Kishore Kumar Death Anniversary: Strange story of Kishore Kumar Khandvewal by Ali peter John

All the stories I have heard about Kishore Kumar Ganguly (he preferred to call himself Kishore Kumar Khandvewala) could make a whole book which I can call 'The Manny'. He was an enlightened and unique personality! I have a lot to tell you about him, some of which are my experiences and some are his words. Don't know why they chose me Naachij to share my experiences.

I went to meet him for the first time with my aging editor, who had been invited by the emperor of eccentricity. We ran to reach his bungalow 'Gauri Kunj' in Juhu at exactly 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. He warned us, 'must reach at two o'clock because after that I have a meeting with Shani Dev', so we finished our work already and there were still fifteen minutes left for two o'clock, then we reached 'Gauri Kunj'.

We rang the gate bell, the sound of the bell was like the sound of church bells during a funeral procession! We looked at each other but didn't say anything. Before we could understand anything, the sound of different types of music started coming from the campus. Meanwhile, we saw a Christian priest with a long gray beard and a shining robe come down the stairs. We were shocked that what is happening. Immediately a pack of about fifteen huge dogs started barking at us and we were completely scared. The old priest raised his right hand and all the dogs went back to their kennels. Then he asked me whom I wanted to meet.

I replied in my trembling voice, 'Kishore Kumar Ganguly'. He said that Shor Kumar, I do not know. He said I am two hundred and twenty two years and twenty two days old but I am younger than you and I can see and hear more clearly than you. I am Most Reverend Father Gregory Lobo. This is St James's Cathedral. Yes, I have heard that there was an old singer whom you are calling 'Shor Kumar'. Used to live here but it has been five hundred years since he died. His body is buried under my cathedral. He still comes, visits me every night and sings some songs that I don't understand and then hugs me and goes away. You may come in and I will give you some of the good wine that Jesus gave. We could not bear it any more. We wanted to run away from there. We knew it was Kishore Kumar playing a quirky role. We decided to leave them at our cathedral and thought of running away from this scary game to reach the nearest Santa Cruz station but before that all the dogs barked at us in unison as if to say goodbye. With this the gray figure said, 'Please come again. Tonight 'Shor' will come again, I will tell him all about you and see how he reacts. He becomes a mad man sometimes. We did not tell anyone about our experiences with the most revered, most respected Gregory Lobo for two hundred and twenty two years.

Next time Kishore Kumar Ganguly sent me an invitation for his birthday party at 'Gauri Kunj'. The invitation was brought by a man dressed in smart, spotless white, and whose English was, in some strange way, something I had never heard. I decided to go to 'Gauri Kunj' despite my first terrible experience. Kishore Kumar wearing lungi and kurta and garland of flowers wrapped in his hand. He put a huge garland around my neck and said, 'Wear it till you leave the party, otherwise Shani Dev will get angry' I decided that this time I would not make any mistake in following his instructions. After that he took me with him and showed me hundreds of pictures of L. Sehgal and also showed me a gramophone which he said was 'Baba Adam ke zamane ka' for the first man on earth'. I could not make any sense out of it.

After a couple of drinks, the only thing I remember was that the dinner was delicious. A white man in his foreign English offered me to reach home before midnight as 'Kishor Da' had asked him to warn me that if I didn't reach home on time, some harm would happen. I didn't want to take any risk and reached home. Around the same time, five minutes before midnight, another strange flash of lightning began. Next morning he sent that man in white to my house because he wanted the garland back from me. It was all very strange but absolutely true.

I kept meeting him again and again. Every time he asked me my full name because he could not believe that 'Ali Peter John' could be anyone's name. He also promised to make a film based on my name. But when he came to know that Manmohan Desai was making a film named 'Amar Akbar Anthony', he broke the promise.

One evening Kishore told me about his four wives. Firstly, about his first wife, Ruma Guha Thakurta, whom he said was 'too English for a simple man from Khandwa'! He said that they had separated, but he still had the same respect for her as she was the mother of his first son, Amit. Then he told about his second wife 'Madhubala' that, 'She was like a beauty descended from heaven who came from heaven to this world.' And God called them to heaven as soon as possible because there was a dearth of beauties in heaven! Talking about his third wife 'Yogita Bali', he remembered the first night with her. She saw many human skulls dancing under the ceiling at night and she was half-dead with fear. Due to some similar reasons the marriage broke up with him as well and after that Yogita married Mithun Chakraborty. Kishore said, 'I could have got her a more handsome man. What did he find in that black and ugly Bengali?" In the end, he had only good words to say about his fourth wife 'Leena Chandavarkar'. He said that she was the only woman who inspired him, praised his good qualities and gave him courage. He was also gifted with a son named Sumit.

He called all his wives 'bandariyas' (monkeys). He told the reason for this that all of them were originally residents of Bandra before marriage. But only his very close and confidant friend Abdul knew the real reason because whenever he used to call her 'bandariya', he used to laugh.

He also shared the memory of the time when he had called his unit away from the location for a film shoot and himself reached late but when he came he served them all a picnic and delicious food and every unit Presented with gifts to take home a member of the He also remembered the times when he refused to recognize his producers and once pretended to have lost his voice until his secretary made it clear that the money had arrived.
They changed the colors of the interiors of the house, especially the walls, and changed the direction of the doors of their house to ward off unwanted guests, especially the 'income tax years'.

He was fond of making films according to his mind and not only produced, directed but also acted in his films, composed music, wrote songs and edited them as well. He used to say that if no one would watch our films, we would sit and watch them ourselves, this world is crazy and they think that I am crazy. One day we will see who is really mad. He used to joke for the end of his life that 'we will go like this and who will not believe the truth'. Something similar happened when he died in his sleep. It was a night in the month of October. No one really believed that he was no more. His body was kept for two days but that mischievous and mysterious smile was still intact and remained a mystery just like him. Along with this smile was his wish to be cremated in the quiet fields of his village Khandwa, far away from the city of Bombay, where he was born.

Till the last day of his life, he used to hurry, joke and sing songs of life and on the day he passed away, his elder brother, Ashok Kumar said, 'Don't consider him dead now, he will never Can get up and make fun of all of us. But this could not happen. But Kishore Kumar Khandvewala was neither dead then nor will he ever die...

Song: Ajab Hai Dastaan ​​Teri Aye Zindagi
Ajab Hai Dastaan ​​Teri Aye Zindagi
Kabhi Hansa Diya Rula Diya Kabhi

The bud could not blossom, the branch itself was uprooted, it
was just a little bit that the beloved mother got separated from us,
O sky, tell me, did I
get this punishment
?

You came to take mother's love, so we smiled,  as  if
we had returned to our childhood again;

But this master of yours is very kind-hearted, where
people point fingers at mothers and sons as well,  this bud was  scorched
by love;

Film-Sharrat
Artist:- Kishore Kumar, Rajkumar and Meena Kumari
Music Director- Shankar-Jaikishan
Lyricist-Shailendra
Singer:- Mohammed Rafi