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Sabita Chowdhury, wife of music composer Salil Chowdhury, who had worked with Dey, remembers him as a man who loved music and funny one liners. For us, Manna Dey was family. I have sung with

him in many films, including in Gujarati, and he used to always encourage and praise me. And that meant a lot. But more than the music, it was the relationship that we as a family shared

with him. He and my husband Salil Chowdhury were good friends and it was really interesting how after doing riyaaz for sometime, the two would get together in a room and laugh their hearts

out. Salil used to crack all these silly jokes, and Manna da would be laughing; they shared a wonderful bond. I hadn’t seem him for many years but I used to keep track of him, especially

after he fell ill. After his wife Sulochana had passed away, Manna da had come to Kolkata for a concert. I knew that he was no longer the same man. He had withdrawn into a shell. He used to

love her very much, and I am quite certain that her death was what caused his illness. He had been ill for a while and I have to say that his passing is as expected as shocking. A genius

from the field of music is gone. It’s a little hard for me to believe and accept. We didn’t get to see him, either. It’s a terrible loss for all of us - as friends and colleagues. Supratik

Guha, lead singer of the Bangalore-based music band Aurko, talks about the Manna Dey he knew The first time I met Manna Dey was when we had approached him for a relief concert for the

Gujarat Earthquake in 2001. We had spent two hours together, where he had talked of music, music and more music. After that, I met him in 2008, when we had done a Bijoya Dashami programme in

Bangalore. We had invited him as a chief guest and he had graciously accepted. The few things I remember of him was his obsession with melody. He would say how modern music has become; all

about sound and less about melody. And he didn’t quite like the idea of using computers to bring music together. He would insist that music must have a human touch for it to work. What is

absolutely heart-breaking is when I met him after his wife had passed away. He had become a complete recluse and didn’t want to meet anyone at all. From a man who used to obsess over food,

even before a concert, loved to have fun, never spoke ill of any of his colleagues - but in fact thought some of his contemporaries such as Kishore Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee were far

better than him - would get openly upset if his microphone wasn’t working properly or a musician was not prepared. His passing is not about losing just a musician; he was an inspiration to

many and we have lost that inspiration. _As told to Priyadarshini Nandi_