Two Milestones

Last week it was Steve Jobs and yesterday it was Jagjit Singh. Of course the people outside India may not be very much aware of the existence of  the latter. Singh was a singer of light classical music who had made a name for himself mainly in ghazal singing.What made him unique was his style which was not rigidly classical but contained elements of modernity as well. Not only did he experiment with harmonium in place of sarangi, he used guitar too as an accompanying instrument in rendition of a ghazal which was unthought of before. Add to that the velvety voice of the singer and the enjoyers of ghazal  would get transported to a different world altogether when Singh sang.Jagjit Singh was born in a sikh family.His life is an example how bigotism is given a good bye when someone achieves something remarkable. No so called guardians of sikhism raised any voice at Jagjit Singh giving up his hair.Obviously, he would have been as good a singer and a musician with kesh or hair as he was without it. A personal tragedy made him turn to singing  divine songs -bhajans and sabads.It also lent a certain poignancy to his singing which endeared him more to his fans.Most newspapers have made a mention of his wife Chitra Singh stopping singing after the tragedy but no body has come up with what she has been doing of late. There is just a photograph of hers in some of the newspapers of  12th October-that of a distraught wife who has lost not only her husband but also a fellow singer. As for experiencing pleasure, man (and that includes woman also) has immense capacity for enduring sorrow too. When their son died in an accident,the Singhs must have thought that that was the ultimate limit of sorrow that they could endure. Now after the death of Jagjit Singh, Chitra must be wondering whether she was not wrong in assuming so.
This is my homage to a person who made a name for himself  through his hard work  and his stupendous talent.
Much has been written about Steve Jobs before as well as after his death on 5th October. A man has hailed him as the greatest inventor since Edison.I think it is rather pre-mature. Only after a century will we be able to make such a comparison. For only then, will we be able to assess the impact of the inventions of Jobs on the life of common man.Only then will we be able to gauge the usefulness and ubiquitousness of his inventions,which, incidentally, were not created by Jobs alone-there was a team of dedicated men and women who worked very hard to produce what Jobs wanted.People of my age i.e. above sixty may not be very much appreciative of what Jobs and his team did but for people younger than what we are  he was almost God.And as was expected he did not tread the straight and narrow path always. He did some kind of hacking also and made money. But then who cares for these things in today's world where means are not important- only ends are.
The important thing about Jobs , so far as  I am concerned is that he too was suffering from cancer as I am suffering.His death has left  me with the thought that one can not win a battle against cancer even if he may be Steve Jobs--rich and famous and highly original a thinker. But then he was able to manage it for four -five years.I do not know how long I will be able to manage mine.
It is true that both Singh and Jobs were high achievers in their fields but then the world goes on even when they are not here now.And it will go on.