The Nightingale, Lata Mangeshwar, flies off, released into new life at 92.
As I write, homes a cross the diaspora, not the least in the Caribbean too, are belting out the immortal voice of this iconic singer.
From the haunting early Aayenga through to evergreen hits as Kabhi Kabhi through to Dil to Pagal Hai, the evergreen tones of Lata Mangeshwar pulled at our hearts and took our breath away over more than seven decades of music, more than 30,000 songs in around 40 world languages and more than a thousand films. Now Covid has claimed hers.
Entrenched into evolving cross-cultural diasporic traditions
Hold the Lata Mangeshwar, give me soca, chutney singer Rikki Jai croons in his debut single Sumintra in the album of that name. I watched with the world the super shy skinny schoolmate, then known as Samraj Jaimungal, trying to wine on the iconic San Fernando Mount Naparima, telling of a rural Trini girl urges Rikki to embrace the local soca/calypso cultural rhythms as she transfers her musical tastes from India to Trinidad and Tobago.
Between roots and culture
She’s a liberated soul
Trinbago in she passport.… Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Rikki Jai, Sumintra, 1989
The song literally transforms the then bashful young man into now King of the Chutney megaverse that spans the global Caribbean diaspora of Indi pop as the song shot him into chutney music halls of fame in 1989.
Revolutionary Counter Cultural currents
While capturing the role of women in the counter-cultural nationalist revolution of the last decade, the song is also testimony of the grip of music of India in the socio cultural milieu of the diaspora and the Caribbean, particularly Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago to which more than a million Indians migrated as part of the eighteenth century labour movements. Such music inspired the pre-soca crossover as the music of Sundar Popo and such mentees of his as Rikki Jai from the embryonic songs and music of the diaspora as embedded in the transformed Bhojpuri traditions as in the songs of Ma, the Nonagenarian, whose ceremonial dress styles are very similar to Lata’s. I am reconstructing and embedding the traditional bridges of these interconnections in my new creative genre and its associated MultiMedia MicroEpic – mDNA MotherContinent – Mothers, Motherlands, MotherCultures.
Lata’s Americas tours visits to the Caribbean
Rikki Jai’s Sumintra comes at the end of the decade in which Lata Mangeshwar made two visits to the Caribbean to perform in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana – in 1980 and 1985 – during her Americas tours. The Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago is emerging into a new nationalism and counter cultural revolution to claim its own indigeneously spawned multicultural traditions. The site hinsdisongstt.com captures some of her Trinidad and Tobago moments, including being greeted by then President of Trinidad and Tobago Sir Ellis Clarke as represented in the phot below.
Thousands lined the streets of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago to greet Lata, jostling for a glimpse of a legend. Of these visits she has fond memories. She told the Indian media she had never experienced such crowds outside India and that she was ‘deeply touched by everyone who has come here to see me.’
Cultural Transference
As I have noted in my doctoral dissertation Finding A Place that connects the transference and influence of intangible oral cultural traditions to literary through journalism and fiction, the music and films along with other transmigrated traditions of India sustained settlement and formation of the diversity of our multicultural societies and inspired the independence movements into the 1960s and nationalist cultural transformations thereafter.
To Vote Like We Party
Songs like Sumintra reflected the growing sentiments that fed the ‘To Vote How We Party’ political revolutions that countered the dominant political cultures of the time.
To support, sponsor collaborate on development of the Roots and Routes multimedia editions of Finding A Place and LiTTscapes make contact.
There is one incident that I am unlikely to forget. I was in Trinidad on 28 September 1980. It was my fifty-first birthday. We had performed at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain [the capital of Trinidad and Tobago] on the night before. Mohan Deora’s team, my family, and all the musicians decided to host a lavish birthday lunch for me …. These small incidents make up a lifetime.
Lata Mangeshwar on visiting Trinidad in her introduction to On Stage with Lata by Mohan Deora and Rachana Shah.
From the GLoCaL Knowledge Pot Archives
She held the spotlight in the Indian music arena for more than seven decades, reaching across national borders to distant diasporas maintain the umbilical link.
