PATNA: On Tuesday evening, when the much-revered four-day Chhath festival started amid reverberations of Chhath songs throughout Bihar and other States, the voice which was inseparable from such devotional songs became silent. Forever.
Sharda Sinha, the ‘Kokila (cuckoo) of Bihar’, passed away at the age of 72, battling cancer. A pall of gloom descended everywhere after the doctors confirmed the news and Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent in his condolence message.
“Your prayers and love will always be with my mother. She has been called by ‘Chhati Maiya’ to be with her side,” tweeted Sharda Sinha’s son Anshuman Sinha.
Born at Supaul in Bihar in October 1952, Sharda Sinha studied at Bankipore Girls High School in Patna and then graduated from Magadh Mahila College before teaching music for around four decades at Women’s College in Samastipur.
An exponent of folk music, she soon became a synonym for Chhath festival with her songs “Uga ho Sooraj Dev” and “Hey Chhati Maiyya” becoming major hits. These songs became an inseparable part of Chhath when the devotees offer ‘arghya’ (tribute/prayers) to the Sun God.
PADMA AWARDS
Popularly known as “Bihar’s Kokila”, Sharda was bestowed with the Padma Award twice: Padma Shri in 1991 and Padma Bhushan in 2018. However, many people are unaware of the roadblocks she faced during her initial days.
Eight brothers and the sole sister, Sharda got married on May 8, 1970, to Braj Kishore Sinha who later became Deputy Director in Bihar’s Education Department. Sharda’s mother-in-law was not in favour of her singing folk or devotional songs. So miffed was her mother-in-law that she stopped taking food for two days when Sharda insisted on singing. It was, however, her husband and father-in-law who stood by her like a rock.
Since then, there was no looking back for Sharda who started rendering folk songs in her inimitable style at the All India Radio (AIR) concerts and other cultural programmes.
A family source says that once while performing before the legendary Begum Akhtar in the 70s, the latter suggested to Sharda that she should do riyaaz (practice) regularly – advice that helped the folk singer carve a niche for herself.
The big break, however, came when Rajshri Productions signed her for ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, the Salman Khan and Bhagyashree-starrer blockbuster of 1989, in which Sharda Sinha’s ‘Kahe Tohse Sajna, Yeh Tohri Sajania’ became a chartbuster, thereby helping her career grow by leaps and bounds.
Rajshris repeated her in their next mega-hit ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ where she doled out another chartbuster: ‘Babul Jo Tumne Sikhaya’. By this time, she was often referred to as “Lata of Bihar” and “Begum Akhtar of Mithila”. It was then that veteran film-maker Anurag Kashyap signed her up for ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ where she rendered her voice for the politically laced song ‘Tar Bijli Se Patle Humare Piya’, another chartbuster under her belt.
In the meantime, she focused on folk songs along with Thumri, Dadra and Bhajans, making her popular in countries like Mauritius and Suriname too, where the NRIs and the new generation started humming her devotional songs during Chhath.
Going by her popularity, the Election Commission of India (EC) appointed her as its brand Ambassador for the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2010 and 2015 Assembly polls. The purpose was her mass appeal would help increase voter turnout – a feat achieved successfully by the EC.
However, in 2017, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of cancer which affects bone marrow. On October 25, 2024, she was admitted to AIIMS when she was diagnosed with septicemia and remained under doctor’s observation. Her situation turned critical two days back and she was put on the ventilator. She passed away on November 5 at around 9.30 pm. Sharda Sinha was cremated in Patna on November 6 with full State honours.
“Main jaldi aaongee (I’ll come back soon),” she posted on social media in September after her husband passed away one-and-a-half months back. Her death (within 45 days of her husband’s passing away) provides the clearest evidence of their love story.
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