R. Ranjan/Bhagalpur

The legendary singer Kishore Kumar may have passed away in October 1987 yet his iconic songs continue to give wings to the dreams of young men and women across the world.

Kishore Kumar's Musafir Hoon Yaaron...Na Ghar Hai Na Thikana. (I am a wanderer; have no home or a destination. I have to keep walking..) from the Hindi film, Parichay was probably written to commemorate his relationship with Bhagalpur city of Bihar where his mother’s family came from.

Today’s internet-driven youth may not know that once upon a time Kishore Kumar's songs would be playing all the time and at all the places in the streets of Bhagalpur as if the city wanted to wield its connection with the legend that Kishore Da was.

Although Kishore Kumar lived in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, his maternal grandfather Shivchandra Banerjee lived in the city of Bhagalpur. Abhas Kumar Ganguly, who later came to be known as Kishore Kumar, the famous singer of Indian cinema, would visit his grandfather’s house.

His grandfather's house was popularly known as Rajbati in the Adampur locality of Bhagalpur. The British had given the title of Raja to Shivchandra Banerjee. He had two sons and two daughters. The elder girl was Gauri and the other was Veena.

Gauri Devi was the mother of Bollywood personalities Ashok Kumar alias Dada Muni and Kishore Kumar. Besides she had another son, Anoop Kumar, and a daughter Sati Rani.

Ratna Mukherjee with Joy Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar in Mumbai

Banerjee’s second daughter, Veena Devi’s son Arun Kumar Mukherjee became a musician. She also had a daughter Ratna Mukherjee.

Ratna Mukherjee has retired as the Head of the Department of Psychology, Bhagalpur University, and is the closest relative of Kishore Kumar who continues to live in Bhagalpur. After her retirement, she is the president of Bihari-Bengali society.

Ratna Mukherjee says her father passed away when she was five years old. After that, the whole family left for Khandwa to stay with the family of her aunt – Kishore Kumar’s mother.

After her father's passing, Ratna's mother took her two daughters to live in the company of Ashok Kumar, who was like a saint in the whole family.

After staying with Ashok Kumar in Mumbai from 1955-60, she moved back to Bhagalpur. Ratna tells that Ashok Kumar and his wife were very good humans, while Kishore Kumar was a very cool person. He was quite moody, whimsical and at times showed arbitrary behaviour.

Ratna says that once when the family was returning home in a car in Mumbai a person was selling goods near the traffic signal on the way.

Ratna Mukherjee with Amit Kumar

Kishore Kumar asked his driver about the goods that man was selling. The driver told him that the man was selling some food items made of Mysore dal (lentil). Suddenly Kishore Kumar remembered something and shouted, “Hey, I have to go to Mysore and he immediately ordered the driver to take him to the airport, and he left for Mysore.’

Ratna says that Kishore Kumar was always engrossed in music; he was almost intoxicated by it. However, he was not into alcohol or smoking though he enjoyed chewing betel leaf. He was not a party lover and shied away from meeting people.

She says, in 2012, Kishore da's son Amit Kumar came to Bhagalpur and met all his relatives. The family never thought Amit Kumar’s voice was any match to his fathers’.

Earlier, when she went to Mumbai during summer vacation, all the cousins would meet warmly each other. There was a lot of talk on music and literature. The atmosphere of the house was musical. She has memories of meeting Film directors like Vimal Rai, Jai Mukherjee, and the family of Kajol's mother.

Today Bhagalpur still hosts the memory of Kishore da's maternal grandfather's house. After the division of property among his children, most of them have left for Kolkata after selling their land and other properties in Bhagalpur.

Likewise, the Bengali community has also shrunk in Bhagalpur. “I live here now in the name of Kishore da's relative. I did not marry, but I have several young nieces and nephews to live with the rest of my life,” says Ratna Banerjee.

Meanwhile, the song kabhi alvida na kehna….(Never say good byes) buzzes in the street outside Ratna Mukherjee’s house as if the legend is reminding everyone that he lives in his songs forever…!