“Don’t you guys send love notes or messages over the phone anymore?” asks Saira Banu at the start of the conversation. On Valentine’s Day today, the actress talks about the beauty of old-world romance and shares some of the love notes that she exchanged with her husband, legendary actor Dilip Kumar.
“Duniya kaafi badal gayi hai.There was a certain restraint back in our time, but there was a beauty to it,” she observes. She adds, “Telegrams milna would be a big deal. Mobiles didn’t exist and telephones would barely work if you were shooting outdoors. For almost 20 days, you had to survive without hearing from your loved ones.”
Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu
In her growing up days, Saira Banu’s grandmom would accompany her to school in London. She recalls, “You could write to someone or court them only if you were officially engaged or committed. I know things have changed now, but I am old-school that way. I appreciated that culture.”
The language of love has changed over the years. In the age of app-inspired romance, text messages and emojis have taken over hand-written notes, poetry and love letters. The veteran actress still holds the hand-written notes she exchanged with her husband close to her heart. She says, “Aaj kal ke mashooq kaise apni dil ki baaten bayan kar lete hai. We used to have poetry and couplets. I was well acquainted with English, French and Latin as I studied in London, but I learnt Urdu and Persian because my husband was well-versed in them. He would write to me in English and Urdu. When I would struggle to read the Urdu words, he would tease me.”
Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu
Speaking of love notes, she remembers, “Ours was a great love story. We would exchange notes through the air hostesses when he would be obliged to go and sit with someone else for some time. I would write to him, ‘Jaan, don’t you think I have been alone for too long? Will you come back to me?’ I missed him and wanted him back beside me. He would write back, ‘I’ll be back in a jiffy’, which would be an hour or more. I would leave notes under his folded shirts in his bag when he travelled for work so that he could wake up to them each day.”
She concluded, “Dilip sahib would always ask, ‘Aap kaha ho’, if I wasn’t seated next to him, and I would say, ‘Main aapke ird gird hi hoon’. He loved me with all his heart, but I would tease him by saying, ‘It’s okay if you don’t love me. I love you enough for the both of us’.”
