Javed Akhtar once recalled a fascinating anecdote about Lata Mangeshkar's sur.

This song.

Lata once confessed to Gulzar her desire to playback for Dilip Kumar. Gulzar says she did it convincingly (not for DK) when she sang this melody which was originally conceptualised for a man singing about his lady love's perfumed eyes.

She did it somewhat, playback for the hero Shashi Kapoor, when she sang after Mukesh, "Suhaag raat hai ghoonghat utha raha hoon main," in this song.

In the only Hindi film she produced Lekin, she and her brother Hridaynath rejigged a tune they had made for an album on Ghalib's ghazals. This is the ghazal. It was reworked as Suniyo Ji Araz Mhaari in Lekin, where it fits better.

As a young girl she joked that she would marry K L Saigal. She never met or recorded with him. She loved singing his popular song Ek Bangla Bane Nyaara. Here's her tribute to him.

She did sing the first Hindi queer song too, if you expand your gaze. It is exquisite.

She sang over 5000 Hindi film songs. She was often asked to name her favourite. It changes with time. Once, in a television interview with Javed Akhtar, when he asked her, she said Ae Dil-e-Nadan. She remembered the composer Khayyam, but not the lyricist.

Javed Akhtar first thanked his own stars, then thanked her, and then went on to remind her the song was written by his father, the incomparable Jan Nisar Akhtar.

All 4 Mangeshkar sisters Lata, Asha, Usha and Meena sang probably their only quartet Kabhi Aankhon Mein Teri in Jahan Ara, but the song was never released.

Here's one time Lata's Sili Hawa was pitted against her sister Asha's Mera Kuch Samaan. https://medium.com/@manishgaekwad/the-identical-songs-of-ijaazat-and-libaas-7a473b038046

The temperamental songwriter Sahir Ludhianvi didn't get along with a lot of musicians, and did have his ups and downs with Lata too when he wouldn't change lyrics. Here's one time they were in sync when Khayyam, Lata and Sahir collaborated. https://medium.com/@manishgaekwad/sahir-ludhianvis-heartbreaking-lyrics-about-his-mother-s-hardship-b70a9849d48f

My favourite (and final for this unending thread) #LataMangeshkar story is an emotional story of how she and her idol Madam Noor Jehan once met in No Man's Land in 1951.

But first watch Lata learn how to enunciate 'mohabbat' from Noor Jehan.

In 1951, Lata was in Amritsar, and felt a strong urge to meet Noor Jehan. Madam NJ had migrated across after Partition.

Music composer C Ramachandra made calls and arranged for the singers to meet in the no man's land area where music is porous.

They hugged, they wept, they sat down in the open field and exchanged songs and sweets. It was like sisters reuniting. The promised to visit each other more often.

That promise was delayed by a few decades. NJ came to Bombay for a concert in 1982.

The two singers met again. NJ sang the Faiz nazm - Mujh se pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang.

That word 'mohabbat' which Lata had learnt from NJ.

In the same year as the NJ concert (1982), Lata sang a beautiful melody, where her enunciation of 'mohabbat' is pitch-perfect.

Perhaps 'mohabbat,' like music, is their code word.