A legend of a singer, who preferred Pakistan to India at Partition, Malika Pukhraj – for reasons best known to her was so reticent -- if the word cagey sounds harsh -- about her personal life that even her brief memoirs she published sometime in the 1970s, had not well-woven but abstractly recalled a few staid 'events' of her life, not the unusual 'highlights' as her fans had wanted to know.

Believe it or not, her date of birth could never be known, and the year of birth had to be calculated through substraction from an 'age', not a year, she had mentioned in her life's  journey from village Mirpur, Akhnoor  in Jammu to be a courtesan of Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir; later, onto the many studios of All India Radio, and finally to the 'mehfils' of Lahore and Karachi. She did films too.

It is amusing how her year of birth was calculated. And this, too, she neither confirmed nor denied. ( The columnist has a treasured possession of an 1971 LP of her choicest eight ghazals, two 'dadras' and the famous 'naghma' : 'abhi toh mein jawan hun' but nowhere does the jacket mention her age except a laudatory sentence that some four decades ago ( that would be 1931 ), Malika Pukhraj was a rage.)

Read on how a single event of her being admitted to Maharaja Hari Singh's court at the tender age of nine was time-lined to her year of birth. Since the Maharaja's coronation was in 1925, the assumption was that minus 9 years, she could be born in 1916. Then, her memoirs are altogether silent on the remuneration she received till she till turned 18. And, why was she forced to leave. Was it 1934 or 1935 ?

It was left to Yuvraj Karan Singh, the Maharaja's heir to reveal in 1984 that Malika drew a princely stipend of Rs 300 stipend per month though research into it by her enthusiasts revealed the sum was raised to Rs 500, and that she was a 'gazetted officer' of the court whatever it meant to the courtiers. Her memoirs do not mention it. But for her unceremonious palace exit, she does refer to a canard.

Her version is that rumours were afloat was that she trying to poison the Maharaja;  had turned uglier by the day that she herself would be either imprisoned or poisoned. Whether she was ordered to leave or she left on her own, she's scrupulously silent. The Maharaja, according to her memoirs, was not pleased. But didn't persuade her to stay on. The break up was complete. The two never met again.

Malika Pukhraj married a short story writer Syed Shabbir Hussain in 1944 and the couple had six children. But was it her first marriage ? It was widely believed in Jammu and Kashmir that after she turned an adult in early 1930s, she had married an Englishman, an advisor to the Maharaja and bore a son, Tariq. If true, no details are available. Only she knew and remained clamped up on this nuptial knot.

As for Hafeez Jullundri, he had settled in Lahore and had an ever growing audience having composed Pakistan's 'Qaumi Tarana', but Malika doesn't talk at all about her encounter with him, her keenness to sing his 'naghma' – 'abhi toh mein jawan hun', his consent, the deal, and it's not known if it was the lyricist himself who set it to music. The Gramaphone Company of India too omitted reference.

Since Malika and Hafeez were popular voices on Radio Lahore, Delhi, Lucknow and Calcutta before Partition, the conjecture is that the Calcutta based Gramophone Company of India tapped both. And the legendary lyricist's song by an equal legendary singer was first recorded on shellac or vinyl 78 rpm ( now extinct ).  She never sang a 'naghma' or a 'ghazal' by Hafeez again. This, too, remains unexplained.

She had moved to Pakistan before 1947, bought property and settled in Lahore but returned to Bombay just before Partition for the 'mahurat' of two films in which, it seems, she had financial interests. The films: 'Kajal' and 'Char Din'. The latter, a Suraiya starrer, shooting started in mid-August but Malika's memoirs do not have a single word on what an upheaval Partition was, especially in Lahore.

She supported orthodox bob cut. And wore goggles as a part of her persona except for the LP cover ( photographer not known ). She sang without goggles on BBC live in 1990s. Were they powered or was it a preference, she never shared. M.F. Hussain too painted her with goggles on. I could have cross checked with him in which year did he gift the painting to her. I did not, for it was a frivolous question.

Rest in peace, Malika. ( She died in 2004 ). No fan of yours feels the march of age.