TERI KASAM , MAA , HAR LADKI ACCCHI AUR SACHCHI NAHI HOTI , OH MAA...... BY ALI PETER JOHN

In my seventy one year I must have known at least seventy one girls closely and seventy one hundred girls casually, but I have still to come to any conclusion about any one girl during my stormy life - Ali Peter John

And I am still wondering why my mother told me that all girls were good and would always be good unless they were abused , misused or ill-treated . I have never been brave enough to blame my mother for anything that she had taught me during the first fourteen years of my life, but now as I come to the end of the gift of life she gave me , I must tell her that what she had told me about girls was only partially right and that I have still not been able to find a woman who was a girl once before she became my mother .

There has been some glorious exception , but on the whole I have only found girls and women who have only tried their best ( or is it their worst ? ) to drag me down the drain of no return . I will say more about the girls and women in my life , but let me tell you about a beautiful young woman called Aishwarya D.......

I was still working for Screen and had a few more years to go when I received a call at 9 in the morning . The girl with the voice said that her name was Aishwarya and she was a student of Engineering in a college named after Rajiv Gandhi in Andheri . She said her college wanted to invite Sanjay Leela Bhansaali for their annual event.

I told her Sanjay did not go to any public events , but I could try talking to him if she came with me as a representative of the college . She agreed and we decided to meet at a place between my house and Bhansaali's "Magnum Opus" .

Her beauty was magnified by her stark white salwaar kameez and her blue eyes and I must confess that my old eyes fell for her at first sight ..

I took her to Sanjay's house on the fourth floor and he very clearly said that he was not game for college get - togethers and entertainment shows and left us alone with his eighty year old mother , Leela Bhansaali who I knew was more than a goddess for him .

His mother was extremely kind to us and especially to the young girl and then something happened like magic . The mother asked the girl if she could dance and the girl put her hand into her bag and took out a pair of silver ghungroos and the mother asked her to dance and the girl didn't stop dancing till she almost fainted and the mother finally held her in her arms and kept praising her the rest of the time we were there and when we left , there was a certain kind of noor on the girl whose name was Aishwarya's face and it seemed like the world didn't look the same for her any longer

But ,it was only when we reached the hot roads of life that the girl told me that her meeting Bhansaali was only an excuse , but she actually wanted to act in films and that she was an expert kathak dancer and a yoga teacher together with her mother.

That was the beginning of my taking her around some of the best filmmakers in Mumbai and I started with Yash Chopra . The eternal romantic had one look at and shut both his eyes and said , " Ali, ye kaunsi duniya ki pari lekar aayo ho mere paas ? Thodi der aur nahi ruk sakta tha ? , Maine abhi abhi meri agli film ki heroin ko sign kar liya hai ? Phir bhi , ye aisi pari hai jisko meri aankhe kabhi bhoola nahi sakti . Meelate rehna isko , na jaane kab iski khoobsurti jaadu chala degi"

I next took her to Rakesh Roshan who was also absolutely impressed with her but he told me that he had already signed a new girl called Kangana Ranaut and would certainly consider her for his next film with Hrithik . I knew that it was not going to happen but Rakesh was a gentleman and I would always have hope in a gentleman's promise , but ......

I finally reached Dev Anand's Pent House with Aishwarya and Dev who had discovered any number of girls as actresses had just one glimpse of her and asked her if she was free and asked me if I had time and literally pushed us into his Fiat and we drove down to Haresh Daftary's studio in Seven Bungalows and had an eight hour long photo shoot with Aishwarya and I had all the reasons to believe that Dev was going to cast her in his next film , but ....

But the next morning , Dev Sahab called me to his Pent House and blurted out ,. "'Ali that girl has turned out to be a liar she is wearing lenses in her eyes and she had told me that she had no lenses . I could have still cast her , but I cannot tolerate lies and that's why she has lost the chance of working for Navketan for all time . Sorry for wasting your time ." Dev had dusted his hands off one more could - be problem.

I couldn't take the lie that girl had told Dev Sahab and cut off all my ties with her and her family and did not respond to any of her calls ..

Years later , she called me to say that she was in America doing a corporate job , one year later I received a call from a very dear friend who asked me if I knew any girl by the name of ( the girl whose story this is ) and I told him only what I knew about her and her family . Little did I know that my friend's brilliant engineer - nephew was planning to marry the same girl whose name started with A . I didn't know that my simple opinion about a person based on facts could change the destiny of someone , but that is exactly what happened to the girl who I still believe had all the chances of making it big , if only she had not told one black lie after another .

Some days ago , I saw her in a cafe exactly near the place I had first met her as a young girl . She was sitting with an ugly dark man and puffing at the cigarettes she borrowed regularly from her black boyfriend ( I think I am right ) and she kept casting dirty and murderous glances at me . If I was drinking , I would have polished off a bottle of Fenny of Rum, but I had to settle down with two cups of desi chai .

Did I pray for her soul ? No , i didn't , because my soul if I have one told me that such specimens of human beings do not deserve prayers from ordinary human beings and do not deserve forgiveness from any God anywhere

AISI LADKIYA MERI ZINDAGI MEIN PHIR KABHI NA AAYE , YE MERI TUJHSE DUA HAI , MERI MAA ,TUNE MUJHE ABTAK BACCHAYE RAKHA HAI , AAGE BHI AISE HI BACCHAYE RAKHNA , MERI MAA