘Inhi logon ne’, ‘Barsaat mein’ and some new numbers received rapturous applause. In his unique style, Mukeshji brought the Raj Kapoor numbers alive, including ‘Awaara hoon’, ‘Mera joota hai Japani’ ‘Honton pe sachaaii rehti hai’

At the tour finale, there were other cinema personalities who attended …..including …….the famous Pakistani singer and actress, Musarrat Nazir.

…….a recording studio in downtown Detroit….the sound engineer was busy mixing the pre-recorded tracks to create a final mix. Through the monitor I could hear the last line of the song in which the singer held onto a very high-pitched note.

‘Suddenly, the sound engineer, Bob Morris…..asked… ‘Can you tell me the name of the instrument that is being played on this tape right now?’’…… “The sound Bob was hearing…..was the voice of Lata…… Bob was flabbergasted when I told him it was a human voice. The mesmerized Bob continued: “I have been a sound engineer for twenty-five years and have recorded the music of many famous performers. But I must honestly confess that I have never – I repeat never – heard this quality of a human voice….””

Mukeshji used to enjoy a glass of scotch before dinner ….However, he did not drink alcohol in front of Lataji. He once told me that even Raj Kapoor would hesitate to drink in front of her.

That was the kind of respect she commanded.

In 1977…three concerts….Felt Forum (MSG) in New York, the second at the Valley Forge in Philadelphia and the third at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles….. the Shrine event was in fact a charity concert for the Hare Krishna Society……during the intermission, Lataji and her co-singers mingled with the audience with collection baskets……the proceeds from the show helped towards the building of a large centre called ISKCON in Juhu in Mumbai, which opened a year later, in 1978…..

….Lataji said that she and her family would prefer to stay at my house ……A typical day for Lataji would start with her puja and lighting of agarbattis….She would come out of her room and the sound of her payal would resonate wherever she went. Lataji’s breakfast was hot coffee, English muffins, orange marmalade and honey. Sometimes she had some cornflakes or muesli with cold milk. Lunch was simple: a bowl of broccoli, or chicken noodle soup and toast. Dinner was an Indian meal with daal, rice, roti, chicken curry and vegetables. To my surprise she loved papad and mangodi (mung dal pakoda). She has a sweet tooth and her list of likes were many – gaajar ka halwa, baadaam halwa, ras malai, gulaab jaamun, motichoor ka laddu, etc.

The show at the Ford Auditorium in Detroit …..She was in a quiet and solemn mood….. “….I do not usually sing the songs of other singers, but today, in memory of Mukesh Bhaiya, I shall sing a very moving song of his, ‘Jaane kahaan gaye wo din.’” ……I could sense her pain and loss. The audience were moved beyond words. Many were crying…… A highlight for the audience was the semi-classical ‘Saawan ke jhoolen padhe’. Midway through the performance, Lataji addressed the audience again, ‘I am sure you know that Nargisji is critically ill ……I would like you all to pray that she gets better very soon.’ She then sang the beautiful ‘Rasik balma’, a song that Nargisji had lip-synched in Chori Chori.

……she continues to show a deep respect for people and treats everyone equally. She does not make anyone feel inferior.

At the last concert of the tour, on 21 September, there was not a single empty seat in sight at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, a 14,000-seater…..matinee idol Amitabh Bachchan made a special guest appearance …..When Amitabh …..returned to India he undoubtedly talked to his people about organizing stage shows in America….who would have expected that Lataji’s simple request would start an entirely new dimension to Bollywood show business? And Amitji’s shows would draw thousands …..The Amitabh Bachchan shows were followed by shows featuring other top Indian stars, including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan……

Lataji’s long-awaited concert…..at the Jean Pierre Complex, Port-of-Spain (the capital of Trinidad and Tobago), on Saturday, 27 September 1980….two back-to-back concerts…..sold out weeks in advance…..10,000 seater stadium…..people had come with their picnic baskets four hours ahead of time….. ‘For the people of Trinidad, Lataji is like a goddess. People literally worship her and arrived here hours ahead to make sure they don’t miss a single moment of her singing.’……people of Indian origin ………settled in the Caribbean for generations …..some no longer spoke Hindi, they nevertheless knew her songs…..When she sang ‘Main tulsi tere aangan ki’ and ‘Rahen naa rahen hum’, you could hardly hear her for the clapping……..next stop was Georgetown in Guyana…..day of her arrival, 1 October 1980 was declared a public holiday……Airport……thousands and thousands of people lined both sides of the road……people of all races…….mayor of Georgetown presented her with the key to the city. In the background, a band was playing the melody, ‘Gumnaam hai koi’…..Lataji turned to me and said, ‘Did you hear the band? It seems that I will have to sing that too.’

