It was in the year 1948 , Bhimsen Joshi was invited to the ‘Harivalabh’ music festival in Jalandhar, famous Sitar maestro Ustad Rais Khan was also present there.The program was going on, but what can be said about desires. Panditji was craving for liquor and to have it he suddenly disappeared with two of his students. All were astonished as to were Panditji has gone? There was a big problem in front of the organisers, whom to present in front of 20 thousand listeners present in Pandal. The organizers some how persuaded Raees Khan to play the sitar, so that the program can continue.
He had just started playing sitar, and there was a sudden noise, Keep it up Khan Sahab, understanding that the audience were liking his presentation. But at that moment, on the right side of the stage, Bhimsen Joshi appeared. The reason for the noise was that the audience had seen him. The organizers felt that if Panditji was not removed from the eyes of the audience, then there will be chaos in the pandal.
Two untoward things happened at that moment, firstly the string of Rais Khan sitar was broken, and the second was, Bhimsen appeared for the second time at the left side passage of the stage. What was then, seeing him the whole pandal was buzzing with applause, Rais Khan felt that the listeners were applauding him. He was engaged in rectifying his broken string. So far he did not get the correct understanding of the situation. But as the applause grew , he understood the reality. With his folded hands he apologized to the audience and said “If you want to listen, then only i will play, else i will leave the stage.” But audience were mad about Bhimsen and they shouted, “Now we want to listen to Panditji only. ‘
Call Lata Mangeshkar at night
There are shortcomings in every person, and in such a talented singer like Joshiji if there was some drawback it was his love for liquor. Lata Mangeshkar, speaking about her own experience, said, “Sometimes the phone rang late at night and when i picked up the receiver, on the other side I heard the songs of my father (Dinanath Mangeshkar) ‘Sura mi Bandile’, there was no need to recognize the voice, there was only one such voice … till late night Bhimsen used to keep listening to Baba’s music and I used to applaud’.
It shows that more than the liquor, he was more of intoxicated to music. In fact Bhimsen was not passionate about liquor, but in order to overcome stressful family environment, he started drinking liquor, which gradually became his habit. It was astonishing that anyone can sing in the state of intoxication. These stories of Bhimsen Joshi have come out from the book “Kaljayee Sur”, which is his biography written by Gajendra Narayan Singh, and has been published by Vani Prakashan.
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