Saira Banu and Dilip Kumar got married in 1966. (Photo: Twitter)A day before actor Dilip Kumar’s first death anniversary, his wife and actor Saira Banu penned an emotional note remembering her ‘saheb’. She wrote that while her house staff avidly gathers in front of the television screen when a Dilip Kumar film or song is playing, she still cannot do so without being overcome by emotion. She said life has not been the same for her after the thespian passed away on July 7, 2021.
In an interview with Time of India, Saira Banu bared her heart. She said she feels a “sense of desolation” every morning as she wakes up alone on the bed she shared with Dilip Kumar for 55 years. Banu said she buries her face back in the pillow, as if Kumar’s absence will pass away like a nightmare and she again have “his pink cheeks glowing in the morning rays of the sun streaming into the room.”
In the emotional post, Saira Banu revealed how Dilip Kumar was the only perfect man for her, ever since she fell in love with him at the age of 12. Hers was a story what fairy tales are made of. She calls herself fortunate to have “jumped the long queue of women who were hoping to be Mrs Dilip Kumar.”
Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu tied the knot in 1966, when Kumar was 44 and Banu was 22. But their huge age difference did not matter. Saira Banu shared how Kumar was always as pure as a child at heart. She said he valued his respect and position in the Indian cinema and wasn’t like other actors who took it for granted. He was also a father figure to his siblings.
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Saira Banu’s mother had a special crockery set which she kept exclusively for serving tea to her son-in-law. He even discussed classical Hindustani music and Urdu poetry with Banu’s grandmother. He loved sitting in his garden too, relaxing in the cacophony of crows. “He had a special whistle that the crows recognised and brought them to the part of the garden where he sat,” Banu said.
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