Visva-Bharati cancelled its cultural programme on Sunday on the occasion of Magh Mela after the news of Mangeshkar’s demise was out and instead announced a special prayer in her memory scheduled for Wednesday. “She called me over for a photograph with me as she probably saw me taking photographs the entire day. Mangeshkar asked for a photograph with him at the dinner offered by then vice-chancellor Dilip Kumar Sinha, he recalled. Her way of paying respect, I will never forget…,” said Samiran Nandy, a former photographer of Visva-Bharati who had covered Mangeshkar on behalf of the varsity. She spent at least five minutes in such a gesture to pay respect to Rabindranath. “She stood in front of the Nobel Prize medal kept inside a glass box, and touched her forehead on it. Many in Santiniketan who witnessed Mangeshkar on campus in 1997 recalled how interested she was in Rabindranath Tagore’s legacy, and how she had paid her respects to the legendary poet. That evening, Mangeshkar visited Bandyopadhyay’s home, he added. Friends and admirers fondly addressed Bandyopadhyay as Mohor di. I cannot forget the humility of such a legendary person,” said Bandyopadhyay's nephew Mukherjee.
She asked me in Bengali, ‘Mohor di pathiyechhen? (Were these sent by Mohor di?)’. “I, accompanied by Gora Sarbadhikari (also an eminent Rabindra Sangeet exponent), went to the hotel to hand over the flowers to Lataji. Later that afternoon, Bandyopadhyay sent a bouquet of flowers from her garden to Mangeshkar's hotel. The “awestruck” audience listened to the impromptu performance with “pin drop” silence, said old-timers. On the dais, Mangeshkar said she’d like to sing a verse of the Saraswati Vandana and proceeded to do so. But the rapport between them was instant, recalled those present. On the morning of the event, Mangeshkar and Bandyopadhyay met each other reportedly for the first time. “That meeting had come about because Visva-Bharati had chosen to confer its highest award, the ‘Desikottam’, to both the legends in the same ceremony that year, and their meeting had generated much anticipation,” said a Santiniketan old-timer. We were deprived of such a historic collection of Rabindra Sangeet,” said Priyam Mukherjee, Bandyopadhyay's nephew and a Rabindra Sangeet artiste present at the 1997 meeting. However, it was not possible as my mashi (aunt) passed away in 2000. “Lataji visited Anandadhara, the home of my baro mashi (Kanika) where she stated in front of all that she would like to release a Rabindra Sangeet album directed by Kanika Bandyopadhyay. The idea never germinated as Bandyopadhyay died three years later in 2000. There, Mangeshkar had expressed a wish to sing a Rabindra Sangeet album directed by Bandyopadhyay, recalled sources.
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