On the sets of Sureeli Baat, a program I conceptualised and anchored at Aaj Tak , I was concluding an interview with Shaan who asked me who my next interview was with. When i told him it was KK, he asked me if was sure that he had accepted as he shunned attention and didn’t do interviews on TV. KK arrived without fanfare. No entourage, just his easy charm and a shy smile. I remember thinking, I hope he talks, he seems so reserved. To break the ice, I asked him what was the one song he sang, when he was wooing his wife Jyoti, who was a childhood sweetheart. His rendition of Pyaar Deewana Hota hai – by Kishore Kumar still stays etched in my memory as a gentle, glowing reminder of a voice that touched millions . His eyes conveyed the feeling perhaps, of when he sang to Jyoti …. I too was in love with the idea of these two being in love. Once the ice was broken, that interview went on like magic. His singing, his passion for songs sung by Kishore Kumar, his life on and off stage – we talked of all this and more.
Refreshingly humble , I could see why he shunned publicity. Essentially an introvert, his focus seemed to be the stage, the audience, his music and his family. The rest didn’t seem to matter. Some years later, when we invited him for a live show to Delhi, the diminutive man, in the Aaj Tak studio’s became a tiger on stage. With over 6000 people on a cold winter evening at India Gate, KK was a live-wire . The exchange of energy that night between him and the audience was at another level. He sang, they sang ,his smile, his energy, his laughter and his music set the stage on fire. When the horrible news of his passing away during a stage show was flashed on TV years later, my first thought was, this was how he would have liked to bow out. On stage, with his audience and his music. KK may have gone, but the memory of his voice and his journey stays with me as a gentle note. To KK with love.
