Rest in music Pt Jasraj . For my mother and her siblings and parents, he was family. As a young man in Kolkata, he used to come to my grandparents' Elgin Road home to teach my 4-5 year old mum and her elder sister music. #thread

He would come home early morning, set the two little girls to do riyaz and sleep off on the sofa, telling them to wake him when their mother brought in filter coffee and idlis. The two brats once put signs all over the house saying सोफ़े पर सोना मना है!

On Jasraj ji's 89th birthday celebration in Mumbai, mum gifted him some old family photos of him, with a reminder of the "सोफ़े पर सोना मना है" (sleeping on the sofa is prohibited) joke.

Mum told me that at his 89th birthday function, two tiny little girls had rendered his Mero Allah Meharbaan song at Jasraj ji's request. I found his own rendering on YouTube

In 2016, he called mum in reply to her text asking after his health, to say "look, i'm entering my 88th year, obviously health cant be perfect." She said "who says you are 88? For me you will always be the 25 yr old handsome young man we knew in Calcutta!" He was very tickled

In 2010, Jasraj ji made it a point to meet my Patti (mum's mum) in Bangalore (those were her last years). They had a very loving meeting and conversation about the old Calcutta memories.

Jasraj ji performed at Bhilai at the college where my mother was teaching many years ago. On that occasion he visited our home to meet my late dad (who was then ailing). There are some blurred pics of him with mum and uncle, and dad and my sister.

My Thatha used to tell us of Jasraj ji meeting him at a fancy Bombay hotel where Thatha was staying. His two children, then little kids, made some mayhem in the hotel room.

And Thatha, a disciplinarian dad himself, was horrified at how Jasraj ji greeted every but of mayhem with a gentle (and ineffectual) "Sarang bete, Durga beti, badmashi mat karna" :)

My mother and our family join many all over the world in mourning the passing of this great musician.