India's Nightingale is no more

Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar passed away after a 28-day-long battle with Covid-19, pneumonia and related issues here at 8:12 a.m. on Sunday morning, leaving behind a legacy that will be hard to match. She shall be accorded a state funeral in Mumbai on Sunday evening. The legendry singer was 92 and is survived by her siblings -- playback singer and composer Meena Khadilkar, popular singer and restaurateur AshaBhosale, singer Usha Mangeshkar, and music director Hridayanath Mangeshkar.

A spinster till death, Lata Mangeshkar was the recipient of three National FilmAwards, seven Filmfare awards, and of course, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in1989. She was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 2001, becoming the second singer after M.S. Subbulakshmi to be so honoured, and the French awarded her the Officer of the Legion of Honour.

In1974, Lata Mangeshkar became the first Indian to perform at the Royal Albert hall, London. She had indeed come a long, long way since the time when the first song that she recorded for a film -- 'Kiti Hasaal' in 1942 -- was dropped in the final cut. She was born in Indore on September 28, 1929, to the classical singer, Marathi theatre actor and writer of musical playsDeenanath Mangeshkar and his wife Shevanti (Shudhamati).

Lata Mangeshkar was originally named Hema by her parents. But they later changed it to Lata after the character Latika from one of her father's musical plays. She has sung over 30,000 songs in various languages, including the sole Malayalam film ('Nellu')