By Tejinder Singh Bedi

Chitra Singh, the reigning queen of rendition of ghazals from India completes 83 years of her life's wonderful journey this 18th March 2026. Married to the inimitable Ghazal Legend, Dr. Jagjit Singh, along with her Singer-Composer husband, this couple has stayed as an unparalleled duo for rendition of some of the best heard ghazals, nazms, geets and bhajans ever since they started singing and recording together around 1970 and especially after 1976, when the duo's Unforgettables, Milestone and Come Alive LPs with the HMV instantly captured the heart and the soul of the entire Asian sub continent. 

And it was not just limited through the studio recorded versions or releases later but through almost each and every best known music label one after the other and each and every live performance belted out by both of them together almost non-stop one after the other to jam packed auditoriums, ampitheaters including even huge open air concerts accommodating several thousands of their passionate listeners and   followers of these genres of music in almost every nook and corner of the world.  
If at all one can ever think of recalling the names and the legacy of any other ghazals singing couples in the last 100 years, we do remember successful names as Nina & Rajinder Mehta, Mitali & Bhupinder Singh  and Sonali & Roop Kumar Rathod but their respective periods of stardoms if we may like to state for their brilliant singing remained far lesser than of Chitra Singh & Jagjit ji, who enthralled their lifelong fans together until 1990, when due to an unfortunate accident Chitra and Jagjit ji lost their only son, Vivek at a very young age of just 20 and Chitra ji withdrew herself from all or most public appearances and performances.
In the solo female ghazal singing categories, we often hear of great names of Begum Akhtar and Farida Khanum but despite their stupendous hold on this form of singing both could never endear as huge a fan following and audience as Chitra ji could and retain all through her active singing career. Alongside Jagjit Singh, similarly although both the equally brilliant, melody queens Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle have also sung  quite a few ghazals but even their ghazal renditions touched their own levels of rendition of their Bollywood or filmy songs only when they collaborated with Jagjit Singh or Madan Mohan or few other legendary composers like them for some movies and even in their live performances were always preferred only for their most popular Bollywood numbers and not even the best of their ghazals or nazams.
As such, alongside Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh's contribution to the revival and popularization of ghazals in India and abroad too has thus remained unparalleled  so far and even though we have many new ghazal  singers, both females and males trying to make their own place, one can safely say that neither any male nor any female ghazal exponent of current times seems to be getting anywhere close even to the levels touched by Rajinder Nina, Bhupinder Mitali, Roop Sonali or their other contemporaries, what to even mention of Jagjit Singh Chitra Singh in the couples club and of Jagjit Singh, Mehndi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Hariharan in the solo males clubs of ghazal composer and singers.
Some of the best solos sung by Chitra Singh that I can recall today would include ..Kabhi to khul ke baras, Abre meharban ki tarah, Mera wajood hai, Jalte hue makaan ki tarah  ..., Suna tha ki woh aayenge anjuman mein, Suna tha ke unse mulakat hogi ...., Bahut pehle se un qadmon ki aahat jaan lete hain, Tujhe ae zindagi, Hum door se pehchaan lete hain ....., Ab ke baras bhi wo nahin aaye bahaar mein ..Safar mein dhoop to hogi, Jo chal sako to chalo ..Manzil na de charag to de, haunslla to de, Tinke ka hee sahi tu magar aasra to de ... ....,  Chitra Singh's collaboration with Jagjit Singh, especially in punjabi numbers too has remained a benchmark so far ...Let's recall songs like Saun da mahina yaaro, Saun da mahina-e ... Charkha mera rangla, vich sone diyan mekhan ... Sare pindch puadhe paye, haye haye neein tere gore rang ne billo ..and ..Mitti da bawa main banandi aan, ve jhgha paandi aan .. , 

With such a colossal lifelong contribution to the field of ghazal singing and music, it is high time honorable prime minister Modi ji presents Chitra ji with the gift of the announcement of a Padma Vibhushan on her 83rd birthday as also the much awaited Bharat Ratna to Dr. Jagjit Singh for honing such a great artiste besides all of his own countless contributions to the field of music, ghazals, bhajans, shabads, bollywood, other multilingual melodies, lifelong charities, social service and for India's cultural bonding with the entire world through his unmatchable musical creations.

With a view to draw the attention of the Padma Awards committee towards this demand, Jagjit Chitra fans from all across the globe this year have celebrated the dual birth months of Jagjit Chitra from February 08 to March 18th through a series of nationwide major events offering floral tributes to this, India's finest composer-singer couple ever so far. At the day long just concluded meet of about 45 hardcore dedicated singing fans of the Ghazal Duo, the audience enjoyed rendition of a Ghazal marathon of over 60 ghazals beautifully rendered by each participant on selected musical karaoke tracks. The events were marked by the special presence of Bhajan Legend Anup Jalota as the Chief Guest, 92 year young Jaswant Singh; the eldest brother of  Jagjit Singh, National Award Winning Director Brahmanand Singh, who made the first biopic on the life of Jagjit Singh, Kuldip Desai, the life long Secretary cum Manager of Jagjit Singh and a large number the duo's practicing disciples, all of whom voicing their support for the Bharat Ratna for Jagjit Singh and a Padma Vibhushan for Chitra Singh. A few pics of the same are shared hereunder, please.