Among Lata’ fondest memories she identifies her first visit to Trinidad and Tobago where she celebrated her 51st birthday, during a musical tour to the Americas, as she recalls:
When I think back to those times, there is one incident that I am unlikely to forget. I was in Trinidad on 28 September 1980. It was my fifty-first birthday. We had performed at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain [the capital of Trinidad and Tobago] on the night before. Mohan Deora’s team, my family, and all the musicians decided to host a lavish birthday lunch for me in what must have been the hotel ballroom or something. Everyone was in a jolly mood. Anil Mohile stood up and announced that he and the musicians wanted to say a few words on the occasion. Anil wished me happy birthday and added, ‘Didi has just sung “Main solah baras ki” [I am sixteen] for the film Karz, and she really still sounds like a sixteen-year-old.’ Anil’s words were followed by the comments of many musicians. Then the sitarist Jairam Acharya stood up and cheerfully said, ‘Didi is so extraordinary that I request all of you to observe a two-minute silence.’
For a moment, no one knew how to react and then we all burst out laughing. We just could not stop. Tears of laughter poured down our faces. Poor Jairam had no idea what he had just said. He looked around the room with a confused expression while we could not stop laughing. These small incidents make up a lifetime.
Lata Mangeshwar on visiting Trinidad in Lata Mangeshkar’s introduction to On Stage with Lata, by Mohan Deora and Rachana Shah, edited by Nasreen Munni Kabir.
Soar higher Lata Mangeshwar 1929 to 2022. Celebrate her life by sharing your favourite Lata. Apart from the evergreen Kabhi Kabhi, and Dil To Pagal Hai, my all time favourites are from the Hum Aapke Hain Koun album Here’s my playlist of related Lata Mangeshwar repertoire to which I will add your favourites too from the tens of thousands of songs she leaves behind.
About Dr Kris Rampersad
Dr Kris Rampersad is innovator/creator of the newest creative genre, the MultiMedia MicroEpic. She is a heritage educator, researcher, journalist, film maker, and author of the groundbreaking Finding a Place, LiTTscapes, Through the Political Glass Ceiling and I the Sky and Me the Sea.
To support, sponsor collaborate on development of the Roots and Routes multimedia editions of Finding A Place and LiTTscapes make contact.
Lyrics of Rikki Jai’s Sumintra
Bindiya chamkegi
Bindiya chamkegi
Give me soca ah ha/Boy give me soca, ah ha
Sumintra born in a shack in Debe
And she parents from Indian Walk
This pretty gyal I have been trackin whole day
Filled wid fancy talk
And she blushin back at me
But when I send my letter
She would send no answer
So I hit the record shops
Indian records I buy up
When I reach by the gyul she say stop, Rikki, stop
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Tickle me with a lavway
Soca me till I sesay
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Sumintra judge me for being racist
And tell meh doh take dem chance with she
Doh let meh catch you in dat foolishness
Trying to reach the Indian in me
Like you into politics
Boy you comin pon that tricks
Boy I’m Trinbagonian
I like soca action
Take your Mohammed Rafi
Bring me Scrunter or Bally
Hold the then you be talkin to me,
Yes, Rikki, she say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Tickle me with ah lavway
Soca me till I se-say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Tickle me with ah lavway
Soca me till I se-say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Bindiya chamkegi, boy give me soca, ah ha ah ha
Bindiya chamkegi, give me soca, ah ha ah ha
boy give me soca
Sumintra back me into ah corner
She really ketch me outside dat night
Was so much years was the village joker
I doh know since when she get so bright
Must be University
Or that trips to Miami
That make she draw a border
Between roots and culture
She’s a liberated soul
Trinbago in she passport.
I feel small like ah though
She say sport you come short
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Tickle me with ah lav-way
Soca me till I se-say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
I still believe the best gift is music
Cuz music is de food of love
But now I have to come up wid new tricks
For Sumintra to get involve
Was November 28th,
Ah say kaiso eh release yet
Boy like that get she more hot
Is kaiso in she thoughts
Man you really out a line
She drink calypso like wine
Old or new, bring them through, all is fine
Leh we wine
She say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Tickle me with ah lav-way
Soca me till I se-say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Please
Tickle me with ah lav-way
Soca me till I se-say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Tickle me with ah lav-way
Soca me till I se-say
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Hold the Lata Mangeshkar
Give me soca ah ha ah ha
Is soca you want
I go give you what yuh want