Singer Rahul Vaidya feels lucky that he got to pay his last respects to late singer Lata Mangeshkar. But, he says he walked away before her pyre was set on fire. “When I saw the tricolour being taken off from her body before her funeral pyre was set on fire… Oh my God, I still can’t express my emotions. I felt heavy in my heart, and had tears in my eyes,” Vaidya chokes, as he recalls her funeral.

The Nightingale of India passed away on Sunday and her last rites were held in Mumbai. Looking back at the moment when he bid goodbye to the doyen of Indian music, Vaidya shares, “Watching her body being kept on the chandan wood was a difficult moment. It was an unusual feeling. I choked. I kneeled down, paid my last respect and walked off before they set her on fire.”

The singer, 34, considers himself lucky to get a chance to pay his tribute, as “many people wanted to get the last glimpse of her”. But, with a heavy heart, he adds, “While we know death is inevitable, we never thought a day would come when we would hear that Lata ji is no more.”

Vaidya interviewed Mangeshkar for a special cause in 2013, and remembers being “terribly late” for the interview due to traffic. “It took me four hours to reach her place. I had almost turned pale, because I made her wait, but she made me feel really comfortable,” says the singer, who also interacted with her over the phone several times.

While he feels the void after her death will stay forever, Vaidya says she will always stay alive through her music. “She is going to be with us forever through her musical legacy, like she says in her song, ‘Tum mujhe yun bhula na paaoge, jab kabhi bhi sunoge geet mere, sang sang tum bhi gungunaoge,” he concludes.