Seeing the great Dilip Kumar—who recently turned 93—being honoured with Padma Vibhushan I couldn’t help recalling my only meeting with the legend about twenty or so years ago, which was thanks to my friend and well-wisher Ather Farouqui. “Let’s go and meet Dilip Kumar,” so casual he had sounded that for a second I thought he was kidding, but then his smile told me no, he wasn’t….It was 1979 or 80 when my father in Allahabad had got hold of an audio cassette containing Lata Mangeshkar’s live concert at Royal Albert Hall in London several years before. It wasn’t her performance on the occasion that had taken my father’s breath away—her great musical talent and voice had long been common knowledge—but the short speech made by the celebrated actor to introduce her to the audience in that hall that had cast a spell on him, us…None in our family had heard him speak like this before, I mean outside his films….Hardly a couple of months prior to this cassette I had begun teaching myself Urdu, for no reason other than the fact that the language and its poetry would mesmerize me no end; the beauty of the way Urdu words sound and all….Dilip sahib’s speech in question had further buttressed my resolve to acquire it, which I did and did at the expense of so much else……It was only after coming to Delhi, to JNU, that I became familiar with some really good Urdu poets, whose preferred genre was Nazm as against much more popular form Ghazal; their artistic sensibility was said to be suited more to the former. And of all the major modern exponents of Urdu Nazm Akhtarul Iman became my favourite—so much so that I came to know some of his more famous poems by heart, Ek Ladka being one of them…..After saying “Let’s go and meet Dilip Kumar” Ather Farouqui told me that Dilip Sahib too was an admirer of Akhtarul Iman’s poetry…and went on to add that it would be an opportunity for me to impress him with my rendition of Ek Ladka from memory. Though I couldn’t help being a bit nervous the idea thrilled me….Ather Farouqui had to meet him in connection with some function—of which he was one of the organizers—at India International Centre the following day, which the great thespian was slated to grace with his presence…On reaching the place on Tilak Marg at the appointed hour—it was his friend’s house where Dilip sahib would usually stay while in Delhi—we were asked to wait as Dilip Kumar would soon join us; he was already on his way from somewhere…Meantime I was busy quietly reciting Ek Ladka to myself while Ather Farouqui was chatting away with the man who had received us, the Indian version of a butler or something….Exactly half an hour later the great man arrived accompanied by his friend cum host and came straight to where we were sitting. We rose to our feet. To me he looked more impressive in person than in films. Shaking our hands he expressed his regret at being late, and after informing him of the details of the forthcoming event my friend told him about my love of Urdu and that I had learnt it on my own and all, and that I would like to recite Ek Ladka before him, which would be an honour. Dilip Kumar looked at me, nodding in appreciation. But before he could say Irshad his friend who had gone to the bathroom came back and began to talk about something else, and then the conversation turned to the question of religious beliefs, providing me with a toehold. I jumped in and recited a couplet of Ghalib, less known but absolutely germane to the topic: Dair-o-haram aaina-e-takaraar-e-tamnna; VamaaNdagi-e-shauq taraashey hai panaaheN. The host looked on, bewildered, as Dilip sahib asked me to recite it one more time, and then kept nodding as if reflecting on its meaning and then said, ‘That’s really great; no doubt that Ghalib ka hai andaaz-e-bayaaN aur….After that he got up saying he was starving and would like to have some soup. So we had to take our leave. Noticing the melancholic look on my face my friend Ather Farouqui said as we made our way out, “True, a more famous one man-audience for your rendering of Ek Ladka is hard to imagine, but there are bound to come many more such opportunities," and immediately after that he mischievously added, "Jo bhi ho, Dil ke Khush Rakhne ko Ghalib ye Khayaal Achchaa hai.."
