Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh no more

Ghazal king Jagjit Singh, the soul-stirring voice behind Hazaron khwaishe aisi, Ye kaghaz ki kashti and Jhuki jhuki si nazar, died this morning over a fortnight after he suffered brain haemorrhage.

The 70-year-old singer, who alongwith his wife Chitra almost rediscovered the ghazal genre for common Indian in 70s and 80s, was admitted to the Lilavati hospital on September 23 and was in coma since then.

"Jagjit Singh passed away at 8:10am after having a terrible hemorrhage," said Dr Sudhir Nandgaonkar, hospital spokesperson, here.

The day he was admitted, he was supposed to perform at a concert at Shanmukhananda Hall, Matunga, in Mumbai but the programme was cancelled after he was taken ill.

Despite a surgery, his condition did not improve and he remained on life support.

Singh, a Padma Bhushan recipient, was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan, on February 8, 1941.

After graduation, he shifted base to Mumbai, to explore career in the world of music. In the next decade and half, he earned nationwide fame as ghazal singer and music composer. He sang in several languages, including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali.

His personal life, though, was marked by a tragedy: His only son, Vivek, died in a car accident in 1990 when he was just 18.

The music world expressed grief on hearing the news of Jagjit Singh's death. Fellow ghazal singer, Pankaj Udhas, described Jagjit as an "extremely versatile singer". "I am devastated after hearing the tragic news," Udhas said on phone from Pune.