What's your earliest Lata Mangeshkar memory?

For me it was Mile Sur Mera Tumhara song on DD National. My parents told me about her when we used to try and identify celebs in it. They'd praise her to skies, telling me how she is the greatest singer of Indian cinema and had melodious voice, which led people to believe Goddess Saraswati has blessed her personally.

Almost 80% songs played on classic music channels used to be Lata songs. So much so that I assumed all songs in old films were sung by Lata only. I took long time to recognise other singers from older films.

What's your first introduction or earliest memory of Lata Mangeshkhar and how you got to know about her?

My 70 year old grandma telling a 5 year old me in late 1990s of what a legendary singer Lata ji is as we watched a program of hers on our TV.

I don't remember which song she was singing, but I remember the conversations that I had about Lata ji with my grandmom. She was a big fan, she left us a decade ago in 2010 😊

Just another story of how Lata ji connected generations of people in this subcontinent ❤️

This song payo ji maine Ram Ratan dhan payo it used to play on radio

yaad nahi merko

It was thanks to my Father. He's a massive Lata, Rafi, Kishore fan and their songs would play all the time in my house. I grew up listening to them and knew most of their songs. Than her songs in 90's movies also like DDLJ etc. Hum ko humise Churalo is one of earliest memories with Lata ji.

In early 2000s I saw her Aye mere watan ke logon clips on a channel and from that point I could recognize her face. Then my grandmother would tell me that she's believed to be blessed by Goddess Saraswati herself.

I, too, took a significant amount of time to recognize and acknowledge other singers.

Listening to her rendition of the K3G title track.

Ay mere watan ke logo

We sang Ae mere watan ke logo in our school anniversary function. That was my first memory of Lata. Being a south Indian coming from a small town, we don’t get to listen to a lot of Hindi songs unless we particularly tune into them. My dad being a Hindi movie buff and a major Lata fan also helped my interest perk up.

singing her songs in junior school