Asha Bhosle revisits her childhood in Kolhapur

Legendary singer Asha Bhosle recently visited her Kolhapur home where she had spent a few years of her childhood, 60 years ago.

Bhosle, who was in Kolhapur last Tuesday for a Balchitravani documentary shooting, visited the two-storey modest building where the Mangeshkars stayed on rent in the 1940s for 3-4 years before moving to Mumbai.

Only two families occupied the building — the Karekar family on
the ground floor and the Mangeshkars on the first floor. For 78-year-old Suryakant Karekar, the meeting revived childhood memories. He had met her in Mumbai five years ago.

“She recognised me and remembered my nickname —Baban. It was refreshing to hear Ashatai calling me Baban. She had not forgotten my nickname after so many years,” said Karekar, who is a jeweller.

Bhosle remembered how she would fetch water and rocked on the wooden horse with Baban. “Ashatai remembered the time she spent in our house,” Karekar said.

During her visit to Kolhapur, she had planned to visit the Karekar family and faintly remembered that the house was somewhere near the erstwhile Hans theatre.

Pune-based hotelier Sachin Mudshingikar helped her locate the theatre, which is now the Ganesh multipurpose hall. Mudshingikar got the location from its owner Ravi Navare.

“I had met Ashatai in Mumbai more than five years ago. She had participated in a programme at Gadhinglaj town to help collect funds for a welfare organisation run by my sister Keshar, who passed away last year,” Karekar said.

Asha’s 10-minute visit to her childhood home brought back many memories. “She recounted how they enjoyed my mother’s cooking and her scoldings,” Karekar said.

He recalled that as children, Asha and he had etched their names on tin sheets used as a partition in the house. Those names were there till the sheets got damaged recently, he said.