Days in Kakas association : Gems of remembrances

A few memorable moments with Rajesh Khanna?

I consider it my good fortune that just after a day or two when he joined Congress party officially in 1990/91 , I got an opportunity to meet him in his suite Hotel Ashok. The meeting lasted for more than an hour from 11.00 PM to 12 PM in which the senior journalist and former minister Rajiv Shukla was also present. I consider this meeting as a very significant one with Kaka as just after this , I joined him as his Media Advisor.

When Kaka became Member of Parliament he was staying in Vasant Kunj’s druplex HIG Flat . The govt. accommodation was not allotted to him by then. I was then staying in sector 7 , Rama Krishna Puram, New Delhi. During the parliament sessions Kaka used to come to my house every day at 11.00 am along with his convoy and lift me to parliament alongwith him. Initially the neighbours and the people living around didn’t noticed but after a day or two a whispering campaign started that Rajesh khanna used to come in a particular house in our sector i.e. sector 7 ,RKP, New Delhi everyday at a particular time. Actually somebody notice Kakaji coming to my house downstairs everyday and the news spread fast. From next day people started gathering and when kakaji came they used to garland him and the local paanvallas’s used to prepare special paan (beetle) for him with a request to have it. Kaka generously obliged. Since people started gathering near my house at that particular time to greet the super star turned MP daily and sometimes people with cameras to have pictures with him , I had to request Kaka to avoid coming as this may create problems for him. Thereafter, I used to come out in the main road and Kakaji used to fetch me from near Sangam Cinema on the main road to avoid any inconvenience.

I remember one incident of Minto Road. While the campaigning of Kaka’s election was in full swing in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency in the month of August, 1991, a death occurred in one of the Jhuggi clusters’ of Minto road and the old man who died was a washer man. There was mourning in the family and the corpse of the dead was lying outside the house to be finally taken for crematorium. In the meanwhile the local area councillor Ramesh Dutta came rushing to Rajesh Khanna’s house requesting him to come to Minto Road and attend the funeral of a poor washer man in order to condole the poor and grieved family. Since it was the election time and Kaka was the Congress candidate his visit was inevitable to express his grief. Kaka agreed to Ramesh Dutta’s request and accompanied him to the house of the expired washer man. When Kaka reached there to express his grief , I was surprised and shocked to see his sons, daughter in law and other relatives instead of acknowledging his grief smilingly welcomed Rajesh Khanna and one by one started posing for photographs with him alongside the father’s corpse. Rajesh insisted not to do so, but they refused to listen him and instead called a photographer and got pictures clicked in various poses. They forgot about the father’s sad demise and the total family members one by one felt more delighted to have their pictures with Kaka. Though Kaka was not at ease , he had to oblige them unwillingly. Such was the aura of this superstar. When the opposition came to know about Kaka’s visit the BJP candidate also visited them and the next photo session started with another leader. I was awestruck. The family forgot about the grief but was more interested to have photo clicks with Kaka, the super star.

During the elections, I took Kaka in good number of Uttrakhandi cultural programmes in New Delhi as well as in other constituencies of Delhi. I remember in one of the programmes of Narendra Singh Negi, in Moti Nagar, I made Kaka the chief guest. I had to accompany him to this cultural programme of Narendra Singh Negi. On knowing that Kaka is coming in this programme there was a huge rush, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered around to have the glimpse of the heart throb of the millions. Due to some lack of coordination I could not accompany Kaka but since it was my programme Kaka went along with some people on his own to Moti Nagar, thinking that I must have already reached here on my own. When Kaka reached the venue after great difficulty he was escorted to the stage. Since I was not there my name was being announced again and again by the organisers. When Kaka got the opportunity to address it as chief guest , he clearly said that he would not have come in this programme without Sunil Negi who he don’t know has gone, where. But since I was specifically asked by Sunil negi to come here I came here to seek your blessings. He said he loves me and have come in this programme to maintain/ honour the commitment given to me ( SunilNegi) . The public clapped and I was told about all this the next day by the people who had been to this programme. Such was Kaka’s affection for me.

