Yet the living institution carried her greatness lightly. One of the greatest singers of Tagore songs chopping vegetables for the family lunch was a common sight to many students of her music school, Rabitirtha.

When Mitra sang, she soared above the mundane world surrounding her. After her performance, most of her audience felt they had accompanied her in a journey to a joyous world, which had no place for careworn minds. This is not at all surprising. For Suchitra Mitra made no secret of the fact that her sole passion was Rabindra Sangeet.

It was her creed too. And it was closest to her heart. Mitra seemed destined to carry Rabindra Sangeet to heights hitherto unscaled. She took her first lessons in Tagore songs from Pankaj Mullick, who needs no introduction.

Joining Visva Bharati 20 days after Tagore's passing, the scholarship girl became the apple of the eyes of one and all of the residents of Santiniketan. And Mitra proved to be the very embodiment of Tagore's teaching of triumphing over evil with good.

World War II was raging when Mitra set foot in the red earth of "Abode of Peace". Even as India was straining every fibre of her being to shake off the foreign yoke, imperialists were sowing the seeds of communalism. The bitter harvest would reaped in 1946 with the eruption of the Great Calcutta Killings and culminate in the country's dismemberment.

Mitra and other artistes took on the rioters with what they were adept at, their art. With a mob baying for blood around her, Mitra stood atop a truck and sang: "Sarthak Janom Amar Jonmechi Ei Deshe ..."(I am blessed to be born in this country).

The spirit of taking on apparently overwhelming odds seemed to have been a part of her singing style. It was inimitable and it was packed with the power of her resolve never to bow or bend.

Like every artiste, Mitra was a part and parcel of the society and as such should be a participant in the burning issues of the day. It was strengthened with her coming in touch with communist philosophy, which remained with her till she breathed her last.

A rigid backbone brought her on to a collision course with Jawaharlal Nehru, after he saw a dance drama in which she sang. The songs were misinterpreted by Nehru who thought he was being depicted negatively.

For the next six years, Mitra did not present songs in the All India Radio. But she could not care less, having carved out her niche in the hearts of innumerable fans. Mitra's gramophone records sold like hot cakes. She had immortalised Tagore songs both at home and abroad.

Invitations to perform poured in cutting across the ideological divide. For her fans abounded in U.S, Canada as well as USSR and Hungary. Heading the department of music, Rabindra Bharati, penning an encyclopaedia for students and researchers of Tagore songs, books in Bengali on Rabindra Sangeet were all part of her day's work. She never hurried for she never wasted time.

A recipient of Padmasree and becoming the first woman Sheriff of Kolkata did not change her a bit. She continued to rub shoulders with the commoner and the high and mighty with an accustomed ease.

Documentaries have been filmed on her, and one of them directed by Raja Sen, won a national award. Enacting the role of a plain-living high-thinking granny in the film Dahan in which she tells her granddaughter that she had merely done her duty by saving a young woman from youths lusting after her virtue will continue to be the signature style of the character of the great singer. Rabindra Sangeet was her praner debata (soul mate). In its pursuit, she lived a life well lived. (IPA Service)