[other live performances of Lata Mangeshkar]

From ‘Lonely Planet's Best Ever Travel Tips’ by Lonely Planet

When do tickets go on sale for flights?

Usually, 11 months in advance. Reasons for this are arcane and historical – in the days of printed seat plans, airlines wanted to avoid booking people on to the right plane, on the right day, in the wrong year.

…..best time to book flights …..certain broad trends …..best time is five weeks before travel ….as a general rule carriers will have a January sale and a September sale…..Airlines are trying to fill seats for the next “shoulder season” ……seat sales target routes with sluggish sales……

Hotel rooms are released on to the market 18 months in advance. In general the earlier you book the better as this is when prices are lower. ……best deal on a hotel room …..the magic hour is 6pm, when many hotels will re-release rooms that haven’t been taken.

From ‘Emergency Sex (and other desperate measures). True Stories from a War Zone’ by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, Andrew Thomson

Rithy squats with the cheeks of his ass pressing the backs of his heels, his arms stretched out over his knees for balance. Cambodians can remain like that for hours, watching the world go by. It looked comfortable until I tried it and my legs went numb.

Israelis are a mix of North African, Levantine and Eastern European, which inflames the politics but does amazing things for the women.

If Pol Pot had been the prime minister of New Zealand for three years, nearly two out of three of us would have died.

…….West African dance includes a graphic representation of the sex act, focusing on the rotating rear end of the lady. But its done with dignity and joy. Exciting, not profane. The women are beautiful and have bright eyes and smiles that light up the night. …

Everyone hates the Bulgarians. The UN pays countries cash to send soldiers on peacekeeping missions. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Bulgaria lost its subsidies and was broke. The Bulgarian government wanted money but didn’t want to send their best-trained troops. So, the story goes, they offered inmates in the prisons and psychiatric wards a deal: put on a uniform and go to Cambodia for six months, you’re free on return ……A battalion of criminal lunatics arrives in a lawless land. They get drunk….rape vulnerable Cambodian women, and crash their UN Land cruisers….

From ‘Shyam Benegal’ by Sangeeta Datta

[interspersed with youtube videos]

Ankur won three National Awards in 1974 and 45 prizes in total in India and abroad…….. It travelled to every major international festival, but it did not get any award. It was very popular at the Berlin festival and the audiences noticed Shabana. Her photograph was published on the front page of the main newspaper in Berlin. International actors including Ingrid Bergman came up to Shabana and told her that it was one of the finest performances they had seen.

Mandi is considered by many to be Benegal’s most masterful film, a brilliantly ironic examination of middle-class notions of respectability and values, and a sympathetic inquiry into brothel life.

The media had for some time been playing up the professional rivalry between Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. ………At the time of shooting for Mandi, the tension between the two female leads was near palpable. Both had been recently cast in Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth as rivals ……….In an interview, he [Benegal] ….voiced his opinion that Smita had a wider range:

Smita could play anything. She could play glamorous roles and dance. These were things she was instinctively capable of. Shabana is essentially a dramatic actress – the best of her kind. Her concentration as an actress has been on that line. Those are the parts she looks for. She may have done the running around trees – I cant imagine her doing it. But she is so confident of her position. Who is there to challenge her as a dramatic actress? She transcends all competition in that area.

Naseeruddin Shah ……[Benegal says] Whatever he does he gives it his best. His commitment to acting is total. There is no other thing on his mind except to give the best possible performance. But he does not have the sense of humour that Om Puri has. Also Om has a great deal of compassion as a human being. Naseer was too focused on his own self. Om is a more affable human being.

From ‘Worshipping the Divine Oneness of Arunachala-Ramana’ by Muktha Manu & Peter Berking

…geological finding of the core age of Arunachala as 3.8 billion years old….one of the oldest rock formations on earth….Hence the Holy Hill of Arunachala is the oldest natural shrine in the world.

For 54 years after His Enlightenment, Bhagavan Ramana was accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, to both rich and poor, mighty and humble, scholar and ignorant, even to animals and birds.

Of all the saints who adored Arunachala in many hymns, the child-like Jnanasambandar’s songs are remarkable.

….Major Chadwick..an ardent Western devotee…writes….

Bhagavan would wander out on to the Hill a few times a day, and if any attachment to anything on earth could be said of him, it was surely an attachment to the Hill. He loved it and said it was God Himself. He used to say that it was the top of the spiritual axis of the earth; there must be, he said, another mountain corresponding to Arunachala at exactly the opposite side of the globe, the corresponding pole of the spiritual axis…..

