Sachin Dev Burman Birth Anniversary: Sachin da, who does not share even a paan, Was he really a miser?

Sachin Dev Burman i.e. Sachin Da was the uncrowned king of the music world. His music is like a legacy of the film music industry of the 50s and 60s. As impressive as Sachin da's music was, his personality was even more impressive and worthy of attention. People often called Sachin da a miser behind his back. Then why not say, Sachin da always kept a paan box near him, but when he offered paan to someone, he used to say something like this, “O Debu, will you eat paan?” Then, without listening to the answer, he would say, “No no, you don't eat paan, then what will you do after eating it” and would put the paan back in his pocket.

Our Sachin da had such a great temperament. But what happened one day was that he reached the house of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor player) early in the morning and started calling from outside the house. When Shiv Kumar ji came out, he asked, “Hey Shib, 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 immediately went upstairs and stood in front of his flat. He didn't even come inside, just said from outside, “Yesterday you played the santoor very well, Sheeb, we liked it very much, keep this” and immediately gave him a 100 rupee note as a sign of good luck.

Rest of his vision was so sharp that once a sitting was going on and all the classical instrument players were sitting and rehearsing when Sachin da's wife Meera went away with a plate of Bengali rasgulla sent by a relative.

Now the plate has been kept in front but who will eat it, because no one has asked whether you all should take Rasgullas. But Hari Prasad Chaurasia, the great classical musician and flute player of the coming era, avoided glances and ate six-seven rasgullas. Sachin da was sitting watching everyone but did not say anything.

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

So grandfather said angrily, “Aha, that's why I don't give it.” You people eat one paan after another, like Meena Kumari, he also eats one paan after another, we don't give it to him either, it would be a big heroin but what should we do, our stock gets exhausted.