Indian veteran singer Asha Bhosle, who turns 89 on Thursday, has been singing in the movies since the 1940s and popular singers through those early days of Hindi film music, she had to go through many obstacles to make it, reports Indian Express.

Before getting married to music composer RD Burman, the legendary singer was married to Ganpatrao Bhosle with whom she had three children.

In a 1993 chat with Salil Chowdhury, which aired on Doordarshan Kolkata, the veteran singer shared that when she started singing she used to live away from Mumbai and would travel in a train every day to come to the city.

When she had her son Hemant in 1949, she had to leave her one-month-old behind with her in-laws so she could pursue her singing career as she needed the money.

“I would have to leave my one-month-old behind so I could go and sing and earn money. In those struggle days, sometimes I would get a song, sometimes I would not. I would wake at 5 am for riyaaz. Apart from all this, I had to do all the household chores as well,” she said.

Asha recalled that when she later moved to Borivali, it used to be a village. The world was starting to know her as a singer but her daily routine comprised of fetching water from the well, cooking all the meals, packing lunch boxes for the kids, dropping them to school, and even taking care of her in-laws. After all of this, she would stand up for hours on end and record the songs, even when it sometimes took 8 hours.

She recalled that even when she moved to a bigger house, the household chores were still her duty.

“God has given me a lot of energy, and a strong will power too. I would never say no to anything. I would stand up and sing as long as it would take… 6-8 hours. Sometimes the whole night,” she said.

Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan