Ghazal legend Jagjit Singh no more
Noted ghazal singer Jagjit Singh, after battling for two weeks with brain haemorrhage, died on Monday morning, at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai. He was 70 and is survived by his singer wife Chitra.
Medical bulletin issued by the Hospital, where he was admitted on September 23, stated the cause of death as “cerebellar bleeding with transtentorial herniation in a known case of hypertension, diabetes mellitus and ischaemic heart disease.”
For the past two weeks, Chitra Singh was at his bedside along with medical doctors maintaining a vigil round-the-clock on the singer who slipped into coma despite two emergency operations conducted to stem the bleeding in the brain.
The singer, following the operations and slipping into comatose state, was put on a life-support system. Singh, a high blood pressure patient for a long time, was rushed to Lilavati Hospital after he complained of uneasiness while resting at his residence.
He was scheduled to perform with famous Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali at Shanmukhananda Hall at Matunga in north-central Mumbai later in the day. The duo had presented a stirring performance days before in Delhi. Ever since he suffered his first attack in 1998, he had been undergoing treatment for heart ailments.
In October 2007, following blood circulation problems, he was admitted to the hospital and had undergone surgery.
His only son Vivek died in a road accident in 1990.Members from music industry and film world flocked to his residence in Walkeshwar, in south Mumbai. The Rajasthan-born singer will be consigned to flames, on Tuesday, at a crematorium in south Mumbai.
Singh mesmerised music lovers for over four-decades with his soul- stirring numbers like ‘Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho’ and ‘Jhuki jhuki si nazar’.
