Krishnakumar Kunnath a man known less from the name that he was born with and more so with the one that the world  gave and he carried it on to success becoming an icon, KK.

Being born and raised in a middle class Malyali family in Delhi, the future megastar had a normal upbringing and even briefly worked as a marketing executive at one time after graduating from Kirori Mal College of Commerce in Delhi. Then as fate would have it, he moved to Mumbai from Delhi in 1994 and one thing led to another and he started singing. Shortly after, getting  his first break in Mumbai courtesy of UTV to sing a jingle for the Santogen ad after the insistence of Lesle Lewis, a person that KK had credited as his mentor on multiple occasions over the years. From then on he went on to sing more than 3,500 jingles in more than 11 languages, all in a short period of four years.

His most iconic songs being undeniably Aap ki Nazron, Yaaron and of course Pal, all from his debut album of the same name. Pal and Yaaron in particular captured the hearts of the audience topping the music charts so well that they became staples in every school and college farewell, with youngsters remembering every verse as if it was gospel. His love songs that became evergreen classic like ‘Maine Dil Se Kaha’, ‘Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai’, ‘Aankhon Me Teri’, ‘Ab To’ and ‘Tadap Tadap’ are all songs that arise emotions every time they reach our ears.

It is said that every artist has his prime, his high and lows and his best and fails. For KK, he was just different and immune to this believed consensus. In his golden days of singing and  ruling the Bollywood music scene with his romantic numbers from 2005 -2015 the singer never had an album or a song that could be agreed upon as not soulful, each song a hit banger. That was the legacy of KK, the one known as ‘The Voice of Love’ and ‘The only one with not even a single bad song’.

All of it, all of this, now makes a feel ing of  a distant cherished memory as the icon who taught the melody of love will now rest in the hearts of everyone of the early 2000s generation who grew up and got to witness the star walk his path to glory.

It all still feels like a sweet dream that turned into a nightmare . He came over to Kolkata to perform and win over hearts like he always did. The only difference this time around, the singer performed with all his heart and soul even though his own heart was desperately beating, uncertain if it  could even survive for just another moment, and it did survive, till he could complete the performance that is now his last.

Kolkata, while the proud Kolkatans may fondly call it the city of joy but for all the KK fans family it will now forever be the city where they lost their own.

While the pain of the millions of fans who grew up listening to and having KK be an integral part of their growing up is immense, it is none so greater than that of a wife who has lost her husband and children who have lost their father and that undeniable reality seems to be going unnoticed.