Mehndi vali to
Malve eno rang gayo Gujarat re
Mehndi rang lagyo...
AHMEDABAD: Thousands must have danced to this famous garba in the Navratri that just went by. But few know that the mellifluous lead voice in this garba number belonged to our very ownLata Mangeshkar. Yes, Lata is ���half Gujarati��� as she herself claimed in a book by Harish Bhimani ��� ���In Search of Lata Mangeshkar��� released in 1995.
The legend who turned 80 on Dussehra, had a Gujarati mother.Narmada, the first wife of the Mangeshkar siblings��� father Master Dinanath, was a Gujarati. She was the daughter of Sheth Haridas Ramdas Lad from Thalner, a town that sits on the banks of the Tapi river, which is so important to Gujarat.
Lata learnt the garbas of Pavagadh and various other songs from her nani ma, she says in Bhimani���s book. Thalner was the first capital of the Faruqi kings and then became part of Bombay Presidency. Now it lies in Maharashtra, north-east of Dhule.
Narmada died early and Dinanath married her sister Shevanti in 1927. Lata and all her siblings were born to her.
Sheth Haridas was the most prosperous businessman and landlord of Thalner. Apart from his own mansion, which was guarded by two Pathans round the clock, he owned about sixty houses in the town. He also built temples and wells in Thalner.
Lata says in the book, ���My earliest memories are of a little town called Thalner. I used to love the house my grandmother had there. Not that I stayed there for long spells, but whenever I went, I longed to hear my nani ma sing.��� Thalner was a small town with a population of about 6-7,000 on banks of the Tapi.
Lata���s mother Shevanti was renamed Shudhamati in her new house. In an interview in the same book Lata has said, ���But I am half Gujarati,��� in impeccable Gujarati.