….Kanakammal continued:

……Bhagavan’s face took on a special glow! Bhagavan told his devotees of the numerous miracles which took place on the Hill. He told them about his own life on the Hill, the various caves dotting the Hill, the greatness of the banyan tree on the northern slope of the highest peak, about the siddhas [Self-Realized astral beings] who dwell on the Hill and about the priceless herbs that grow on it that cure even incurable diseases

Another meaning of Arunachala is …. ‘A-runa-achala’ means the achala [hill] which makes runa [bondage] non-existent.

Sage Nandikeshvara tells Markandeya Rishi the assurance given by Lord Shiva:

By seeing Chidambaram, by being born in Tiruvarur, by dying in Kasi, or by merely thinking of Arunachala, one will surely attain Liberation…..

The whole Hill is sacred. It is Shiva Himself. Just as we identify ourselves with a body, so Shiva has chosen to identify Himself with this Hill. Arunachala is pure Wisdom (jnana) in the form of a Hill. It is out of compassion to those who seek Him that He has chosen to reveal Himself in the form of a Hill visible to the eye. The seeker will obtain guidance and solace by staying near this Hill.

-          Bhagavan Sri Ramana

Bhagavan quoted from the Arunachala Puranam, pointing to an important verse which says: ….If all the holy places are comparable to a body, holy Arunachala is like the face and the Lord of Sonagiri is like the eyes of the face.

…Even though the Hill is only 2682 feet high, it dominates the landscape….

Devotee Masthan Sahib …..When Masthan Swami died, Bhagavan gave instructions that he should be buried as a saint, using the rituals laid down in Tirumular’s Tirumandiram. These same rules were followed when Bhagavan and his mother were interred. Masthan’s samadhi shrine subsequently became something of a pilgrimage centre since many people reported that requests addressed to the samadhi were usually granted.

Bhagavan used to say ‘Kailasa is the abode of Shiva; Arunachala is Shiva Himself.’

To give verbal instructions it is necessary for the Guru to be in human form, but to have Satsang and subtle inner guidance He may be in any form. That is Guru Kripa. There is no difference between God, Guru, and the Self.

-          ‘Guru and His Grace’ in Maharshi’s Gospel

The Arunachala Hill….is an isolated hill, about fifty miles (80 km) inland from the Bay of Bengal. ….a conspicuous object for many kilometres around. The Arunachala Hill is referred to as the oldest hill on Earth, thus older than the Himalayas, and is regarded as the heart of the earth owing to its sanctity. The Deccan plateau, particularly the Eastern Ghats, is known to be one of the oldest lands on earth. ……In Arunachala, the rock is found to be 2.55 billion years old.

It would appear that among other mountainous belts, the Deccan Plateau in Southern India including Tiruvannamalai is one of the areas of little or no tectonic activity, i.e. seismological; these belts have not changed their characteristics drastically over a long period of time. ……This Hill is of igneous rock….

The Western seeker Paul Brunton….writes ……

A geologist friend of mine from America who visited me lately proclaimed Arunachala to have been thrown up by the earth under the stress of some violent volcanic eruption in the dim ages before even the coal-bearing strata were formed. In fact, he dated this rocky mass of granite back to the earliest epoch of the history of our planet’s crust, that epoch which long preceded the vast sedimentary formations in which fossil records of plants and animals have been preserved. It existed long before gigantic saurian of the prehistoric world moved their ungainly forms through the primeval forests that covered our early earth. He went even further and made it contemporaneous with the formation of the very crust of the earth itself. Arunachala, he asserted, was almost as hoary and as ancient as our planetary home itself…..

It would appear that Bhagavan was quite certain about a corresponding Holy hill exactly on the side opposite Arunachala, on the other side of the globe. The following extract from a book by Sadhu Arunachala (Major A. W. Chadwick) .....Chadwick writes …

Bhagavan used to say that Arunachala was the top of the spiritual axis of the earth. He said ‘There must be another mountain corresponding to Arunachala at exactly the opposite side of the globe, the corresponding pole of the spiritual axis.’ So certain was He of this, that one evening He made me fetch an atlas and see if this was not correct. I found, according to the atlas, the exact opposite point came in the sea about a hundred miles off the coast of Peru. He seemed doubtful about this. I pointed out that there might be some island at this spot or a mountain under the sea…..

……there is a sacred mountain at the other end of the axis in Peru, South America. The Inca Indians worshipped this mountain and established a very sacred spiritual city there called Machu Picchu.

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi always insisted that the Holy Hill of Arunachala was the spiritual axis of the world, even in a physical sense …..So it was his strong view that another Holy Hill existed diagonally across the globe ……This itself was remarkable since He normally did not take very rigid positions except on matters concerning the Self and the Heart …..it appears that Bhagavan may not have supported the conclusion of the research done by Major Chadwick (that an underwater mountain may be a candidate), since He seemed convinced that a land-based mountain existed at the other end of this ‘spiritual axis’.

