KHER SAHAAB NE KAHAA KAHAA AUR KAISE APNAA JANAM DIN MANAAYA

Birthdays also have their own destiny , their own places and their own people and are never the same for any two people - Ali Peter John

Dev Anand had his early birthdays in a village in Gurdaspur and went on to celebrate his birthdays with kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers in the best of hotels and palaces.

Dilip kumar had his first few birthday in Khyber Pakhtoonkwa in pre partition Pakistan and Raj Kapoor too had his early birthdays in this same area in Pakistan and the houses of both the legends still stand in Pakistan and only recently, the local government has decided to keep their ancient homes ad heritage places .

Yesterday ( 29th june) I had my 71st birthday and I remembered all the glamorous and star -lit parties I used to have , courtesy my younger brother, Roy Ali and how my birthday parties had changed with the changing time.

I however decided to have a token of my birthdays of my past. And had a small party with my old friend Anupam Kher as the only celebrity who had attended all my previous birthday parties and he willingly agreed to not only come to my house in trouble time , but also released my book , "thank god, you cant take away my love from you and even stood by me and my friends when I cut my birthday cake .

And while he was sitting with my friend and being very nice to them and showing no tantrums or starry airs exchange talks with them as if they were school friends he has met after a long time, I went into a flashback of some of his birthday parties he celebrated in Mumbai from time year to to year.

He had once told me about how he had celebrated his birthday in the hills of Simla , where he and his friends had their flaws seeps of beer mixed with water. It is an incident that neither he nor me can forget.

He had come to Bombay to conquer the city with a pair of Paijamas and kurtas and as is now well known lived in a slum called Kherwadi and he used to walk , starved and gave tuitions to the children of the poor in Kherwadi. But he celebrated his birthday in his kholi with the few friends he had .

As he kept making progress and shifted to little rooms in places like Shastrinagar , his birthday parties grew better and he also cooked for his guests and had a strictly vegetarian meal for dinner.

He then shifted to the ruins of a broken down bungalow in Bandra and had some work which made him celebrate his birthdays with the help of his brother , Raju Kher who worked in a tin factory in Marol Naka on a salary of 10 rupees a day .

It was his brother Raju who made all the arrangements who have his brother's birthday celebrated with Basmati Rice , Rajma and half a bottle of Hercules Rum which was a cheapest brand of rum available in those days. Anupam for the first time proved how he could get drunk with just two sips of alcohol.

Anupam had become a star after "Saraansh" and had moved into "June Blossom" a reasonably good building opposite the St Peter's Church on hill road in Bandra .

His first secretary Ashok Punjabi taught Anupam how it was important to have parties and Anupam followed him and had good parties with all his directors and stars attending.

But while the guests kept swigging to the best of alchohol, Anupam struggled to have a glass of beer .

Anupam was once prayed for his performance in Saraansh by both Raj kapoor and Dilip Kumar and he got so drunk that he danced on the table on which the legends were seated .

His wife Kiran had to take him home for the fear of his being turning into an embarrassment in a grand Subhash Ghai party . Incidentally that evening was also the birthday of Anupam.

There were also times when Anupam celebrated his birthday at the Dil khush School for specially disabled school children and the students eagerly look forward to his birthday. And celebrating his birthaday with slum children at 5 star hotels as being a regular feature of his illustrious life.

He is nowadays spending a lot of times in America and the UK , but his birthdays have always been an occasion to gove more than to receive.

He has even made inspired noted Hollywood actors like Al pacino and directors like Martin Scorcese to imbibe his spirit of being of maximum help to the downtrodden and they have turned into his disciples, which is kind of fate which our dirty and nasty politicians and cunning social workers should take the trouble of learning . But will they ever learn ?

ANUPAM KHER KE PITAA KAILASH NATH KHER BHI BADE DILWAALE THE, UNKI MATAA JI DULARI JI KAA DIL BHI SAAGAR HAI , UNNKA BHAI RAJU KHER DOSTON KAA DOST HAI , TOH ANUPAM KAA DIL SAMUNDAR KIU NAHI HO SAKTAA AAJ KE ZAMAANE MEIN BHI?