WOH DHEET ZIDDI BAARISH , WOH MOHABBAT KA SILSILA AUR WOH JUHU KA AJANTA HOTEL

It was a cheater and a teaser of a day since the very early morning , which had started on a bright note , but soon started a downpour which never seemed to be in a mood to stop - Ali Peter John

It was time of the monsoon to leave , but it was staying on like a little girl who had discovered the factory where dolls were manufactured and chocolates were spread all over.

It's kept raining as I made my way to the lanes and bylanes of my favorite city , Mumbai all through the day and I reached Juhu when I was caught in a heavy traffic jam which didn't move for more than an hour and I felt staying in hell could be the better place to be in than to be caught in this snarling traffic .

Till I suddenly saw myself standing outside the Ajanta Hotel In Front of Gauri Kunj the bungalow of Kishore Kumar .

The Hotel had memories of one of the best known love stories of the last 50 years for me ....

Exactly 50 years , a girl who was not beautiful and not even talented had come to Bombay at the age of 13 or 14 to try her luck in Hindi film .

Her name was Bhanurekha Ganesan and she was one of the daughters of the leading stars of Tamil cinema , Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli .

She had worked in couple of Tamil films but was more interested in making it as an actress in Hindi films .

She had no relatives or friends in Bombay and took up a room in the newly opened Ajanta Hotel , which was one of the More economically viable.Hotels and was patronised by the lower section of the film industry .

It was from this Ajanta Hotel that Rekha ( she was advised to drop Bhanu from her original name as she was told that people in Bombay would not take to the south Indian name easily ) Rekha started her career .

From Ajanta Hotel , Rekha moved to beach apartments were another newcomer called Jaya Bhadhuri was her neighbour and from beach apartments , she moved to sea bird which is now next to Mannat , the palatial house of Shahrukh Khan and from she what she moved into her bungalow on Grandstand facing the sea .

It was while she was moving from one place to another that she met a tall actor who was destined to change her life .

They worked together in films like Do Anjanne , Mr. Natwarlal , Muqaddar ka Sikanndar , and like they say in Hindi aur Pyaar ho gaya, aisa Pyaar ki Pyaar ko bhi hamesha hamesha ke liye yaad rahega. .

The two actors fell totally and madly in love and they couldn't deny it then and they cannot deny it even today .

Even if they deny one has to just look into their eyes when they are in a group , in an auditorium or in a ground and love will tell the truth to their eyes .

And look at how love played it clever ( or is it divine ? or moves ) Amitabh Bachchan had moved several steps ahead in life and had started his own entertainment Company which he called ABCL and call it coincidence or whatever you may , he had his first office in the same Ajanta Hotel , where he used to have his own office and his own posh cabin surrounded by the numbers big other cabins were all his executives sat and managed ABCL till ABCL faced boomsbay and Amitabh Bachchan who was called " Number one to Number 10 star " went totally bankrupt and had to mortgage his bungalow and was forced to start his career as an actor all over again .....

The traffic outside Ajanta Hotel moved slowly and I wondered how life had changed for the two actor's , Amitabh and Rekha in fifty years .

They had come to Bombay with nothing but their ambitions and dreams and they are still known as the greatest lovers of our times , whether they accepted it or not . Isn't life and love so strange and even so difficult sometimes ? ??