Veteran actor Saira Banu recently penned an emotional note after Hema Malini visited her. The note reflected on their decades-long bond and the memories they continue to share.
Saira wrote, “It does not feel so long ago that Hema had come to see me at my home, accompanied by her cousin Prabha… and yet, when I heard that she’s coming again… my heart was happy.”
She continued recollecting, “When she entered, she looked just as graceful, and in that instant, I was taken back to the very first time I met her in 1966, on the sets of Deewana with Raj Kapoor. Even then, I remember, I was quite simply mesmerised by her beauty there is no other word that feels as true.”
Recalling their meetings, Saira Banu shared, “After that, we met a few times again, and I find my thoughts returning most fondly to our days at the Krishna Raj Sagar Dam. Our rooms were next to each other, which meant our days, quite naturally, became shared. We would sit for hours in the verandah, speaking of everything that came to mind, beauty, skin care, little routines, matters that felt so important then, and perhaps were, in their own gentle way. Our mothers were with us too, and would often join, adding something wiser, something steadier, to our easy, unguarded conversations.”
She added, “And yet, what moves me most is not merely the memory of those moments, but how little, in essence, has changed. Some friendships do not ask to be maintained, they simply endure. With her, there is no effort, no need to explain or revisit. There is only understanding, a familiarity that time, in all its passing, has not diminished. And somewhere in those thoughts, I found myself thinking of Dharmendra ji, of his warmth, of the sincerity with which he held his affections. The love and regard he had for Dilip sahib was never something he needed to declare; it was understood, in the way he spoke of him, with a respect that came from somewhere very deep.”
Saira concluded, “Some bonds, I feel, are like that. They do not announce themselves. They are simply lived, over years, in ways both seen and unseen. And in moments like these, one realises not everything that is precious belongs to the past. Some of it remains with us still.”
Also Read: Saira Banu Pays a Tribute to Dilip Kumar on His Birth Anniversary
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