Sharda Sinha
Sharda Sinha, the much-loved Bihar nightingale of Bhojpuri society who added joy to the songs of Chhathi Maiya, is no more. Due to the news of his demise, there is mourning not only in his native Hulas village in Supaul, Bihar, but the people of Samastipur’s Lagunia village, his place of residence, are also immersed in grief. Sharda Sinha used to practice here for hours with famous tabla player Saryu Rai. Sharda Sinha had also formed a women’s group here, among whom she used to hold meetings.
The idea of recording Sharda Sinha’s first Chhath song ‘Ug Ug Hey Suruj Dev…’ also came up during Riyaz in this village. Sharda Sinha, who recognized Maithili and Bhojpuri songs not only in the country but across the world, considered tabla player Saryu Rai, who lives in Lagunia village, as her guardian. While doing riyaaz with Saryu Rai, he made Samastipur his initial work area. It is said that in the town of Lagunia everyone, whether man or woman, is interested in music.
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Great artists used to come because of Sharda Sinha.
However, before Sharda Sinha came here, people were not pursuing music professionally. When Sharda Sinha came here and people started doing Riyaz with her, she became in demand in the programs organized outside the village. According to the elders of Lagunia village, thanks to Sharda Sinha, all the great artists of the country started coming here. Many times famous artists would come here and stay for 15 days each and practice with Sharda Sinha.
Visits to villages decreased after 2000.
According to local people, when Sharda Sinha came to this village, he entertained the women by singing marriage and festival songs. He later focused on Chhathi Maiya songs. Rajiv Rai, youngest son of tabla player Suraj Rai, says she used to encourage new artistes. According to Rajiv, his father died on May 28, 2000. After that, Sharda Sinha came here to pay tribute. However, after this his visits became less frequent.
Also Read: Bihar’s nightingale Sharda Sinha passed away and breathed her last at Delhi AIIMS on the first day of Chhath fast.
The idea of recording a song arose while they were talking.
Rajiv Rai says that once Sharda Sinha was practicing singing with her father. The song that Riyaz was practicing on was also from Chhathi Maiya. As soon as the song was over, her father gave a loud cheer and advised Sharda Sinha to record this song. That year was 1978. At that time, Sharda Sinha had recorded many of her songs, but she was not ready to record this Chhathi Maiya song. At that time his father encouraged him and after recording this song it became a hit.
The songs became hits one after another.
After the first song of Chhathi Maiya became a hit, Sharda Sinha came up with many songs one after another and all these songs became hits. According to Rajiv Rai, before recording any song in the studio, Sharda Sinha used to practice it at her home here. The first listener of his songs was his father. When her father passed the songs to her, Sharda Sinha would sing the same songs with the women of the village and finally the songs were recorded. Their songs became hits immediately after being recorded.