Bijetri Roy, Editor-in-Chief, Inspire Spectrum

The man whose soulful voice gave a hopeless romantic teenager struggling with heartbreaks and crush rejections, songs like “tadap tadap” and “ek pal ke liye” were the band-aids.

When he sang “aye bekhabar”, it gave me hope of finding an equally broken soul later in life who would croon the song for me and say “mera dil tere pyaar mein aah bhare…”

Fun and energetic songs like “touch me”, “ab to forever” were my birthday party songs as a teenager, with a sprinkle of “o humdum”.

When he sang “labon ko”, I experienced my first fireworks of lust and butterflies of excitement at 16!

He sang “teri nazron ne dil ka kiya jo hashr” and I would travel across parallel multiverses being wooed by my knight in shining armour.

“Tu hi meri shab hai” touches the deepest chords of the heart and makes me travel across time, moments, unfulfilled and unrequited desires, especially at “aankhon se padhke tujhe, dil pe maine likha…”

Songs like “kyun ajkal” and “khuda jaane” are the invisible gondola rides across different times, seeking love, losing love, breakups, heartbreaks and hope.

The man who gave us songs like “Pal” and “yaaron dosti” to croon at school farewells and during class breaks, ironically made “pal” his swan song at his last performance.

Gone too soon, leaving a potpourri of emotions in a long-term playlist of a hopeless romantic whose world revolves around make-believe scenarios, with KK’s songs adding life to those scenarios…