Ammi and I loved watching movies……till I got married. When I was 8 or 9, she used to tell me how she used to be in awe of the heroines of yesteryears and write to them. It was an era of pen pals and she would find their physical addresses and write those fan letters. Of course they replied back and Ammi very lovingly pasted their autographed photograph on one side and their letters on the other side. I used to read those and find that special as its a taboo today. Her favorite actress was the Tragedy Queen – Meena Kumari. Ammi never remembered their dialogues but she would remember their dresses and hair styles. Ammi had long thick hair which she could braid or make hairdos with. It always suited her demure, heart-shaped faces. A little kohl in her eyes, an eyeliner and a lipstick. Ammi would look perfect as if dressed for the ball.

After I finished my graduation, I got to spend a lot of time with her when we would bring DVDs of old movies to watch together. 3 would be the regular number per day. We would start a movie at 9 pm after dinner was done with and the dishes were cleaned and dried. Then I would sit with her and along with a bowl of roasted chestnuts, dried melon seeds or pine seeds we would enjoy old classics like Awara, Anari, Babul, Chhalia etc….we would actually watch 2 movies each night and yes she used to be up at nights till 3 so she enjoyed watching the black & white movies. We would choose a hero or heroine and get 3 of his/her movies. I have seen mostly all with Ammi. She used to croon old tunes and I too learned them all. She also had a fncy for actresses like Sadhana, Madhubala, Nargis, Nutan etc. Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor were her favorites. We have seen all of Raj Kapoor classics, Dilip kumar at his best, even Raaj Kumar, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Kishore Kumar ……Her favorite singer was Talat Mehmood and she used to always sing : ” Seene mein sulagte hain armaan” A melancholy song but that was the only one she used to sing a lot. Abbas and I used to tease her with a Dev Anand song which she sang for fun and we used to make fun of that. We had a recording of hers….(have to find that !) The song was ” jiya ho….jiya ho jiya kucch bol do” and when she would sing, it brought out laughter always.

When Caravan a compilation of 15000 old songs, came along, I had ordered it for her 72nd birthday for January 15th, 2020. Yes 2020 did come, but she did not step into it. December 30, 2019 took her away…..and our caravan simply stopped.