TIMELESS LEGACY- JAGJIT SINGH AND STEVE JOBS

12^th October 2011

In the last few months, we have lost quite a few public and inspirational figures- Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Gautam Rajadhyaksha, Shammi Kapoor and some others from the field of arts, sports and industry.

But today, I feel like talking about two people, beloved icons of our generation(rather, two generations), whose demise have affected me and made me sit and think- JAGJIT SINGH and STEVE JOBS.

When I heard the news about Jagjitji’s stroke on September 23, I somehow already had the inkling that the chances of his recovery were slim. I felt A Part of Me Die that day and what happened two days ago was just prolongment of the inevitable.

Jagjitji single-handedly brought the elite form of ghazal singing to the masses, so much so that it became a part of their everyday lives.

JAGJIT SINGH = GHAZAL

The above is not an overstatement. For millions of listeners and music lovers in India and abroad, the only ghazal artist they knew was Jagjit Singh.

Whether it is a middle class family in a city, a shanty in a slum in a metro or a rich, elite family in the smallest of towns, every home has a Jagjit Singh Record/CD/Cassette in their music collection.

Gulzar, another timeless maestro, had aptly christened him GHAZALJIT SINGH.(Honestly, how many people have even heard a single ghazal of Mehndi Hassan or Begum Akhtar, both esteemed Ghazal artistes of their time?)

Gulzar had once said in an interview, “ Jagjit Singh Ki Awaaz Dilasa Deti Hai.”

How true! His voice had the amazing ability to enter our ears and go straight to the heart bypassing our brains, his chords touching our heart’s every chord. No doubt, his songs have been an accompaniment to many a broken as well as hopeful hearts.

Isn’t it poetic justice that he suffered a heart attack before finally succumbing to a brain stroke?

Steve Jobs, a computer, electronics, marketing and design wizard died last week due to prolonged pancreatic cancer.

Although I was not that much deeply affected by his death, I was surprised by the overwhelming global emotional response to his demise.

People, totally unrelated to his giant company Apple Inc., were crying on the street and were leaving flowers and mementos outside Apple stores all over the world.

That made me realize how he had reached out to so many people, become a part of the global psyche.

He was an iCON, if I may say so.

All the newspapers, news channels, YouTube were flooded with the news of his death, his life story, his achievements.

He had not only invented revolutionary technology but designed and marketed it in such a way, reaching out to and touching the lives of people, for whom until a few years ago buying a PC(let alone a laptop), was nothing but a dream.

And the fact that amazed me amidst all this media frenzy, was that he had contributed in some way in creating and designing the tools the media was using to lament his death.

If not for him, a computer would not have had an interactive screen with icons (Pun unintended) or even a mouse. The music industry would not have been what it is today due to iTunes. In consequence, if you think, there would be no mobile phones with fancy displays, no PC’s, no laptops, none of the gadgets which we use so extensively today. Can you even imagine that?

The reason I am talking about two seemingly unrelated persons is that they had one big thing in common- TIMELESSNESS.

Jagjit Singh had a timeless voice.

Steve Jobs created timeless gadgets.

And what made them more special was the fact that they reached out to the masses, the common man, in their own ways, touching their lives in such a way so as to become an inseparable part of it. That is what makes them timeless.

A personal reason why I was affected with these two deaths, was that I own an iPod, invented by Steve Jobs, on which I regularly listened to my favourite Jagjit Singh ghazals. Through thick and thin, it hass been my most treasured possession (friend would be a more apt word) over the last 5 years.

And so, at the end, I ask myself that do their deaths make a part of me die OR do they make me feel more alive as their timeless legacy lives on in my (and billions of other)heart?

If there was a doomsday followed by an ice age followed by a revival of the human species, the archaeologists of the future will definitely find an Ipod with Jagjit Singh’s ghazals in it.

iSAD

Dr. OMKAR HALWAI