Machu Pichu is about 100 miles away from the exact ‘opposite’ pole of the spiritual axis of the earth. ….The Incas worshipped the Machu Picchu Mountain itself as sacred ….the Divine Mother is worshipped as Goddess of the Universe in both cultures. In Machu Picchu the Godess of the Universe is worshipped as ‘Paachamama’, the manifestation of the Divine Mother, a name that bears a striking similarity to the name ‘Pachaiamman’ used for Parvathi in South Indian shrines. (In the early 1990s, during a plague, Bhagavan Ramana spent many months at the Pachaiamman Temple at the foot of the Hill, outside the town of Tiruvannamalai.           )

From ‘The Indian Colony of Champa’ by Phanindranath Bose

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champa

In the first century A.D., in the mainland of India, the mighty Mauryan empire had broken into pieces and the Sungas and Kanvas were ruling over Magadha. At such a juncture…….these colonists went over to Champa and made settlements over there. They might have taken the land route through Burma and Assam, or the direct sea route coming past Java.

The application of the name of Champa to this colony may lead us to conclude that the colonists went from the eastern parts of India. The epigraphical evidence of Vo-can, however, points to the Southern India as the home of the Indian colonists of Champa. As the epigraphical evidence is more strong and trustworthy, we must accept the theory that at least the family of the first Indian royal dynasty of Champa went from the valley of Godaveri and Krishna, because the inscription of Vo-can bears close resemblance to that of Rudradamana at Girnar and of Satakarni Vasisthaputra at Kanheri

…..the Indian kings of Champa…for more than a thousand years (from the third century to the fourteenth century A.D.) they kept up in that country the Indian rule as well as the culture and civilization of India.x

The native Chams had a distinctive clannishness which resisted to some extent the Hindu colonization and the institution of castes. Each Cham clan had its own totem, and there were traditions current for each clan.

Another point to be noted is that Hindu civilization and culture could not influence the law of inheritance of the Chams. So we find that among the native Chams the rule of property going to females survived even the introduction of Hindu civilization. The rule about the devolution of kingship, however, was according to the Hindu Law.

The Hindu custom of sati prevailed in Champa.

…..the prince was known by the Indian name – yuvaraja. ….The yuvaraja was often elected by an assembly of great men. This custom still survives in Cambodia. At the death of the king, the council of ministers meets under the presidency of Aka Moha Sena and elects one as the king or confirms one chosen by the dead king.

Some kings selected their ministers only from among the Brahmans and Ksattriyas.

From Chinese sources, we know that the officers, brothers and even the sons of the king had not immediate access to the king. It is strange that though they were not easily accessible even to their relatives, the kings were sometimes assassinated.

The entire kingdom of Champa was divided into three provinces, with a governor over each of them. It is significant to note that the names of these provinces are Indian. …..The provinces are ….Amaravati. It is in North Champa……Vijaya. It is in central Champa ……Panduranga ….in South Champa

….in the reign of Harivarman …..the whole kingdom at that time consisted of 30,000 families.

These provinces of Champa were governed by high officials or by princes of the royal family. The province of Panduranga was often given to a prince. ….the Champa king was an absolute monarch….He had ….to maintain a large army. In the time of Wen, it consisted of ….40 to 50,000 men. It increased more and more afterwards. In the eighth century only the royal guard consisted of 5,000 men. ….The command of the army was given to the brothers or sons of the king.

While Cambodia provides us with the best specimens of Indian art and sculpture …..the artists of Champa were not inspired by the Indian ideal in the same way. They followed the Indian canons, and got the Indian form, bereft, however, of the inspiration. The result was that they could not approach the best specimens of Indian sculpture of the Gupta period.

The most popular of the Gods of the Hindu trinity in Champa was Siva…….the sculptors of Champa ….seemed to prefer to represent and worship Siva in the form of a lingam (phallus) ….The worship of the lingam was perhaps prevalent in Rigvedic times…..Whether we agree with Hopkins as to the Greek influence behind lingam worship or not, no one will deny that the worship of Siva and his emblem, the lingam, is of non-Aryan origin.

It is surprising that while Hinduism made such headway in Champa, Buddhism, which penetrated so far into China and Japan could not make much progress in Champa. This may be due to the fact that most of the kings of Champa were Hindus and that they were busy making endowments to Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

The remains of Buddhist sculptures in Champa show that Buddhism prevailed side by side with Hinduism, though it could not rival the latter in popularity.

This art of Champa, which is Indian in origin and design but Cham in execution…….

The stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata seem to have been familiar with the people of Champa, though perhaps they were not so popular as in Java.

India effected in Champa not only a physical but also a cultural conquest. Her sons ruled over Champa for more than twelve hundred years ……