| LOVE'S REFRAIN |
HARIHARAN and LALITA have
seen their marriage through rough times and have emerged on top, with their
love and friendship intact
PIALI BANERJEE |
 SHE is as hyperactive as they come. His lethargy
is the family joke.
She likes to work from nine to five. He is a nightbird with his work often
starting at nine p. m. and ending at five am.
She is practical, goes through life with a great deal of common sense. Most
often, he lives in his own world of make-believe.
She is the competent manager of his concerts. He is a true blue singer.
She is Lalita. He is Hariharan. A couple who have held hands bravely through
the lowest ebb of his career and come out winners after 13 long years...
When you walk into the Hariharan household on one of their rare, leisurely
Sunday afternoons, you find them at peace together, enjoying their paan
and listening to Mehdi Hasan ghazals.
But it hasn't always been sunny days for them. When they first met in 1984,
Hariharan was struggling to make it as a singer in Mumbai for eight years
and had gotten nowhere, leaving him frustrated with almost no peace of mind.
And theirs being an arranged marriage, things weren't exactly easy.
"I noticed Hari for the first time, singing old songs on television
for a programme, Mortal Men, Immortal Melodies. Actually, I noticed
him only because he shares my father's name!" recalls Lalita. "But
I liked his voice enough to remember to watch out for his concert the next
time he came to Calcutta. However, I guess destiny had other things in mind,
for within a couple of months, I heard that Hari's family and mine were
exchanging our horoscopes, and were organising a meeting for us." |
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