I am in my Father’s house. In New Delhi. A house that I built for him. For him and for my Mother, when his term as a Member of Parliament of the Rajya Sabha had been completed. Gulmohar Park, the region designated for writers and artists had been a barren wild forest area within Delhi, where the night was filled with the sound of jackals. Now after several years of expansion and habitation, the region has become the hub of most important activity and life. The Capital has grown beyond it and about it.

An eminent professional’s wife had invited us to introduce us to the facility she had opened in a high end mall and so we travelled. With the kind of goods and retail stores springing up at every corner, it is indeed remarkable how the face of the country keeps changing every few years. This one that we went to could have been anywhere in the western world. Such a change from the good old days of Connaught Place.

Dinner followed thereafter among a small group of common friends, a surprise being the presence of my favorite Waheeda Rehman. Now aged and well within her years, she to me described what the conventional Indian woman ought to be in look and behaviour. Those early films ‘Pyassa’ and ‘Kaagaz ke Phool’ and ‘Chaudhavi ka Chand’ and ‘Sahib biwi aur Ghulam’ are unforgettable for the charm and grace and childlike softness of an ethereal looking Waheeda ji, alluring and dynamic by the intensity of her simple and endearing looks and performance.

I was and still am her great admirer and fan. She signified to me the epitome of Indian grace and culture. She possessed in her the mischievous streak of that precocious village belle and the spirited movement of a Shiv Tandav. She looked vulnerable and lost, searching for protection in one moment, yet knowledged and mature in another. You felt like protecting and guarding her from all the evil of the world and to gently wipe away any frayed eyebrows that may have accumulated on her face. Her performances were pure and clean, without effort and deliberate design. They were just a part of her - simple and soft.

And you cannot imagine the excitement when I came to be cast with her in Sunil Dutt’s ‘Reshma aur Shera’. It was like an unbelievable dream. The Rajasthan location of Jaisalmer and the hot deserts beyond that in the village of Pochina merely a few meters away from the Pakistan border. The arduous drive for hours into the interiors without any navigation and roads. Miles and miles of barren dessert and dunes with a scarcity of every possible material good, required for survival.

Dutt Saheb an adventurer by temperament, would drive all of us into similar spirit. I remember the long and tiring nights of discussions at his Ajanta Arts office in Bandra, till the early hours of the morning - a trait that seemed so exhausting and utterly fatiguing for a young man not used to being up beyond the normal bedtime hours. The director and writers discussing endlessly on the script and screen play, while I disinterestedly nodded off in one corner. The screen tests that were carried out with costume and make up. The music sittings with that most talented music director Jaidev. The travels that would take place from Delhi’s Safdarjung Airport in old Dakota aircraft to every conceivable airstrip en route to Jaipur and then from there by car for a few hours to the walled city of Jaisalmer, a change of vehicle into the more dependable jeep and on to Pochina, the village where we were camped in tents for the entire schedule of the film.

Ranjeet and Vinod Khanna, Rakhi were my senior colleagues all living together in one big tent complex. The fun of our work in the heated confines of a brutal desert, the escapades with other unit members and crew and the absolute delight of being a part of the story that involved the great and divine, Waheeda Rehman. My moment of glory being the day when I was asked to carry her ‘chappals’ to her in the hot sands that were scorching her bare feet. I could have kept doing that for the rest of my life. Such was the passion of my devotion. Schedule after schedule in Pochina followed. Every festival was celebrated there, until finally the film was ready for release and the premiere marked by the presence of the great Meena Kumari, who after my somewhat insignificant performance in the film ended, came up and complimented me. I think I hit the ceiling !!

Then one day Waheeda ji was with me as my leading lady in ‘Adaalat’ and more as my wife in ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ and my Mother in ‘Namakhalal’. But no matter in what form she came along with me she always remained that gentle and soft spoken warm and endearing person. She has been with Abhishek in two films and I was happy to see that he too shared similar feelings towards her.

‘Reshma aur Shera’ had many interesting episodes during its making and some day, if urged, shall be written about, but for the moment it shall be just this and no more.

Till then .. till more on R@S .. till the detail of information …

Amitabh Bachchan