HIMMAT AUR THODA SA HONSLA HO TOH AURAT KUCH BHI KAR SAKTI HAI.... BY ALI PETER JOHN

If I had to meet God and if he had asked me to make a wish, I would have told him that I would love to have at least one more life and that I would like to live that life as a woman to know what a woman goes through to live the life of a woman - Ali Peter John

And if God was in a good mood, I would've told him that I would like to live the life of some brave women from the world of Hindi films. And if he would have asked me to give him a list of some of the women I would like to live my second life as, I would've given him the following names and with the reasons why I would live my second life like them....

I would've told God about Saira Banu who spent many years in dreaming about Dilip Kumar as her husband and finally fulfilling her dream when she married Dilip Kumar. I would've told God about how Sairaji dedicated her entire life to Dilip Kumar who she called sahab.

And then I would've told God about how Sairaji looked after her grandmother Shamshad Begum till the last days of her life, how she took complete care of her sister in law Raahat who died of Cancer, her brother Sultan who was her friend, philosopher and guide when it came to her profession and her business matters and how he died of a massive heart attack because of the pressure of taking care of Sairaji in every way, of Sairaji's mother, the beauty queen of the fifties, Naseem Banu, of her sahab's brother Aslam and Ehsan, both of whom who died of covid and who Sairaji took care of even though she didn't have the best of relations with them.

And how could I forget how she moved heaven and earth to serve her sahab like no other nurse in the world could've served him, till he died last year and Sairaji's first words when he died were, “I have lost my reason to live".

Saira Banu is the best example to prove what the great English poet William Wordsworth said what a woman should be----“to warm, to comfort and to command".

I would've told God about Nutan who gave up all her fame and fortunes to do the insignificant roles of mothers of known and unknown filmmakers just to see that she was around and could make the filmmakers who she did a favor to offer her only son Mohnish Behl leading roles in their films.

That none of them fulfilled their promises to the great Nutan and that she died a broken hearted mother is another tragic story. Whatever happen to Nutan in the later stages of her career, the first stages of her glorious career will always stay fresh in the minds of right-thinking people.

I will tell God about Zeenat Aman who strangely had to suffer humiliation, shame and even torture because of her beauty. I will tell God about how she looked for love in men like Imran Khan, Kawaljeet and Sanjay Khan who even married her and later tortured her till the controversial marriage came to an end and she finally found love in Mazhar Khan who had never made it big and who finally died young of pancreatic cancer, leaving behind Zeenat and their two sons.

Zeenat who is now in her early seventies now live a quiet life and her only interest is to see her sons making it in whatever fields they choose to.

I will tell God about the excellent actress called Smita Patil and how she lived with the obsessions of dying when she was only 30 and how her obsession came true and she had to leave behind a little son called Prateik who grew up to be a drug addict and an actor, but who is now free of his addiction and is concentrating on acting and doing well for himself.

I will talk to God about Deepti Naval who was unlucky in love and also unlucky in her family. Deepti had affairs with men like Rahul Dasgupta, Marc Zuber and Nana Patekar. She had only one marriage, with the director Prakash Jha and I was the witness to the marriage. I knew the marriage would not work and it didn't.

They separated and Deepti found a loving and caring man in Vinod Pandit, who was the nephew of Pandit Jasraj. Vinod however was diagnosed with cancer and Deepti spent two years in America to get him cured, but her efforts failed when Vinod died and Deepti came back to Bombay and told me,“no more men for me, Ali" and she has stood by her decision.

She had also taken care of both her parents who also died. She is now 70 and lives alone in the same apartment where she had first moved into 40 years ago. She is now into writing seriously and her first big book ‘ A Country Called Childhood' will be published soon.

Incidentally, in all the rush and tumble of life, Deepti has also directed a film called “Do Paise Ki Baarish, Char Aane Ki Dhoop". She is still writing poetry in English and paints whenever she has a time.

I will talk to God about Manisha Koirala who has had a very romantic and also a very cruel life. She could have been the number one actress at one time, but she lost all her opportunities because of her carelessness and controversies. She has had two marriages which have ended in divorce. And the worst happened to her when she was diagnosed for ovarian cancer, but she fought a grim battle and survived. She has written a book about her battle called ‘Healed'. And She now spends most of her time traveling.

And before God losses his patience with me, I will tell him about Mona Kapoor who was married to Boney Kapoor and had two children, Arjun and Anushka. She had started her own business in running a studio called ‘Future Studio', but she too was a victim of cancer. Her only ambition was to see her son Arjun as a hero, but she died before her ambition to be fulfilled.

There are many other stories about women achievers I would like to tell God, LEKIN KYA KHUDA KE PAS ITNA WAQT HOGA MERI BEWAKOOFI KI BAATEIN SUNNE KE LIYE??????