BHIMSEN JOSHI had already set out on his musical expedition when Godavari Bai came into the household as his stepmother in the late 1940s. One day, a couple of years after my marriage, someone came and held my feet tightly. I was shocked and asked this person who he was. He said, Bless me, I am your first son.' I was so happy to see him, recalls Godavari Bai, who is a year younger to Bhimsen Joshi.
The temperamental Bhimsen Joshi was wont to turn up suddenly with an entire group of friends and occupy the front room of their modest house and settle down for riyaz.
In the company of his friends Rotti Seenappa and Vittalasa Kabadi, Bhimu's riyaz went on endlessly. He would not care about food or sleep. My husband would get angry and tell me not to give him any food. How could I? I would keep going back to the room to call him and he would insist that I sit there and listen to him. Was it good?' he would ask. What did I know of music? But his voice was like the roar of a lion, Godavari Bai says with pride. And when he did come for lunch, it was with his entire band of friends. Give me less food, but my friends who are here for me should have enough, she recalls him as saying.
He would invariably call his mother if he came to Hubli, Dharwad or Belgaum for a performance. Avva, please make bhakri and brinjal curry. I long to eat your food, he would tell her.
Every year before the Sawai Gandharva festival, he promptly sent his parents train tickets. He had enormous love for his parents. The train would reach Pune at 3-30 a.m. and he would be there waiting on the platform to receive us. The station master, a coolie or two, and some others would be sitting around chatting with him, while he had his fix of betel leaf and areca. Even when he had become a legendary figure this did not change. He would drive us home, and without waking up anyone else in the household, he would make tea for us. This is your house, feel at home,' he always said.
In the last 20 years, Godavari Bai saw very little of Bhimu'. He did not come to Gadag. But I visited him a couple of times, she says. In January 2010, she insisted on being taken to Pune despite her poor health. He was ailing and so was I. I was determined to see him. He had bandages all over, and I couldn't bear to see him like that, she cries. It will be a long time before there will be another like him.
Deepa Ganesh
