She was the younger sister who stepped out of a long shadow to blaze her own trail, but for Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle was never a rival. She was family, a neighbour and a singer who couldn’t be matched.In the book “Lata Mangeshkar…In Her Own Voice”, a series of conversations with filmmaker and author Nasreen Munni Kabir, the late singer spoke at length about her younger sister and also dismissed talk of rivalry between them.”Asha is so versatile. She can sing all kinds of songs very well – sad songs, dance numbers and cabarets. I am not saying this because she is my sister, but it’s my duty to speak about her qualities. Looking at the variety of songs she can sing, no singer can match her,” Mangeshkar said in the book.Asked directly about the sibling rivalry that the press had talked about for years, Mangeshkar said, “It’s wrong to talk of rivalry having spoilt our relationship. We are sisters and neighbours. We talk to each other and eat together. If either of us has a problem, we tell each other. And if we have something to celebrate, we celebrate together.”The two sisters lived in neighbouring flats at Prabhu Kunj on Peddar Road in Mumbai. Mangeshkar died in February 2022, while Bhosle passed away on Sunday; both were 92 and breathed their last at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital.Mangeshkar also talked about the musical influences that shaped Bhosle’s distinctive voice, particularly the imprint of composer S D Burman.”When Asha first came onto the scene, her singing was quite different – then she too came under the influence of Burman da and developed his style further. His style was one in which stress was placed on a particular word: ‘Mere ban jaao,’ the word ‘jaao’ is stressed. He introduced this style from Bengali folk singing. O.P. Nayyar used this style as well.”Remember Asha’s ‘Aaiye meherbaan’ in Howrah Bridge – the way she stresses the word ‘Aaiye.’ That’s another example. Asha sang frequently for O P Nayyar. He always chose Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Rafi Saab and Kishore Kumar to sing his songs. He believed his music didn’t work with my voice and I agreed with him. My voice wasn’t right for his compositions,” she said.On Bhosle’s long and celebrated partnership with R D Burman, Mangeshkar offered a perceptive observation. “R D was a music director who composed tunes according to an artist’s ability. The songs he composed for Asha were meant just for her and suited her voice. You will find the songs he wrote for me are completely different. “They sound as though they were composed uniquely for Lata,” she said.Lata also spoke about the difficult years of her sister’s first marriage to Ganpatrao Bhosle, which had caused a rupture in the family.”She wasn’t allowed to see us or write to us. This was the situation for years. Ganpatrao Bhosle used to take Asha to various music directors and make her audition for them. He believed that she would earn him lots of money and wanted to control her. Asha suffered a lot during those years,” Lata recalled.Bhosle left her husband in 1960 and returned to live beside her family. “We were living in Walkeshwar at the time, and when Asha returned home, she was pregnant with her third child, Anand, whom we call ‘Nandu.’ We moved to Prabhu Kunj on Peddar Road soon after Asha’s return, and she bought a flat on the same floor as us,” she said.The book also featured a tribute for Mangeshkar from Bhosle, who remembered their bond and how as children in Sangli, her elder sister would carry her everywhere, even to school.”We were so attached to one another that she would even take me with her to school everyday, till finally her class teacher refused to let us both sit in the same class,” Bhosle wrote. Lata came home, cried and refused to go to school. Her father then arranged for a private tutor. Of Mangeshkar’s singing, Bhosle said her voice and perfect pitch was a God-given gift.”But to understand and utilise your talent perfectly at such an early age is something that bewilders me,” she recalled in the book.