Dilip the golden voice
Dilip had the sweet, sweeter, sweetest voice. Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Bose, Romain Rolland and many, many others extolled his voice to the skies. These are all non-singers, true, but they were appreciating Dilip on the strength of their oneness, on the strength of their divinity and so many other things.It is very difficult for singers to appreciate other voices, but there are many, many singers who had the same opinion as these great figures — that Dilip had the sweetest, golden voice.
Once it was a very hot day and Dilip-da was singing a song about Meghnabali, the hero of our clouds. While he was singing that particular melody, all of a sudden there were clouds in the sky and then rain descended profusely.
Another time he was singing and the whole audience was transported to Heaven. Out of the blue, a deer came and stood in front of him.
Like that, Dilip-da had many, many experiences. Other singers, specially some of the classical music singers, are unbearably haughty. You cannot go near them. They refuse to accept lyrical songs. Unfortunately, there is always controversy between the singers of lyrical songs and the singers of classical songs. The classical singers find it difficult to appreciate melodious songs and vice versa. Dilip Roy was an emperor of lyrical songs. My songs are also lyrical.
Even now, when I hear Dilip-da's voice on tapes and CD's, it is unique, unique. His is a most haunting voice. To be absolutely frank, his voice has no parallel. If anybody asks me, among the singers whom I have heard over the years, right from my childhood, which voice is the best, I will put Dilip Roy's. His voice is so sweet that it is delicious. It is as if you are eating the sweetness of his voice. I can listen to him singing for hours. I have never heard and will never hear such a sweet voice as Dilip-da had. And he maintained his golden voice to the very end.