Bachchan Sahab Yaha Nahi Rahte

Ali Peter John

I had spent a sleepless night tossing in my bed and mourning the death of humanity , when I got this sudden idea to visit the houses where I had spent more than half my life . It was a rainy day , but I called my faithful auto driver , Rafiq bhai and asked him if he would join me in my mad trip and he being the last of the good human beings

I had the good fortune to meet only a week ago instantly agreed . Was Rafiq bhai as mad as I was ?

I started my mad drive by stopping outside "Prateeksha", the house which was once a "bhoot bangla"and which made both Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan stars , superstars and legend . I was once a regular visitor to this house and the house was always full  of life  . Today , I saw three security guards rushing towards me and trying stop me from taking a picture of the bungalow and one of them telling me ,"woh, aajkal yaha nahi rehtey"they tried their best (or worst) to stop me , but my will power ask me not to give up.I felt sorry for the bungalow which had now been reduced to a home of shadows, silences and memories of a glorious time gone by. The experience at "Prateeksha"made me lose my courage to go towards "Jalsa"

the place from where the star of the millennium now rules...

I drove towards Kalumal Estate where Danny Denzonpa once lived and later had his office headed by Mr.Madan Chopra , one of the last good human being in the industry.In the same Kalumal Estate also lived Parveen Babi who lived with controversy and died in misery and under bizarre and mysterious circumstances.....

I stopped by Sanjay House where Sanjay Khan who was a small-time star who had made it big and was a millionaire for reasons best known to his" Khudah" or destiny .....

I passed "Dara Villa"but the guards looked so scary that I skipped stopping as the Villa built by the most mild, honest and humble mighty man called Dara Singh ......

I was next nearing a temple called "parchhaiyaan "built by my all-time favorite poet Sahir Ludianvi .I stood below "parchhaiyaan"

like a devotee in prayer and looked at the 5th floor where Sahir had lived and from where he created some of his best poems  and from where his body was taken on his last journey when he was only 56 years old .I could have stood outside this temple all day but I followed Sahir and moved on ..... Only to find myself before

"Ikram "the bungalow built by Sahir's comrade , the great actor Balraj Sahni .

I felt like crying when I saw "Ikram" lying in ruins , with only his daughter living amidst the ruins and fighting a court case against the daughter of her brother , Parikshat Sahni who has laid no claims to his father's property .....

I had reached my holy land , the simple house of my great guru , Khwaja Ahmad Abbas who had taught me how to face life and how to fight against all odds. The house in which he lived has been locked ever since he left this world in 1987 , I still don't know why .I was gloriously happy to see the two plaques and name plates I together with the messiah Sunil Dutt got placed right opposite his house and on the way to his office on the fifth floor of a near by building to which he walked five floors to reach even when he was old and had broken his leg in an accident at the airport in Moscow ....

I was now outside B.R.house where another great man , Baldev Raj (B.R.) Chopra had built his sprawling mansion  and where now only lived his-daughter-in-law Renu Chopra with her two sons.

I remembered the countless meetings I had with Dr. Chopra and his only  son, Ravi Chopra and the parties (neither B.R.Chopra nor anyone in the Chopra family had touched alcohol , but served the best liquors in the world at their parties) and the Saturday night screening of the latest releases at the B.R.mini theatre built within B.R.house which were , attended by Dr.Chopra's best friends from every walk of life ....

I reached the Hotel Ajanta and remembered how Rekha used to live in one of the rooms in the Hotel when she had first come to Bombay almost fifty years ago . And how by some strange coincidence , Amitab Bachchan had the first office of ABCL and where he sat wearing  a suit all day as the Chairman of ABCL....

My curiosity led me to Carter Road where there was a landmark called "Aashirwaad", the place where the greatest ever superstar Rajesh Khanna once lived and ruled like a king who believed that there could never be an end to his reign as the Superstar . Today morning , I had to keep looking for that bungalow and couldn't find any signs of it . "Aashirwaad"had vanished with the superstar and in its place was a monstrosity built in cement and concrete .I thought the story of Rajesh Khanna and "Aashirwaad" was a lesson for all those small and tiny stars and superstars of today (including his son-in-law Akshay Kumar) who refused to learn from the mistakes made by greater stars than them without having any time to know that everything in life was epthemeral and only death was eternal ......

I was know standing outside "history", the massive bungalow built by the Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali . I had spent several great moments in this mansion  . And now there was darkness at noon all over the

"Aashiana "and it seemed as if music was mourning the absence of the maestro .....

And I was , I don't know why I was feeling scared of reaching

"34-Pali Hill "where the Shahenshah lived with his Florence of  Nightingale , SairaBanu . But I made my way only  to find a strange kind of darkness all around the bungalow and even the guards were fast asleep at lunch time.I couldn't stop there for more than a minute because I knew if I did ,I would burst into tears ......

I was back to Juhu in a very sombre mood and when I reached the huge gate leading to Prithvi Theatre and Prithvi House (where Prithviraj Kapoor once lived and where Shashi Kapoor lived during the last days of his life ), but again it was the scary-looking guards who did their jobs sincerely and saw that I and Rafiq bhai were not allowed to enter the gate . How time and people had changed  !

I walked out only to find myself outside"Whispering Windows"which was the high doubt and the weekend house for the great and so-called eccentric Raaj Kumar . Two guards came running out and before they could say anything ,I told them,"main Raaj Sahab ka dost hoon"and one of them said , "aise bolo na, Raaj Sahab abhi so rahe hai  ". I found that explanation very amusing and eerie and left the place .

Only to reach an accentric friend , Deepti Naval's building Oceanic-1 where I had spent several mornings and evenings and was even a witness to her marrying Prakash Jha . And outside Oceanic was

 Trishul  where Om Puri lived with his wife Nandita his son Ishaan and several turtles ......

And I came back to Sguare -1 when I realise that Sahir had a house some where near my house where he had died in the arms of his friend, Dr. R.K Kapoor.That house has been demolished and one more monstrosity is coming up fast to destroy whatever beauty is left of this great city now called Mumbai.I wonder what Sahir would have said about the disturction of his dream which he had seen when Bombay was still a dream city .

AE DUNIYA , AE ZINDAGI , KAISE KAISE SAPNE DIKHATE HO AUR KAISE KAISE UNHI SAPNO  KO CHAKNACHOOR KAR DETE HO !