BIRTH ANNIVERDARY: KYA AMJAD KHAN KE DOSTO NE UNKO DAGAA DIYA THA ?..... By Ali Peter John

Some men in Bandra, especially in the Hill Road area still remember Amjad Khan as a "Jaandaar dost ", who could do anything for his friends- Ali Peter John

Amjad was known as a " doston ka dost " when he was in college and when he became the most dreaded villain, he was also known as a " friend who could be more than a friend ".

And Amjad himself called himself , "dost jo doston ke liye jaan bhi de sakta hai ". Amjad had friends in every walk of life and he could have taken advantage of his friendship with them, but he made it a point to give more than take in friendship.

He often told me that he had made friends to be of help to them and I know of a number of his friends whose lives he changed with his love, care and concern.

Among his close friends who I remember were Kanhaiya who had a chain of tailoring shops and his own brand of clothes called "Masculine ', Siraj Burmawaala who was his colleague in theatre, Razzaq Khan, an actor and above all Sanjeev Kumar who he called Harriya.

Amjad never used to drink, but he could sit with his drinking friends and drink glasses of tea as they guzzled whiskey and other drinks.

He shared his love for good food with Hariya who was a vegetarian at home and who couldn't live without the most delicious nonveg items with his friends. Amjad did films and even a play called " One flew over the cuckoo's nest " for his friend Siraj Burmawaala.

Amjad was a dear friend for me ever since I met him a week before Sholay was to be released . I had met him to do an interview in which he would talk about his father Jayant who had died just ten days before the release of Sholay.

That meeting with Amjad was the beginning of many long meetings with him over several glasses of tea and on the sets of his films shot in different parts of India.

I had once put his name as the chief guest at a grand function organised by doctors . And I had done it without taking his permission .

I told him about the advantage I had taken of his friendship and he instantly shot back " what are friends for , Ali ? I will go with you to the function ".

And he kept his word even though he was shooting three and four shifts in a day. He sat through the function for more than four Hours and dropped me home at two am and saw that I had safely reached home.

He had fallen seriously sick after the ghastly accident in Goa and steroids had turned him into a block of flesh with very little life to even change sides and work had completely stopped coming to him.

He called me to his bungalow for lunch one day and he couldn't come down to have lunch and sit and talk me and had to be literally carried down by four hefty men. He sat on the floor and talked about friends who had cheated him and taken advantage of his goodness.

He had started getting exhausted and requested me to come back for lunch the next day because he said he wanted to expose two of his, 'best friends".

He was sounding very angry, helpless and bitter. I knew who the friends he wanted to expose were, but I wanted to get the stories from him because I knew how desperately he wanted to talk about those two ' best friends "

I went home with a very heavy and sad heart, wondering how life and God who he firmly believed in could be so cruel to him.

I couldn't sleep that night. My phone rang at five-thirty in the morning. And the voice on the other side said, ' Amjad died last night in his sleep ."

I rushed towards his bungalow as if I would bring him back to life , but neither me nor anyone in the world could bring Amjad back to life .....

And those two ,"best friends' of Amjad are still living a grand life . Did Amjad decide to forgive his "best friends," like he had forgiven so many of his unfaithful friends' who could never understand what a great friend they had in Amjad Khan.

AMJAD , TUMHAARI YAADEIN AAJ BHI WAISE HI HAI JAISE 35 SAAL PAHELE THE . KOI TUMKO BHOOLAYE YA YAAD RAKHE, MAI TUMHARA EK DOST TUMKO TAAUMR YAAD RAKUNGA. AGAR MAIN TUMHARE KABHI BHOOL GAYA , TOH LAGEGA KI MAIN JEENA HI BHOOL GAYA

 

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