/> It's not for nothing that Lata Mangeshkar is known as the Nightingale of Asia. Her voice has for six decades inspired, nurtured and healed a wounded civilization.

Lataji's voice is certifiably therapeutic. Dentists play her songs during molar surgery and surgeon's use the scalpel to the sonorous sound of her immortal songs, to assuage the patient's pain.And at her own hospital in Pune, where Lataji recently underwent a very successful knee surgery, patients claim they are healed just by the thought of being treated in a place run by her

Adnan Sami's terminally ailing father Arshad Sami Khan, a diehard devotee of the Mangeshkerian melodies, discovered the human side of the luminously dulcet singing diva when on Wednesday his son ran to his slumbering father with the phone trembling in those hands known to move over the piano at the speed of sound.

"Lataji had heard that my Baba was her ardent fan. ‘It's Lataji', I shook my father awake and thrust the phone in his hand. My father woke up groggy and disoriented. ‘Lata who?' he said.

When I told him it was THE Lata Mangeshlar, his absolute favourite, my sick dad suddenly came alive. Even his person doctor from Houston noticed the miraculous change in my father," Adnan breaks down when he speaks of thar historic phonecall from his father's and the nation's idol.

The relationship between Adnan's dad and the Nightingale's voice goes back a long way.

Explains Adan, "My dad's mother used to sing one of Lataji's lullabye's Dheere se aaja ri ankhiyan mein to put my father to sleep. And as a child I remember my father singing the same lullaby for me every night.

And now I sing Dheere se aaja for my son Azaan. Now when my Dad sleeps he likes to hear the same lullaby. So Lataji is more than just a musical icon for me. In our family she's a symbol of continuity bonding and eternal harmony."

The happiest moment for Adnan was when he composed a duet for Lataji in Lucky and sang it with her. "I now want to do a full album with her. It's my Dad's wish. Lataji doesn't know what she has done for my father. She has made his dream come true.

She spoke to him for nearly an hour, soothing his nerves, calming him with wonderful words of encouragement. She then spoke to me at length and told me to be strong and a courageous son and prepare for the inevitable. I broke down repeatedly while talking to her."

And now Adnan's content father has one last wish.

That Lataji visit Pakistan for the sake of her fans across the border.