As I look at the books on my shelf, I start to have a strange feeling. I never met either Nida Fazli or Jagjit Singh personally, but their works have been very close to my heart from a tender age. I have so many unaccountable memories, images and made-up situations associated with each of their work, be it dohes, ghazals, nazms, geets, books and what not. Even the TV interviews, live shows, and radio programmes! It is a huge collection that I carry in my tiny overworked brain, but boy! is it etched into my memory or what?
My first encounter with Nida was with Sajda, and the "Har taraf har jagah" number in it. That ghazal is the most "catchy number" of the double album and a trademark composition of JS. Then, I did not understand half of the stuff, but you know how it happens with JS and his music and his composition, it compels you to ponder on the lyric that he is singing. Ah! and Sajda has two compositions of Nida in it, the only poet to have so. "Dhoop mein niklo" still remains one of my favourite ghazal.
Then I heard Hope, and that too featured two ghazals of Nida. JS seemed to have a unique way to get it right always with Nida's philosophical works. Insight could not have come at a better time. I remember walking up to the store within days of the album release! The lyric booklet in it was a new thing and I loved it. It was on a simple white paper with black ink and the difficult words explained. Dohes were wonderful and JS did absolute justice to each of the compositions. Public at large of course remember "Mooh ki baat" number as it featured also as the title track of "Neem ka ped" that was aired on Doordarshan at that time.
As time went by, I purchased most of the books by Nida. I got to know a lot more about his childhood, why he has "ghar" and "bacche" as his favourite topics. His struggle during the partition and his struggle in Mumbai so that he could say, "Humne bhi is shahar mein rahkar thoda naam kamaaya hai".
There are many recordings of live shows that show the mutual affection between the two artists. Some of them are available now on popular video streaming sites and some are still are guarded as prized possessions of the respective owners. But the stuffs are definitely gem from an appreciator's perspective.
When I started this blog, Nida features almost instantly. Second post!.
It is no coincidence that Nida was "beckoned" by JS on the latter's birthday, this year. What is more strange is the JS passed away 2 days before Nida's birthday 5 years ago!
May both souls rest in peace. I can only offer my thanks for their work and the mark they have made on my life.
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