'Rokeyaana' singer Sheikh Shahed Ali dies in Dhaka hospital

Sheikh Shahed Ali, the popular singer of the song 'Rokeyaana', has died.

He died at 10:05am on Friday while under treatment at a private hospital in the capital.

Shahed had long suffered from kidney complications and had to take dialysis regularly.

Recently his physical condition deteriorated with multiple complications including stroke, dengue and infection.

When serious bleeding began, he was put on life support on Thursday. But all efforts failed and he passed away.

Shahed's life was varied, and his songs and singing also carried a distinctive stamp. He was also candid about his philosophy of life.

Some of that can be seen in an interview taken by writer Sajjad Hossain on the YouTube channel 'Radio Gaga'. His personal life, songs and many other subjects came up in that interview.

He is Shahed Ali, known in the music world as the singer of 'Rokeyaana'. The lyrics, tune and singing all carried his own character.

Some call him an urban singer, some an urban baul. Others call him a reckless, eccentric and unconventional artist.

His simple admission about his own life was: 'I have come into this world to live a life. I have come to celebrate, to celebrate joy. Enjoying that as much as possible is life.'

From that love of life came his declaration, 'Life is really beautiful.' He had no regrets about anything in life.

In that same interview he was quoted as saying, 'A wife can become an ex, a lover never becomes an ex.'

In 1971, during the Liberation War, Shahed was five or six years old. He lived with his family in Gopibag in Dhaka.

One incident from that time remained clear in his memory. One day during curfew, when he went to buy a lollipop, he saw two Pakistani soldiers pointing weapons at him from two sides. From inside the shop, Miachan Chacha was telling him to leave, and in between slipped four lollipops into his hand.

Another incident took place at his elder sister's in-laws' house in Gendaria, where he had gone with his mother. Suddenly heavy gunfire began. His mother hugged him to her chest, laid him on the ground and kept saying, 'Don't raise your head, don't raise your head.' A man opened the door of a nearby house and gave them shelter.