LUCKNOW: After a sabbatical of 26 years, famous ghazal singer and wife of ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh, is expected to take the stage again at Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan annual music festival. She is expected to perform live in Hanuman Darbar, on the premises of Sankat Mochan temple in the holy city on the inaugural day which will commence on April 15 and continue till April 20.
However, for Chitra Singh, the main attraction to visit Varanasi believably is that she wants to pray to Lord Hanuman, seeking his blessings so that the Bharat Ratna is conferred on her husband Jagjit Singh, posthumously. In 2003, Jagjit Singh was given the Padma Bhushan under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s dispensation at the Centre. Chitra Singh had requested AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to confer the Bharat Ratna on Jagjit Singh but to no avail.
Chitra Singh withdrew completely from singing in 1991 after she lost her son Vivek, 21, in a road accident in Mumbai the same year. While Jagjit Singh continued to perform, Chitra went into seclusion.
"It was Chitra Singh herself who expressed the desire to perform in Hanuman Durbar and seek blessings of the deity,” said Prof Vishambhar Nath Mishra, a faculty of electronics at IIT-BHU. Prof Mishra is the main organiser of the annual event and the brother of the head priest of Sankat Mochan Temple.
“Chitra firmly believes that the nation has ignored the ghazal maestro who deserved the Bharat Ratna, said Prof Mishra. Jagit Singh died on October 11, 2011.
While Sankat Mochan temple was established by Tulsidas, the author of epic Ramcharitmanas, the music and dance festival started there in 1923. Noted artistes –singers, dancers and musicians from across the country and even neighbouring Pakistan perform at the Sankat Mochan Festival.
American saxophone legend George Brook, Gulfam Ahmad Khan, Ustad Humsaar hayat Niyami of Ajmer, Ahmad Hussain–Mohmmad Hussain, famous Indian classical dancer Sonal Man Singh and many other prominent artists are expected to perform during the six-day festival.
Last year, ghazal king Ghulam Ali had performed at the temple but he will not be able to make it this year owing to his preoccupation, said Prof Mishra.