Kissko pataa tha yeh gaana logon ko itna pasand ayega? (Who knew the song would be so much liked by people?). When Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo was being created, we never thought it would become such an imperishable patriotic anthem. I recall vividly that cold winter evening in Delhi in 1963 when I sang the song as part of the Republic Day celebrations in front of an audience that comprised President S Radhakrishnan, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and so many other distinguished guests. It was Pradeepji, the poet who wrote the immortal lyrics, who came to me and asked me to sing the song.

I declined because there was no time to rehearse and prepare to sing it in front of so many distinguished personalities. You see, at that time I was working round-the-clock. To give special attention to one song seemed impossible. We had very little time to get Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo ready. Rather than do a rush job, I wanted to opt out. But Pradeepji said if I don’t sing Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo, he would scrap the idea. I agreed. But I suggested we format the song into a duet with me and my sister Asha (Bhosle). But Pradeepji wanted it to be a solo. I insisted that we do it as a duet. In fact, Asha had even rehearsed for the song. But then days before we were to fly to Delhi, she came to me and said, ‘Didi. I’m not coming to Delhi.’

I tried to convince her to change her mind arguing that her name had even been printed in the newspapers as one of the singers. But she was adamant. Composer-singer Hemant Kumar had actually orchestrated the whole Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo project. I told Hemantda about Asha’s decision to not accompany us to Delhi to perform the song. Hemantda also tried to convince Asha. Lekin woh nahin manee. Then it was left to me to rehearse alone for the song. Pradeepji told C Ramachandra who was composing the tune for Pradeepji’s words, about my predicament. C Ramachandra informed us he had to be in Delhi at least 4-5 days in advance before our performance. So he was unable to rehearse the song with me. Instead, he gave me a tape of the number.

I picked up the tune from the tape and flew to Delhi on January 26 with all the big names from the film industry. Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan Mohan...we were all in one aircraft. I was listening to the tape with C Ramachandraji’s rendition of Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo all through the flight from Mumbai to Delhi. I was accompanied by my best friend Nalini Mhatre. When we reached Delhi in the night, I had a stomach ache.