Birthday Special: Subhash Ghai, Dost Dost Hi Rahaa

Dost Dost Hi Raha.... Subhash ji, aap Showman se zyada ek achche dost hain Mere liye 
.......... Ali Peter John

There is a saying that says good friends don't say sorry or thank you . But there are some friends and what they are and what they do for me who inspire you to break every rule in the book of friendship and for me one such man is the man who the world knows as a showman, but who I know as a man who knows the meaning of every relationship and especially friendship. He is known as Subhash Ghai, but for me, he is and will always be Subhashji , one of my best friends for the last 42 years.

We (Subhash and Ali) didn't take any oath of being friends forever

I first used to see him as a struggler who had passed out of the FTII and was looking for work and recognition. I used to see him in different places where I too walked around as a nobody with no hope of reaching anywhere. Then with time, he moved on in life and so did I. We reached some kind of a common crossroad when he was a known director and I was a newbie journalist working for "Screen". We didn't take any oath of being friends forever, but we are still the best of friends.

Subhash ji has given me the privilege of being a part of his saga and also a part of his family. I have been indifferent homes of celebrities, but I have not felt as comfortable as I have been in the house or offices of Subhashji. He has always been the perfect friend and not once has he shown his clout or his showmanship. He has always been that young man full of excitement and enlightenment who never stops learning and will never stop. He has never believed in surrendering but has kept fighting every odd and obstacle that has come in his way and tried to threaten him and his ambitions and his dreams in any way.

He is one of the leading personalities of the film industry in India, but he is also a name respected in every field of life and the various activities associated with life, the life which he has been madly in love with all his life.

He has ultimately proved to be both one of the most successful filmmakers

Subhash ji has been my friend through good times and bad times. He has made it a kind of sweet rule to invite me to all his public and personal functions and events. I have been a part of all his birthday celebrations, his wedding anniversaries, his launchings of all his films made under his banner Mukta Arts and I had the unique honour of being present at both the laying of the foundation stone of his dream school, Whistling Woods International and the witness to the fulfilment of his dream of having the best film school and I was also witnessing to see WWI become one of the ten best film schools in the world. I have seen him working restlessly and relentlessly to give his best to both his dreams, Mukta Arts and WWI. He has ultimately proved to be both one of the most successful filmmakers, but also as an Ideal mastermind in both his chosen callings.

He has a team that shares his passion with the kind of obsession that keeps encouraging and Inspiring him to aim at higher targets than he has already achieved. He has thousands of students who see in him the "Guru" they have been looking for and have found. But his greatest strength is his family life with Rehana ( Mukta), his beautiful and resourceful wife, resourceful not in materialistic ways so much but in a perfectly womanly and human way with that healing touch always ready and ever willing to heal. He has his brothers - in - law, Rajoo Farooqi and Parvez
Farooqi who have been his lieutenants from the time he took that flight into an unknown sky of success. And he must have been a man especially blessed by God to have a daughter like Meghna who runs WWI just the way her father would have loved his daughter to. He is also lucky to have a son- in - law in Rahul Puri who has a quiet but all-powerful will to get things done with a will difficult to describe easily.

That Subhashji could work wonders even during the lockdown at seventy-plus is proof of what a man who once saw no future for himself can do.

I am now more than sure that my friend who once was paid 650 rupees to play the hero in a film called. "Umang" will certainly not stop here. All he needs is the good wishes and prayers of people and I would love to offer my best prayers for him and all his ambitious adventures on the occasion of his birthday (January 24) and my best prayer for a "dost" like him is to be active and healthy in all the years to come when the world will still wait for him to work bigger and more meaningful wonders not only for himself and his dreams but for the good of the world which still has so much of hope, love and trust in him.

AB AAGE BHI HI JAANA HOGA, MERE DOST, KYON KI PEECHE MUDNA NA AAPKI NEEYAT MEIN HAI, NA APNI FITRAT MEIN HAI