Lesser known facts about Lata Mangeshkar

Indian legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar passed away on Sunday morning at the age of 92 years.  She was fondly called Nightingale of India and Queen of Melody.

Here are some lesser-known facts about Lata Mangeshkar:

• Lata Mangeshkar’s birth name was Hema. However, it was changed to Lata, the name of a character in her father’s play. Her father Deenanath Mangeshkar was a popular classical singer and theatre artist.
• Her surname was Hardikar. But, her father adopted the surname, Mangeshkar as per his native town, Mangeshi in Goa.
• She never listened to her own songs. She said in an interview that she did not like to listen to her songs as she would find faults in her singing.
• Several people like her voice. But, Lata Mangeshkar was rejected during the initial days of her career because of her thin voice. Besides her first song ‘Naachu Ya Gade, Khelu Saari Mani Haus Bhaari’ for a Marathi film, Kiti Hasaal was removed from it.
• She started learning music at the tender age of 5 years. She sang over 50,000 songs in her career. She recorded songs in more than 36 Indian languages and some foreign languages.
• Lata Mangeshkar wrote a letter to Heeraben, the mother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarati for the first time. She wrote this letter in 2019 congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he became the PM for the second time by winning the general election with a huge majority.
• She received several awards, including Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. She was also listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the most recorded artist in history.
• Lata Mangeshkar was an avid cricket fan. She fasted for India’s victory in Semifinals during the 2011 World Cup.
• She decided not to marry anyone in her life. There were two reasons for this. Being the eldest, she took care of her siblings after the death of her father.
• The second reason was that she developed a bond with Raj Singh Dungarpur. He was a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He was a close friend to her brother. As per sources, Raj Singh and Lata Mangeshkar fell in love with each other. But, they did not marry as his father did not agree to their marriage. Then the couple vowed to never get married.

Image Credit: Bollywood Hungama / CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Source: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/more/photos/view/stills/parties-and-events/id/1365515

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lata-Mangeshkar.jpg