Exclusive interview: Suresh Wadkar: Music helped me tremendously while I battled Covid

Legendary Bollywood singer Suresh Wadkar recently recovered from Covid-19. In an exclusive chat with Bombay Times, he says, “Since the last one and a half years, I have been home-bound almost completely, rarely went anywhere. A couple of months back me and my family tested positive. Me, my wife, my elder sister, my older daughter, all of us had Covid.I was hospitalized for 12 days. My sister too had to be hospitalised. We all went through a very bad time. It was a horrifying situation to be in the hospital with Covid.”
For Suresh Wadkar, music is like sadhana, and that is what helped him tremendously while he battled the virus. He believes that sangeet riyaz involves a lot of breathing and lung activity and that helps. “Sangeet hi meri zindagi hai, aur music saanson ka hai and main music ke saath hi saans leta tha. Breathing is most important during Covid, and by the grace of God because I practiced music every day for more than two to three hours, my breathing practise went on every single day too. So that’s why I had a lesser lung problem. The hospital doctors and staff also took a lot of care and that is why I could come out of Covid.”
While he was in the hospital and later too, he would be immersed in music. Known for his blockbuster tracks in Bollywood's hit films like ‘Chandni’, ‘Dil’, ‘Satya’, ‘Maachis’ and others, the singer says, “All the time I was listening to my favourite singers, classical, light classical and film songs. Bahut suna Lata ji (Lata Mangeshkar) ko, kyunki main unka bahut deewana hoon. I heard Aamir Khan sahab, Bade Gulam Ali Khan sahab, Mehdi Hasan Khan sahib and others.”
The senior singer has taken his first vaccine shot already. “Me and my wife Padma both have been vaccinated. She had Covid right after she took the vaccine. Till then she was the one who was taking care of us,” he says.
He feels that it’s been a very bad time for everyone in the last over a year. “Dekha jaaye toh, jeena hi mushkil ho gaya hai. There is a lot of chaos everywhere, people aren’t getting proper treatment because hospitals mein jagah hi nahi hai. The government is also trying and good-hearted people are contributing in many ways and somehow manage ho raha hai. If people are more serious about it all then the situation might get better,” he adds.
“Covid is a horrible disease and left me terribly weak. I didn’t feel like doing anything at all during those days. But then that is how it is. This is what we have to live with. That is what professionals are saying. This is a disease that will touch everyone in the world because it is airborne. I wish that through the devotional music that I am into, that I am able to pray to the almighty to help us battle this disease. Yehi hamari koshish hai,” he signs off.