DR TRINETRA BAJPAYI EK PURA GRANTH DILIP KUMAR PAR ...

Some days have their own moods and sensitive people like me have to bear the consequences. I can perhaps write a book on the moods of these days - Ali Peter John

I have never liked my day starting with a negative attitude from a ‘no', “it can't be done",“it will not happen"but I have become an expert in facing every mood of everyday......

This morning, the pain in my body was so terrible that I felt I would not be able to face the challenges of the day, but I survived the morning......

I had a fixed appointment with Manoj Kumar at eleven thirty. I have been visiting the renowned filmmaker-actor during the last forty years, but today morning I had to face two rowdy rogues both of whose surnames were Singh.

They made me cry out in helplessness but they didn't let me go up the sixth floor to meet the great man.

My forty year old friendship was at stake and I wrote a very nasty message to the man who was the first hero whose photograph I put on the wall of my house when I was twelve years old.

He sent me a message in response and I couldn't help taking his call and the eighty two year old Manoj Kumar said,“the security men insulting you were actually insulting me" and he hummed the song,“yeh mera prem patra padh kar"and my heart started beating normally. I even promised to see him the next day......

The day was not even half old when I recieved a call from one of my dearest friends, Mr Trinetra Bajpai and before he could say anything I invited myself to his office because I knew some time spent with him would change my mood.

I traveled to Linking Road and a glass of piping hot tea with biscuits were waiting for me which was followed by some high quality sandwiches which were more filling than a full plate of biryani.

Mr Bajpai was giving the finishing touches to his magnum opus of a biography on Dilip Kumar, the actor he, his family and me worshipped.

I had seen him work on the biography of Dev Anand with the kind of dedication and determination difficult to believe in these times where everyone wants everything easy.

I had been given the privelage of writing the foreword to the book and that is how the book called“Dev eternal Anand"was released all over the world......

Bajpai who is the head of a chemical engineering firm and travels all over the world inspite of his being a victim of a paralytic stroke now decided to write the biography of Dilip Kumar.

His daughter Anshula who lives in England but had her roots very much in India joined him like he had in writing the book on Dev Anand.

I have seen me Bajpai inspired by his actress-wife Kanika to carry on writing his book even though he was working on two major engineering projects.

Mr Bajpai was again keen that I write the foreword to this book too. I still can't imagine what Mr Bajpai thinks about me as a lover of cinema or as a writer of English, the most difficult language to master and tame, but I just couldn't say no to the man who is more than an extraordinary man for me.

Today afternoon as I was sitting with him sharing his happiness about his first feature film,“Phir Ussi Mod Par"and dictating parts of the book with his assistant, Ghatkopar, I cast a glance at two massive books lying on a shelf behind his chair, I guessed that they could be the rough versions of his book on Dilip Kumar, and they were.

He read my eyes and my mind and asked me to take one of the copies but I said I only wanted to have a feel of the book.

I went through some pages and couldn't control my excitement when I saw my foreword printed in a very prominent way with one of my best photographs with the emperor of acting.

All the time I looked at the foreword I remembered that evening when my first ever‘ letter to the editor'was published in the‘Evening News of India' and kept looking at my name on that page without taking my eyes off as I walked from the office of‘The Times of India'and till I reached the Churchgate station and then all the way to Andheri and from there to my village and wanting to show my name to everyone around and how on that night before going to sleep I wondered how happy my innocent of the ways of the world mother would have been to see her son's name in a newspaper.

I wish she was around now when I have written eighty thousand articles, eleven books and assisted in the writting of books about Mumbai for established writers like Dom,Moraes,a stupid writer who claimed to be an intellectual called Suketu Mehta and in the writting of the only official biography of Amitabh Bachchan.

Thank you, me Bajpai for changing the mood of the day today like you have changed not only my mood for one day but for a lifetime.

Thank you for coming into the life of a man who was groping in the dark wondering what his future would be.

And thank you, God of acting, Dilip Kumar without whom Mr Bajpai would not have written this book and I would not have the privilege of writing the foreword to it and take the name of the son of Mary Ali all over the world soon.

P.S-And now, it gives me the great privilege to let the world know that Dr Trinetra Bajpai's book written in collaboration with his daughter, Anshula on Dilip Kumar is out (you can see the exclusive photo of the thespian on the cover which was taken by none other than the maestro Naushad in his house,‘Aashiyaana' on Carter Road in Bandra.

There have been other books written on Dilip Kumar, most of them not authorised by the thespian and even rejected by him and one written by my own editor who was very much a part of Dilip Kumar's family and had taken more than twenty years to complete writing the book and which is I must say a very disappointing book on what should have been the ultimate biography of the greatest legend of this century (my personal opinion and I hope and even know that all those who know his contribution to cinema and the country will agree with me).

The new book written by Dr Bajpai and his writer-daughter Anshula was blessed by Dilip Kumar when he was still in the best of health and the father and daughter have done full justice to the legend.

The book gives a complete picture of why the legend is more than a legend. It is written in the most lucid manner with the language in which it should have been written to honour the legend among legends.

It has all that anyone would love to know about Dilip Kumar, the Shahenshah of acting and the greatest highlight of the book are the photographs which I can challenge anyone to have.

If you ask me, this is the book (‘Dilip Kumar--Peerless Icon Inspiring Generations') the legend among legends would have approved and loved if he was in a state of wellness, but, alas!!!

This has come to me as a boost to ask God to let me live a little longer to be close to greatness like the work I see Dr Bajpai doing.

I also feel very satisfied with myself as I being what I am, a small man from nowhere have been a part of some books written by my guru, K.A Abbas, a recently-released book written by Parikshat Sahni on his father, Balraj Sahni and now Dr Bajpai's book on Dilip Kumar to which I was given the honour to write the foreward and even read the proofs of what was written before it went for printing.

The book is already out on Amazon and other mediums, but Dr Bajpai being a showman in his own right whose film, “Phir Ussi Mod Par" has just completed its silver jubilee run which is the first to have this honour in the last twenty years, and so Dr Bajpai would like to celebrate a double occasion, his film and now his marvelous book.

This is then the third authoritative book written by the father and daughter team after ‘Those Magnificent Music Makers' and ‘Dev Eternal Anand'.

And I can wouch that lovers of cinema and music can expect more from them as their passion for cinema and music cannot rest and will drive them towards greater and more inspiring books