Sanjay treads lane where Sunil was once Akhtar

History repeated itself for the Dutt family on Wednesday. Precisely 60 years after Sunil Dutt landed in Lucknow, Dutt junior set foot in the same locality where his father spent almost four years under the pseudonym of ‘Akhtar’ before migrating to Mumbai to become an actor.

Sanjay left Lucknow with the promise that he would not contest the election as an “outsider”. From April onwards, he would stay in the city and leave only after the election.

It was an overwhelming moment for Sanjay when he reached the Ganne Waali Gali, a non-descript bylane in Lucknow’s crowded downtown Aminabad locality. “I can’t say how I am feeling just now... I have always had a home and a family in Lucknow,” is all he could say.

Wife Maanyata and SP leader Amar Singh accompanied him on his visit, exactly a month after his first one when he was declared Samajwadi Party candidate for Lucknow.

The senior Dutt had come to Lucknow in 1949 in the troubled post-partition era and stayed in the house of Asmat Rizvi under the pseudonym of ‘Akhtar’. He worked at the All India Radio for some time, and moved to Mumbai some time in 1953.

Security reasons prevented Sanjay from actually reaching house number 102, as it is deep inside the lane where a huge crowd had gathered. But he met Sarkar Jahan Rizvi and Rais Rizvi, grand daughters of Asmat Rizvi. Sunil Dutt treated them as his own sisters.

“It felt great to see dad’s old photographs and read letters written by my mother (Nargis),” he said.

Sanjay Dutt spent almost an hour with the Rizvi sisters, addressed them as “Bua (aunt)”and they also blessed the couple.

Sanjay later told reporters that his father often used to tell him about the house in Ganne Waali Gali and the times he had spent there. “I always longed to come to Lucknow,” he said.

“I will teach Lucknowites Gandhigiri,” Sanjay said when asked what he proposed to do for Lucknow.