Birthday Special: I May Dream Other Dreams, Bigger Dreams, Beautiful Dreams And Even Scary Dreams, But I Know That I Will Never Again Dream A Dream Like This Dream

I have been dreaming the kind of dreams I have loved and dreams that have scared me. I dreamt about my mother dying a day before she nearly died and my dream painfully came true the very next day - ALI PETER JOHN

I dreamt about my running away from Church on the morning I was supposed to get  married to Molly. I dreamt about my elder brother running away from home when he was 12 years old and he did run away without even letting my mother know and was found only after my mother had died, as an Airman in the Indian Air force. I dreamt about seeing Pope John Paul Tomb in the Vatican only a few days after he had died and the list can go on.

I was on the last lap of my strange trek to find the houses of stars, super stars and legends I had spend my whole life with. I was now standing outside the gate of the muslim kabristan at Santa Cruz where I had seen my Guru, K.A Abbas, my favourite poet, Sahir Ludhianvi and the legendary composer Naushad being buried. And I have seen the tomb stone of the once ravishingly beautiful Madhubala in ruins. Little did I know when I was at the gate that Madhubala would be haunting me in the most beautiful way that night…

The dream as I saw it… I had started walking from my office at Express Towers and like my routine every evening once, was walking along Marine drive. I passed through “Riviera”, the building in which Mr Y.B Chauhan, the First Chief Minister of Maharashtra and then the Defence Minister of India had his residence in Bombay. I then passed “Shantiniketan”, the House of the first Union Railway Minister, Mr. S.K. Patil followed by “Oceanic”, where the no-nonsense Mr. Mouarji Desai and hid son Kanti Desai lived. I then passed “Govind Mahal”, built by Mr. D.P Sippy, the producer of Sholay in which celebrities Vyajanti Mala and composer Jai Kishan lived and ended my walk outside Krishna Mahal where the Singing-Star Suraya lived and where her much - talked about affair with Dev Anand came to an abrupt end.

A large wave in the sea opposite me almost blinded me for several minutes and when I opened my eyes, I found myself outside a glittering mansion which I had never seen before. On its huge ornate gate was inscribed the name “Madhubala” with a line below it inscribed in Urdu which I couldn’t read. The next moment, I found myself walking up steps that didn’t seem to end and I finally reached the main haul and was taken aback to see white visions of Madhubala on all the walls. I saw the same vision singing and dancing to the songs Aega Ane wala and Aaiye Meharbaan, followed by “Acchcha Ji Mai Hari, Maan Jaao Na” with Dev Anand and finally Pyaar Kiya toh Darna kya with her looking much more beautiful than she looked in the film. I was never so dazzled by any scene in real life, reel life or a dream.

I sat down in one of the old chairs which looked like the throne of a queen and saw before me the scene from Mughal-e-Azam where Anarkali is lying in the lap of Saleem who is caressing her beautiful face with a feather and then the scene with the two of them looking into the eyes of each other in one of the most memorable Love scene in Taraana and then, the first rebellious love song and dance Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya from Mughal-e-Azam and in my dream, I slapped myself for not having seen a beauty like Madhubala in my life when she was alive.

I kept looking around to see if there was anyone else but there was no one and i did not feel like moving from my chair and kept thinking of the men in her life who were madly in love with her and her beauty. I thought of Shammi Kapoor who had the shortest romantic story with her. I though of Premnath who was also swept off his feet by her beauty and had made a sacrifice(?) and gave up his love when he realised that she was madly in love with his best friend, Dilip Kumar and I thought of the ill-fated love story of Dilip Kumar and her and how she ultimately married Kishore Kumar.

I kept thinking about her last days and how she kept saying “mujhe marna nahi hai” and how neither God nor man could save her and how she died as a shadow of her original self when she was only thirty nine. It was only six in the evening in my dream watch when a young man dressed in all white came walking up the steps and asked me who had allowed me to come in. And he went on to say, “Madam abhi kahin bahar gayin hai aur ese bhi woh din me kisise milti nahi aur raat me woh bilkul akeli hoti hai mahal me”. I took that as a signal for me to leave and I was soon on the road outside and when I look back there was no mansion, no Madhubala and no sign of the long dream that I had seen.

Was it my missing the opportunity of not seeing Madhubala like I had seen hundreds of other stars that made me see this dream? Or was it the lover in me who had loved her like so many others that led me to see this most unusual dream about the most unusually beautiful woman?

YOU BE THE JUDGE.