Sachin Dev Burman Birth Anniversary: Was He Truly a Miserly Man?

Sachin Dev Burman, aka Sachin Da, was the uncrowned king of the music world. His music in the 50s and 60s is like a legacy of the film music industry. Sachin Da's personality was even more impressive and worthy of attention than his music. People often called Sachin Da a miser behind his back. And why not, Sachin Da always had a box of paan with him but when he offered paan to someone, he used to say something like this "Hey Debu, will you eat paan?" Then without listening to the answer, he used to say "No no, you don't eat paan, what will you do after eating it" and put the paan back in his pocket.

He used to ask for tea in such a way that when a musician was going back after sitting with him for two hours, he used to say, "Next time when you come, I will serve you tea as well."

Our Sachin Da had a similar cool temperament. But what happened was that one day he reached Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma's (santoor player) house early in the morning and started calling from outside the house. When Shiv Kumar ji came out, he asked "Hey Sheeb, which floor is yours?"

He also said, “Dada, it is the second floor, but you wait, I will come.” But Dada did not listen to anyone and quickly went upstairs and stood in front of his flat. He did not even come inside, he just said from outside, “Yesterday you played the santoor very well Sheeb, I liked it very much, keep this” and immediately gave him a hundred rupee note as a good luck gift. Our Sachin Da Burman had such a childish but deceitful nature.

His eyesight was so keen that once when the sitting was going on and all the classical instrument players were rehearsing, Sachin Da's wife Meera put some Bengali rasgullas sent by a relative on a plate and went away. 

Now the plate is kept in front but who will eat it, because no one asked whether you people should take the rasgullas. But the great classical musician and flute player of the coming era Hari Prasad Chaurasia ate six-seven rasgullas in one go, avoiding eye contact. Sachin Da was sitting and watching everything but did not say anything. 

The next day there was a recording and Hari Prasad Chaurasia ji had to play a solo flute. He played the flute very well. Everyone liked it. Sachin da took advantage of the opportunity and said, “Wow, look how sweetly Hori played, after all he ate seven of our sweet rasgullas yesterday.”

Sachin Dev Burman’s Paan Obsession and His Unique Bond

Our Sachin Da alias Sachin Dev Burman was the owner of such a unique personality. He was so crazy about Paan that he left the recording and came back because he forgot his Paan box at home. He would not share his Paan with anyone except Asit Sen, because Asit Sen himself used to eat Paan, so both of them would exchange Paan from their respective boxes. 

Now you might wonder what is the comparison between Asit Sen and Sachin Da. Sachin Da was not one of those people who get influenced by someone's status or name. One day Waheeda Rehman came to him and said, "Dada, give me a paan to eat." He immediately took out the box and said, "Take it Waheeda, eat it, be happy." 

At that time Guru Dutt also said that give me Paan too Dada, you refuse me while I eat Paan, I eat it everyday.  

So Dada immediately said, “Aha, that is why I don’t give it to you. You people eat paan one after the other, like that Meena Kumari, she also eats paan one after the other, we don’t give it to her either, she must be a big heroine but what can we do, our stock gets over.” His passion for Paan is hidden from everyone. He had even composed a song in Bengali on Paan which meant, “Come and park your boat on the shore to get Paan.” In today’s time, who is the first person to praise another musician? But Sachin Da was one of those who went to Madan Mohan’s house and said, “Modan, we sat all night and listened to your movie, that Mausam song, we listened to the whole song, you have composed a very good song, we liked it very much.” This style and acting of Sachin da is something that can never be forgotten. Apart from this, listeners listen to his music even after 45 years and will listen to it even after the next 100 years. Apart from this, there was no one as miserly as him and till date, there has been no one as generous as him. 
Siddharth Arora 'Sahar'

Read also:

• Pawan Kalyan & Sai Dharam Tej's 'Bro' Premieres on Zee Anmol Cinema
  
• I really wish I had gotten a fair chance for tickets: Poulomi Das
• Amitabh Bachchan Reflects on Changing Movie Habits on KBC 16
• Charul Malik: TV hasn't changed; we have changed