AHEM, ABHILASHA AUR ABHIMAAN NE GULZAR AUR RAKHI KO ALAG ALAG KAR DIYA

Every time I see a couple getting married, I send up a prayer to see their marriage last and the couple lives happily - ALI PETER JOHN

But in these times when everything looks dismal , I can even see an increasing number of marriages failing and it is why I am thinking about the sacred institution of marriage that I remember the marriage of Gulzar and Rakhi.

Gulzar had established himself as a leading poet , writer and filmmaker. He was almost like a star whereas Rakhi had started her career in Bengali films and had married her director, Ajoy Bose, but the marriage didn't last long and Rakhi came to Bombay and succeeded in making a very good career working with some of the leading directors of hindi film.

Rakhi and gulzar were two very different kinds if people, but what could they do about love?

Love happened in them and they got married on May 15 , 1973 in a private ceremony and had a reception which could be compared with any of the most star-lit receptions with everyone who was anyone in the industry was attending. A documentary was made on the marriage and the reception.

Gulzar was a punjabi whose original name was Sampuran Anand Singh and Rakhi was from a middle class brahmin family from Calcutta.

But when you are madly in love , nothing matters sometimes even god doesn't matter and that was what the truth about the love between Gulzar and Rakhi.

But Gulzar had only one condition for Rakhi before tying a knot. He wanted her to give up in acting in films and she willingly agreed .

She didn't sign any film till their first daughter Meghna ( Bosky ) was born, The birth of Bosky brought unlimited happiness into the life of Gulzar and he had told me how he felt that he didn't need any heaven after having a family of his own.

But, what could one do when ambition and desire don't leave you alone and keep throwing temptations in your way ?

That is exactly what happened to Rakhi, the beautiful actress who was born to act. Gulzar had gone out of Bombay when Yash chopra offered Rakhi the role of Amitabh Bachan's beloved in 'Kabhi Kabhi'.

Rakhi asked Yash for sometime and finally surrendered to the temptation. She had started shooting for the film while Gulzar was still out of bombay...

Gulzar heard about Rakhi breaking the promise she had made. He came back and did not create any hungama and within a month the most talked about couple who were said to be madly in love separated.

Rakhi left Boskiyana ( the bungalow Gulzar had built and named after Bosky ) and moved into her own bungalow, Muktaangan. Bosky was just a few months old and Gulzar and Rakhi decided not to go for a divorce considering the little baby, Bosky who they both loved in the same way.

Rakhi continued to sign many more films after the success of Kabhi Kabhi and Gulzar continued with his own work.

They however kept meeting and they visited each other's house. They shared the same driver whose name was Sunder and Gulzar even went to the airport to leave her and to receive her.

They even had dinner meetings together, Rakhi visited Gulzar's office and I was there once when she came to the office and after seeing Gulzar looking at the ceiling said ," Aap kya bade shayar hain, aap kya filmein banaate hain, kaise banaate hain?

Jab bhi dekho aap ya toh naak saaf karte hain ya chat ko dekhte hain". That one observation gave me the feeling that they could come back together.

On another occasion, I read the collection of poems written by Gulzar ' Kuch aur Nazmein' and he had written poems about love with so much intensity that I wrote a line to him saying," If I was Rakhi, I would come running back to you".

But , my wish never came true. Gulzar and Rakhi lived separately and are still living in two different places. Gulzar who is 85 now lives alone in Boskyaana.

Rakhi who looks like a pale shadow of her heydays and lives alone on her farmhouse in Panvel and has not been come to bombay for more than two years.

And neeyati ke khel dekho ki aaj Bosky 'cozyhom' mein apne pati Govind aur ikalute bete Samay ke saath rehti hai. Cozyhom vahi jagah hai jahan Gulzar aur Rakhi ne shaadi ke baad apna ghar banaaya tha.

YEH SHAADI KA BANDHAN KITNA NAAZUK HAI. YEH SACHAAI INSAAN KYUN NAHI SAMAJHTA?

AGAR SHAADI SAHI RAHI,TOH ZINDAGI KA HAR RISHTA SAHI HOTA HAI, PATI PATNI KA , BACHON KA AUR AANE VAALE ZINDAGI MEIN HAR RISHTA.

ISS BANDHAN KO TOOTNE NAHI DENA, MARNE NAHI DENA NAHI TOH ZINDAGI KA KOI MATLAB HI NAHI RAHEGA.