Family Ties

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If U am Kumar was her crush in the 1960s then my grandmother’s twenty-first-century crush was undoubtedly Aamir Khan. When I told her I had bagged a role in Rang De Basanti she said she wanted to come to the set to meet Aamir. We shot in Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and Punjab but sadly she was unable to come to any of the locations. However, in January 2006, when we were in Kolkata for film promotions, I asked Aamir if I could invite my grandmother to his hotel room to say hello. He kindly agreed. Lal Didi arrived beautifully turned out in a green silk sari the colour of bo led glass, her hair elegantly swept back into a neat bun at the nape of her neck. Aamir sat her down in a comfortable chair and asked her if she would like some tea or a fresh juice of some kind. Pat came the reply: ‘Teacher’s, no ice.’ I bit back a smile at Aamir’s look of surprise. It was 4 p.m. If Lal Didi was liberal and

Independent in spirit, my Amman is much the same. At seventeen she was already living and working in Bombay. She was the first Indian actress to model a bikini on a magazine cover. At twenty-four, when her career was at its peak, she chose to commit what many called professional hara-kiri, and got married — to a Muslim prince at that, at a time when inter-religious marriages were uncommon. She continued to work a¢ er marriage and well into motherhood; my brother was born two years a¢ er her marriage. In fact my childhood memories are of Abba being at home and Amman going to work — she would get us to wish her ‘10 on 10’ as she was leaving.