'We want recognition as Pandit Bhimsen's legitimate family'

'Gaanaryache Por' (son of a singer), a book in Marathi penned by Raghavendra Joshi, eldest son of legendary Hindustani vocalist and late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi is creating ripples in music circles. The book, to be released on November 22 and set to be translated into Kannada, reveals the less-talked about side of the maestro's life, says the author. A native of Gadag in Karnataka but settled in Pune, Raghavendra runs a small business and pursues his hobby of water divining. He spoke to TOI on his relationship with his father and the legal tangle with the children of Panditji's second wife.

Excerpts:

Q: What prompted you to write the book after your father's demise?

A: I used to write small articles in Marathi. I have seen my mother Sunanda suffer. She was just 24 and a mother of three children when another woman entered my father's life. Many people have written Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's biography but there was little about my mother and us. Though Bhimanna (as I used to call my father) loved us, we were deprived of his prosperity and love when we needed it most. Many people asked me to write about the other side of my father's life and I too felt I should bring out the true story of his life.

How was your relationship with him?

My mother was the daughter of Bhimanna's maternal uncle. They married in 1944. She had always stood by him. and my siblings are Usha, Sumangala and Anand.

In 1951 Bhimanna married Vatsala Mudholkar who used to act in dramas. Initially we all tried to live together but that did not work. We were forced to move out and stay in a rented house in Limayewadi in Sadashiv Peth, Pune

. We had to manage with the meagre Rs 200 that we received from my father. But he was a loving father and visited us regularly. Things changed as his prosperity and popularity went up. After I started working we did not depend on him. In a way he was relieved. I used to gift him silk clothes on his birthdays and he would wear them during concerts. If I was present among the audience, he would look at me and touch his new shirt.

Why are you sour with Panditji's second family?

Nobody will think of exploiting a bedridden father and drag him to concerts. When he was in hospital, I once asked him a question that had haunted me for long: You mastered raagas like Abhogi, Jogiya and Bhairavi with such refinement and tenderness.

'You could make people cry with the beauty of your voice. How could a man as soft as you be so cruel to your own family, especially me? (He never taught me music though he knew that I had a good voice)'. He burst into tears, held my palms tightly and said, 'Obbara kaiyaaga emotionally sikku hakkobaradu' (one should not be emotionally captive) meaning he had become a captive in his second family.

How did your mother take it?

She tried to reconcile to the situation. She died in 1992. On that day Bhimanna was in Mumbai. I informed him but he asked us to go ahead with the cremation. Sobbing, I replied that this was expected of him and disconnected the phone. Within minutes he called me saying he was coming for the last rites. He came and applied kumkum on my mother's forehead. When I cried, he patted me on my back. It was so reassuring.

What is the legal fight about?

Bhimanna's children from his second wife, Srinivas and Jayant, have fabricated his will. I challenged it in court and secured an interim stay order on October 27 restraining them from selling Bhimanna's 'Kalashri' bungalow in Laxmi Park and the two flats in Pune. They are the children of Bharata Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi but so are we. My fight is more for our recognition as Pandit's legitimate family.