‘Yousuf sahab made life a joy to live with his simple gestures’: Saira Banu on Dilip Kumar's 96th birthday

Every day that God gives me to spend with sahab is a great celebration of a day well spent. I am blessed to be with him and I treasure every moment, each second...” says Saira Banu when asked how she plans to celebrate Dilip Kumar’s 96th birthday today. 

However, the most memorable birthday she recalls is the one when he turned 89. “It was an elaborate celebration as the entire industry met here at our Pali Hill residence and made a great evening of happiness, music and dance,” she smiles. When asked if any of the younger actors drop in to wish him, she replies, “Yes, they do visit as Dilip sahab had made a habit of regularly visiting his seniors like Ashok Kumar sir, Om Prakashji and Naushad sahab.”

Also, on this special occasion, the veteran actress has written an emotional piece on her husband for a group of fans based in the US. Excerpts:

Yousuf sahab is my world, my love, my soul, my Kohinoor, the most precious gift from Allah to me. By now, the whole world knows how my desire to be his wife began at the age of 12 when I was a girl studying at a private school in London. I lived with my dream day after day, praying for it to come true while my mother, grandmother and brother imagined it was an infatuation and I would get over it when I grew up.

(Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu)

Those who have read Yousuf sahab’s autobiography have written to me to say that the most engaging chapters in it are those where he has described how he courted me in his own dignified way, proposed marriage to me and sought my mother’s consent followed by a fortnight-long dream-like, fairytale romance that culminated into a quick and sensational announcement of our nikaah.

The dream I treasured came true on October 11, 1966. If you ask me whether it was a challenge for me (with my background of growing up in the UK in the protective care of a small close-knit family) to adjust to a life in a large kin, I would say that it could have been a challenge if Yousuf sahab had not enfolded me with his mature understanding of my needs and expectations. He gave me the same thoughtful care he extended to his sisters and brothers and the respect of being his wife. He made life a joy to live, with his simple gestures and pleasant surprises that made me feel I could not be more blessed and fortunate than I was.

“It made me very happy one day when in a casual conversation Yousuf sahab revealed that the one crucial factor that egged him on to choose me to be his wife was the manner in which I had been brought up. He had noticed that I was respectful of the core values of our country’s culture and secular beliefs despite my shifting to London in my early impressionable years.

No marriage can be flawless and perfect. Our marriage too had its hiccups but the best thing about them was that they brought us closer and made us more thankful for God’s benevolence and greatness. In the very early years of our marriage, I took seriously ill and I had to be hospitalised in London. 

Leaving everything aside, my Jaan was by my side, staying awake at times while I slept secure in the knowledge that I have a strong hand clasping my hand and praying silently for my recovery.

I can go on and on about our journey together and our learning experiences that drew us closer each time and made us wiser and happier in our togetherness. If it was a bracing game of badminton that we enjoyed together in our youthful years, now it is a quiet dinner at home with soft Hindustani classical instrumental music playing in the background. I feel blessed when I play mother to him by feeding him his light meal while he enjoys the soft strains of the music and gives me the smile that, Mashallah, still sends hearts aflutter. If it was a long drive at one time, it is a short one now and coming back home feeling refreshed and sharing his favourite soup made from one of his own recipes. The one thing that has not changed or diminished is the contentment we share of a life lived meaningfully by being always there for our dear friends and family and, of course, for each other.

If I have another life at all, I will once again beseech Allah to give me the blessing of living this life again.”