In a social media video, Pakistani surgeon Dr Javed Iqbal paid a very unique and insightful tribute to Lata Mangeshkar's artistry, which he says, inspired him in his surgical profession. Here is a translation by Abhay Phadnis. 

Lata- A Video Tribute
By: Dr. Javed Iqbal (Video in Urdu)
Translation and additional comments: Abhay Phadnis

Dr. Javed Iqbal said,
"As you know, I am a surgeon. I take pride in the fact that when I came to Bahawalpur, I introduced many new procedures here. I was very popular when I was active here as a professor and Principal [of the college].

Some students once interviewed me for the college magazine. One of their questions was, “Sir, where did you learn such excellent surgery?” I don't know how it came to my mind but the spontaneous answer I gave was, “From Lata Mangeshkar.”

The students were taken aback and asked me to explain how I had learnt surgery from someone who wasn’t a surgeon. I asked them, “Have you heard Lata Mangeshkar sing? Have you noticed how she does justice to each letter of each word? How she gets the pronunciation just right? How the syllabic stresses of each word are kept intact even as she stays true to the musical notes? This is the artistic competence that each artist must bring to their art. Just as a single stroke of painter’s brush can either add beauty to a painting or mar it, so each movement of a surgeon’s hand, each stitch, each cut, each dissection done with a cautery – each of these can either turn the surgery into a work of art or spoil it.”

This comparison is something that struck me many years ago: that the way Lata Mangeshkar does justice to her art form is the yardstick against which any art can be measured. Every single component of the performance has to be executed at the highest level. If you listen carefully to a song sung by her, you will notice that if the word has a “chhoTii ‘he’”, then you will hear it clearly as a “chhoTii ‘he’”, and if it has a “baDii ‘he’” you will hear it clearly as a “baDii ‘he’”.  You will hear an “ain” as an “ain”, a “qaaf” as a “qaaf”, and a “kaaf” as a “kaaf”.1 And all of this will be in perfect concord with the musical notes being used in the song. I understand little of music, but I do see that this is the one thing that makes Lata Mangeshkar unique.

When I heard of her demise, I felt strongly like paying her a tribute, and this comparison came to mind. I would also like to say this: we often talk of human life being different from that of other animals. The difference is that other animals are only “physicality”, but the human being also possesses intellect, emotionality, and spirituality. That person whose life revolves only around physicality and the needs of the body can be killed by death. But the more one contributes to the world using one’s intellect, emotionality, and spirituality, the more one can outlive death. Yes, death is cruel, death is powerful, but its power only extends to removing the 5-foot-something body of Lata Mangeshkar from this earth: death has no power to erase her art and the work she has left behind.

I am reminded of that famous she’r2:

us piyaale meñ zahar thaa hii nahiiñ
varna sukraat mar gayaa hotaa

So yes, that slightly built woman called Lata Mangeshkar has died, but the essence of Lata Mangeshkar will never die.

Translator's Comments:

1 All the references here are to Urdu letters, the key point being that Lata Mangeshkar pronounced each letter exactly as it should be pronounced.

2 The she’r, written by Liaqat Ali Aasim, actually has the lines the other way around:

varnaa sukraat mar gayaa hotaa
us piyaale meñ zahar thaa hii nahiiñ

Would not Socrates have been killed for good?
That cup surely did not contain poison!

The poet says that killing the person of Socrates did nothing to kill his ideas – his legacy outlived him.