Curiously not too many people from the music and film industry seemed aware of Jagjit’s illness.
Said a young singer, an ardent fan of the maestro, “Lately Jagjit Saab isolated himself from most of the industry. He doesn’t even meet close friends like Gulzar Saab and Javed Akhtar with whom he has collaborated repeatedly.”
Jagjit lost his only son Vivek in a road accident in the 1990s. The tragedy put an end to his wife Chitra Singh’s singing career. Bizarrely she lost her daughter model Monica Chaudhary in 2009.
Apparently Chitra Singh never came out of the shock of the twin tragedies. In recent years, Jagjit has been spending all his non-singing hours looking after his emotionally shattered wife. Hence, the absence of a connectivity with old friends, like Gulzar.
A couple of years ago Jagjit Singh had been hospitalized for a suspected stoke. He had thereafter cut down on his workload.
While fans like singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan and composer Aadesh Shrivastava express shock and surprise on being told of Jagjit Singh’s hospitalization, friend Shabana Azmi says, “He has been operated on at Lilavati. The next 24 hours are critical.”
Businessofcinema.com prays for his recovery.
