When Pete Seeger sang Gandhi’s favourite ‘Raghupati Raghav’

Pete Seeger, 94, died at a US hospital Monday. The singer who made "We shall overcome" a global anthem, first visited India in 1963 and his performances in Kolkata especially his ‘Raghupati Raghav’ rendition left the audience spellbound.

Seeger later told an interviewer that he felt overwhelmed then when he heard the Bengali translation of "We Shall Overcome" in a little village.

He said he was spotted by a man familiar with his music. "I visited a tiny little village and a man recognized me," he recalled three years back. "He ran and got his 5-year-old daughter and the two of them sang 'We Shall Overcome' in the Bengali language."

Seeger returned to Kolkata in 1996 for two concerts at Nazrul Mancha and Kalamandir.

While people took to social networking sites reminiscing their rendezvous with Seeger, singer Suman, then known as Suman Chatterjee, expressed deep anguish and regret at the "obliteration" of history which he created in 1996, sharing the stage with the man whom he befriended in 1983 in the US.

"Barring one or two photos, there is nothing to prove that an Indian, a singer from our very own Kolkata, shared stage with a man revered all over the globe. It's a tragedy," said Suman who performed alongside the legend at both Nazrul Mancha and Kalamandir.

"In one of my songs Pete picked up his banjo and played along while in one of his songs he wanted me to play my guitar as an interlude. I still remember his passionate voice yelling at me, 'Suman, come play your guitar'," the parliamentarian said in his blog.