The song that is inspiration for many in Covid times

Kolkata: ‘Tera Mujhse hai pehle tha nata koi’ — this Kishore Kumar-Sushma Srestha’s romantic duet sung by a son to his mother a few hours before she lost her battle to Covid in a private hospital in Kolkata — is now becoming an inspiration to many who want to give their loved ones a poetic farewell.

Sohom Chatterjee, the 24-year-old youngster who inspired the world in an unconventional way to immortalise death, is mulling to create a platform for the bereaved.

This is a story of a mother’s last moments and a song. His mother lost her life to Covid-19. When the shift doctor Deepshikha Ghosh realised that Sanghamitra Chatterjee — the 43-year-old psychologist — won’t be able to make it, she video-called Chatterjee’s son. Unable to see her in person, all the son could do was sing. So, this 1973 Kishore Kumar ever-green echoed in the Covid ward amid the beeps of the lifesaving machines.

The nurses and the doctors gathered in silence to witness a dying mother and her son’s final goodbye. His voice choked but he finished the song. “Music was something that tethered me to my mother. That’s how we expressed our love and respect for each other. This song is ours and will always be irrespective of validation and recognition of any magnitude. Mom knew. Or, still knows. Who knows! I love you, maa,” Sohom, who works as a content writer in Bengaluru, said.

Soham said this song defined his relationship with his mother. Hailing from a musical family, Pt Tarapada Chakraborty is his great-grand uncle, he started receiving training in classical music from his mother and grandmother when he was four. “Maa was my music guru and this was our go-to song. More specifically, it was like our ‘abhimaan’ song she sang to melt my heart. She had other songs for lulling me to sleep,” he said.

When asked what inspired him to sing, the youngster, who aspires to be a singer, said, “It was impromptu. I never thought it would become the inspiration of so many people. I did this everything out of a kind of desperation. She was in the hospital then and I was conscious. During a video call conversation, I asked her whether she would like to hear a song. She said ‘No’. She had never said no when I wished to sing. Now when the call came and I understood that I could never sing to her, I was desperate to sing. It was difficult for me to sing but I completed it. It was a tribute to her”.