It all started with a girl dancing on her 10th birthday to the beat of chhaiya chhaiya being played in a cassette player, at a household where watching Hindi cinema was forbidden by her strict father. But this tune was so ‘fun and fresh’, that even the father did not mind temporarily putting aside his fundamentalist view that ‘Hindi cinemas are not good’ and joined the girl with her funfair.
Every time she heard the beat of chhaiya chhaiya, she would run to the TV set to watch a man wearing a red jacket jumping on the roof of a train.
That feeling called ‘kuch kuch hota hain’
That same year, for the very first time, the girl felt something. A new, magical world opened before her mind’s eye, with the piano track of Tum Paas Aaye playing in the background. She saw a woman clad in a red georgette sari, dancing with a man whose eyes were as deep as the sea. The sparkle in his eyes, the one-of-a-kind grin on his face, and the gentle mush in his gestures; that man carved his existence into the heart of the girl, never to be undone.
Heart break of Kal Ho Naa Ho
It was the year 2003. A life changing year for her who was now 14. It was the year her parents got divorced and she had to live behind her cozy home only to end up in a depressing damp smelly place owned by her mother’s father. She had a TV set with extremely poor audio in her room where she and her mother lived. After the noise pollution that was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, came the year when King Khan returned as Aman in Kal Ho Naa Ho. Resonating with Naina, she started dreaming that one day ‘Aman’ would walk into her life with unconditional love and quiet strength, help erase troubles, ease the conflicts around her, and remind her that life could still be soft and beautiful. When Aman died in Kal Ho Naa Ho, the teen girl in Bangladesh cried tears beyond measure; the longest and deepest she had ever shed in her life until then.
The dard, the body, and the disco
She turned 18 in 2007. Having lost her mother to cancer, this was the beginning of a new journey that was full of uncertainty, but she woke up every day with determination to break the ceiling, of achieving her dreams which were important. Fledgling, she found inspiration in the “sattar minute” speech of coach Kabir Khan in Chak De India. If the ridiculously hot coach can rise from ashes, then why can’t I? She thought to herself. The 42-year-old superstar shook the entertainment world with his new avatar in Om Shanti Om the same year, turning ‘dard’ into ‘disco’ – another message received to get going.
Hello Taani partner!
As a freshman in university, like most other girls in Bangladesh, she too began to dream of a husband, a home, a life stitched together with warmth and stability. She was determined to finish her studies. On the sidelines, she continued practicing singing, as if her harmonium – the last gift from her mother, and the one thing both her parents had ever agreed upon – could somehow keep her hopes in tune.
But money was always tight, and the struggle constant. Then came Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and with it, ‘Suri ji’, a man so tenderly empathetic, so quietly supportive of his wife’s dreams, that he struck a chord in her heart that still echoes today. In him, she found not just a character, but a reminder of the kind of love that listens with sincerity even when words are left unspoken. She would often joke that if she ever found a husband like Surinder Sahni, she’d cook biryani for him all her life without a single complaint.
Not just dialogues
To this day, that girl, who is a 36-year-old woman now, resorts to the tear triggering speech of Om – kisi cheez ko agar dil se chaho to puri qaynat usse tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jati hain. Her career and social life were disrupted (to say the least) for four years in her late 20s, a prime time, due to physical ailments. She landed in a place where all she could do was breathe. She ended in a “just a job” and felt she was so away from her path this time that even Kabir Khan did not help as an inspiration. With years of baby steps, today, on the 60th birthday of the Badshah of Bollywood, with awe she discovers that she indeed has made a dunki to return to the place where she belongs – the newsroom. Indeed, the desire, if even keeps burning faintly in your heart, the universe listens.
On your 60th birthday, Mr Khan, I just want to say,
Across the border, there’s someone who has spent half her life loving your kind of love, have drawn inspiration from your stories, hard work, and unshakeable determination. “Sarhad paar ek aisa shaks hai…” no, I am not going to give my life for you. Because I want to live, feel the energy of building something larger than life.
Kyuki, picture abhi baaki hai…
