Musician : NatiKaji
Melody King Nati Kaji devoted his entire life to the development of Nepali music. During that time, Hindi music and songs were pretty popular but Nati Kaji proved that Nepali music too could be made equally popular in the Nepali society. In 1960, while he was actively involved in music , he married Saraswati Raj Bhandari. They have three daughters -- Sanjeeta, Kabita and Sabita. During his endeavor to broaden the music horizons of Nepal, he developed heart problems. He was diagnosed of Parkinson disease as well. He expired when he was 75 years old and took his last breath at Medicare Hospital, Chabahil.
The figure of the number of songs sung by Nati Kaji has still not been authenticated. However, many of his songs were transmitted live by Radio Nepal as in the initial days there was no process of recording the songs. Some of the songs by Nati Kaji was later recorded by Yogesh Vaidhya.
Tentative statistics show that since 1956, Nati Kaji has composed music for over 300 modern songs, 171 Bhajans, 81 National songs and 10 songs for children. Nati Kaji will always remain in the hearts of every Nepali not only for his contributions for the overall development of the music industry, but also for the exceptional person that he was.
Because of this dedication to music, he was awarded with honors like -- Gorkha Dakshin Bahu Pratham, Indra Rajya Laxmi Pragya Puraskar, Chinnalata Geet Puraskar and Bhupal Sangeet Puraskar among many others.