AAYA PHIR YAAD WOH GUZRA HUVA ZAMAANA ( KAHAANI DIXIT PARIVAAR KI ) - By Ali Peter John

I was living in a village for almost the first thirty years of my life . And I spent most of my time looking at different trees and how they grew . If you ask me , it is something that has become a part of my life which I can not forget - Ali Peter John

The only difference now is that all those trees I loved have been detroyed by so called builders who are busy destroying beautiful vilaages , knocking down and cutting down trees and denying man of all the benefits of nature .

The last time I visited my village , there was no village, no trees and not even the little house my mother had built seventy years ago and with the destruction of the village had also died the innocence of human beings . Any way , if that had to be , so let it be .

It was my habit of watching trees grow that also got me into the habit of watching human trees grow . And one of the first trees ( families ) I had the opportunity to see growing was the Dixit family which lived just ten minutes away from my house .

The Dixits had Shankar Dixit and Snehlata as the heads of the family . Shankar Dixit was a trained engineer who had fallen on bad days because of some family intrigues and the family were forced by circumstances to live in what is called a one bedroom flat in an area called J B Nagar and also known as Baamanpuri .

Snehlata was a trained classical singer in Marathi and had trained her daughters to sing . The family also consisted of a son named Ajit and three sisters , Bharati , Madhuri and Roopa .

Ajit went to the nearby Holy Family High School for boys and all the girls went to the Divine Child High School for girls. The Dixits were very particular about their children getting a good education which Shankar Dixit believed could only be found in convent schools and the education of the children continued in convent schools till they finished high school .

Ajit and Bharati took to studying medicine and after getting their degrees , they moved to Denver in America where they established both their families and their practice which kept flourishing and they didn't have to return home till they finally had to come back for the wedding and reception of Madhuri with Dr Shriram Nene who was also from Denver in America . I am running ahead of time , I am sorry .

Madhuri wanted to be a microbiologist and was studying at the Sathaye College in Vile Parle . Roopa was interested in a career in painting and ultimately became an architect and Madhuri and Roopa were more like best friends than sisters .

Life was studying , reading , watching a devotional or mythological film once in a way at the nearby Usha Talkies and Madhuri followed in her mother's foot steps and by the time she was six , she was an expert in Kathak and other classical dances.

She was declared the best child Kathak dancer when she was six and had become a "celebrity" in school . After school , she was a "celebrity" at Sathaye College and was a winner of several prizes in elocution and entertainment competitions ....

It was at this time that her family faced financial problems and Shankar Dixit was finding it difficult to manage the problems at home .

Govind Moonis who was a regular writer and director at Rajshri Productions and also lived in J B Nagar used to watch Madhuri dance in school , college and even at Ganpati utsavs and one day asked Shankar and Snehlata if they would be interested in grooming Madhuri as an actress .

The Dixits had very little options and they had a very good opinion of Govind Moonis and Rajshri Productions and they told Govind Moonis that they would not mind as long as it was him and Rajshri Productions who would take care of Madhuri.

Madhuri walked into Bhavna building at Prabhadevi , opposite the Siddivinayak Temple and when she came out , she was an actress who had signed Abodh with Tapas Paul , a Bengali actor as the hero . The film was a disastrous flop and Madhuri wanted to take Microbiology seriously again ..

But destiny had other plans for her . She signed some other insignificant films which made no difference to her career ...

A known photographer Rakesh Shreshta saw some stills of Madhuri . The photographs caught the attention of Subhash Ghai . Ghai did a special photo session with her . He found in her the perfect image to be a star .

He took eight full pages of "Screen" and had a unique campaign in which only some significant features of Madhuri were printed on different pages . And the genius in Subhash Ghai got some of the best filmmakers to agree that they too had signed Madhuri Dixit....

Madhuri did films like "Ram Lakhan" and N Chandra's " Tezaab " in which she danced as if her life depended on it in the dance number " Ek Do Teen " choreographed by Saroj Khan , after which Shankar Dixit predicted that " Mahdhuli " would be a star after that song . And "Madhuli" fulfilled her father's prediction and truly grew into a major star after "ek do teen " . True , " Madhuli " became one of the biggest stars , but she has still to prove herself as a good actress . They still compare her to the magic of Madhubala , but I am sure , it will take Madhuri many more years and good roles and good films for her to reach where Madhubala had reached fifty years ago and is still and will always be remembered as one of the greatest star - actresses to have walked on the stage of greatness .

MADHURI DIXIT DEKHTE HI DEKHTE 54 KI HOGAYI AUR USKE DO TEEN AGER BETE , ARRIN AUR RYAN BHI HAI AUR DR SRIRAM NENE BHI HAI . KYA YE MADHURI AB INN SAARE KHWABO KO PURI KAR SAKEGI JO USNE BEES SAAL PAHELE DEKHI THI ?