WOH HAMARE GURUDEV THE

He was part of my favourite dreams.  I have heard about him when i was living in a slum. I saw his photograph in a neighbour's house with a line written below it , " time having writ , moves on ". I spent years trying to find out what that line really meant - Ali Peter John

I saw his films like "sadhna" , "gumrah" , "hamraaz"and "kaanoon" with a neighbour called julie and who i used to call "my mala sinha" because she had the same features that mala sinha had .

Time kept racing and took me to all kinds of places and people and one day i reached the office of this great man called baldev raj chopra .

Believe me , i was so nervous about meeting him and talking to him that i had a couple of drinks before i reached his office .

And he came to know that i had some drinks , but he never made me feel what he felt about me and spoke to me for more than an hour .

The next time i met him , he offered me a cold drink and said , "kabhi kabhi yeh bhi piyaa karo, ali sahaab " .

He had vividly remembered how i had met him the first time . And this was the beginning of a very long association with him and b r films .

I was 40 years younger than him and not even started knowing life , but he always treated me as an equal and even quoted what i had written sometimes in his articles and interviews and even thanked me if i even wrote a paragraph about him , his films or his company.

I had made it a point to meet him every tuesday and he loved meeting me , he said it . Every tuesday , he asked his wife , mrs prakash chopra or his daughter in law renu chopra to prepare some special dishes and send them to the office "because ali is coming for lunch" .

I once casually told him about my 3 year old daughter and the following Tuesday, he had brought a very beautiful pink dress for my daughter .

That was how loving and caring he was . I never felt that i was sitting with the great b r chopra at anytime .

Anytime everytime i met him , he made sure that he had all his writers around him , writers like dr rahi masoom raza , satish bhatnagar, dr achala nagar , ram govind and his only son ravi chopra .

He would ask me what flavour of ice cream i would like to have and then send his men all over the place to see that i had the ice cream i  wanted .

Whenever he had an idea for  script or an article , he called me to his office and we sat talking about it till 7 in the evening and he dropped me home in one of his latest brand of cars .

I had the privilege of having breakfast with him and his wife at B R house and attending all the functions and events organized at B R house .

None of the chopras even tasted alchohol , but they had the best bars stalked with a wide varieties of the most expensive alchohol .

The most eagerly awaited evenings for me was when dr chopra arranged for a special screening of the latest release in mumbai .

The evening , mostly on saturday evenings was started with a get together where all the guests met and enquired about the well being of one another .

And then started the screening and the most delicious dinner and the best drinks were served during the interval .

The atmosphere often reminded me of our childhood days when we went to see films on the first day , first show .

The chopra family were always the perfect hosts and dr chopra made sure that i and my family was dropped home safely .

Dr chopra had taken the courage to make the serial mahabharat and the best thing i remember about the serial was that dr chopra wanted his favourite writer dr rahi masoom raza to write the dialogue and everyone including the then I&B minister I K gujral were against a muslim writing the dialogue for a serial like mahabharat , but dr chopra stood by his decision and his conviction and confidence in dr raza became the major highlight of the serial, which was the dialogue which is still remembered not only in india , but also in pakistan .

Dr chopra had crossed the age of 85 , but he was still active. He called me to his office one day and narrated a story to me which he wanted to make into a film with dilip kumar and raakhee and many other young actors .

This story had become his final obsession . Everytime i met him he narrated the same story to me and looked very sad because his old and good friend, dilip kumar was not giving him the signal to make the film .

Believe it or not , dr chopra waited for 12 long years for dilip who he called yusuf and when yusuf still didnt give him a proper answer (remember dr chopra had made two important films with dilip kumar , naya daur and daastan ) .

And when he was 88, he gave the script to his son , ravi who made the same script with some new changes with amitabh bachchan and hema malini in the lead roles .

The film was "baghbaan " and it was a big hit. And the tragedy was that dr chopra had lost his sense of understanding (i am sorry to say this ) and didnt even know that his brainchild was made into a film and was appreciated by millions.

Dr chopra was seriously ill and was a victim of alzheimers . But strangely, every morning he asked to get him ready to go to office and he did go and reach before 11 am .

His writers sat with him .  He kept looking at his staff but couldn't talk to them . And by another quirk of fate , he remembered the 7th of every month and made sure that he was taken to office on that day and was perfectly alright till he signed hundred and forty cheques, which were the salaries of the staff of b r films.

It was only around 2 pm that he felt anxious and restless and was driven home by his favourite driver, singh .

And then he didnt come out till the next morning when he just wanted to go back to office.

His health deteriorated.  There was a team of doctors to look after him . But another blow of fate struck and his wife who was by his side for 70 years suddenly died of a heart attack .

And within a week dr chopra also left for some place called eternity , but not before leaving his mark in the history of time .

And on the day he died , i remembered that line under the photograph in my neighbour's house which had said , "time rites and having writ , moves on "

ITIHAAS KYAA KARTA AGAR AISE MAHAN LOG ITIHAAS BANATE NAHI . MUJHE GARV HAI KI MERE ZINDEGI KE HISSE MEIN AISE LOG AAYE JINKO NAA ITIHAAS BHULAA SAKTAA HAI, NAA WAQT, NAA MAI.