Were they artistes first, friends later? Or was it the other way around? It’s hard to tell. But one thing is for certain—their shared love for ghazals brought Pankaj 
Udhas, Talat Aziz and Anup Jalota together, creating a troika that would give the genre of ghazals its fitting place in the world of music with their initiative, Khazana. 

On Monday, as news of Udhas’ demise reached Aziz, it marked the end of an era for a friendship. Talking to mid-day from Lucknow, Aziz refers to his late friend’s ghazal to convey his heartbreak. “All I can say is, [aaj] ghungroo toot gaye. Pankaj and I started our careers together in 1980. He started off with sharabi numbers and branched out to create simple lyrics that appealed to the common man. A lot of his film songs, like Chitthi aayi hai [Naam], appealed to the masses. This song used to be his final number [in every show].”