Not only this but whenever I used to meet Kaka after the elections when he was MP or even after he lost, he used to introduce me to his friends with tremendous respect and would praise me and my work like anything. He even used to say that the amount of media management and other support done or given to me by Sunil Negi during and after the elections, I can’t forget. This huge compliment was no less than a coveted award for me from Kaka, the glorious super star and a Bollywood legend.

I fondly remember, there was a programme organised by Kaka’s fans and supporters in Aiwane Ghalib during his tenure as MP on a special occasion. Kaka was invited as Chief Guest. It was a musical evening. The programme had number of magnificient dance numbers. Though Kaka never performed on filmy songs in such programmes but here when the song of AAP KI KASAM, ( Jai Jai Shiv Shankar) was sung Kaka all of a sudden came on the stage and performed as if he was performing in a film. It was a class dance by Kaka in traditional Kurta Pyjama, in his unique and outstanding style. Everybody stood up and gave him a standing ovation amidst clapping for continuously more than five minutes.

When Kaka was living in Som Vihar Appartment, RK Puram for a short duration my younger brother’s marriage was taking place . Kaka was invited by me to attend this marriage. It was the same day when Rajiv Gandhi visited Sriperumbudur after casting his vote in the New Delhi Parliamentary election with Rajesh Khanna. Kaka came to the marriage function at 9.30 , the venue being at Sector 2, RK Puram, New Delhi. When Kaka arrived there, pre informed, there was huge rush inside the marriage Pandal as everybody wanted to see him, shake hand with him and take pictures. Kaka stayed there for hardly 15 minutes when he got the sad news that his mentor, his guru, his friend and his fan Rajiv Gandhi has been brutally assassinated. I remember after hearing this sad news inside the marriage pandal of my brother at sector 2, R.K. Puram Kaka had literally wept and left for 10 Janpath to express his grief . Kaka was at teen Murti the whole night and the other day as well and mourned Rajiv’s death considering it as a huge personal loss. His words were: he lost his God father, amid tears rolling down his eyes.

While I helped Rajesh Khanna in his media management in his first election when he got defeated by just 1500 votes against BJP’s stalwart lal Krishna Advani, I could’nt join him for the second time due to some difficulties as I was engaged in some other important work. In the second election Kaka was contesting against the BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha when Advani preferred Gandhi Nagar to New Delhi from where the latter had won by a huge margin. Since I was not there Kaka send me umpteen messages through his well wishers but I was not interested at all. Kaka called me number of times as well. Finally my wife said , now it’s enough if Kakaji is requesting you so much , why don’t you go and extend him a helping hand. In the absence of media management he wasn’t getting that much of positive coverage which he used to get earlier in the previous election. I finally made up my mind to meet and help him. I remember it was about 1.00 in the afternoon. There were people all around inside the 81, Lodhi Estate. I opened the main entrance and while entering saw Kaka standing at the middle of the road all alone. On seeing me coming from a distance, I think, he may be annoyed badly for not responding to his repeated calls, but to my utter surprise he came to me and hugged me in affection for more than three minutes and welcomed me again. People standing around were looking with surprise Kaka hugging me in full public glare. I worked for him then and Kaka won that election against Shatru with a very good marjin.

One day I was sitting with Kakaji in his Vasant Kunj House. I thought why not to request him to get me a government accommodation allotted in my cousin brothers’ name who worked in Govt. job so that I can live there comfortably since Kaka had very friendly relations with the then minister for Urban Development. I talked to Rajesh Khanna and he readily agreed to help me. He immediately got himself connected to the minister and talked to him the very day. Since the case was genuine and my cousin was officially entitled for the same but was not getting it, the minister agreed to help. Kaka called me to parliament with the request after completing the necessary official formalities and asked the concerned minister to do the needful which he did in all earnestness. Kaka was too satisfied that at least he has done something for me. I stayed in that house for few years alongwith my allotee brother’s family. There are umpteen such memories with the super star of the millenium which I would be sharing with you in the near future. Please express your comments whether you liked them or not.
SUNIL NEGI/ THE THEN MEDIA ADVISOR TO RAJESH KHANNA