Mumbai, Nov 6 (IANS) Actress Juhi Babbar remembered her grandfather, Comrade Syed Sajjad Zaheer, on his 121st birth anniversary.
She shared an emotional note about how her play ‘Ek Lamhaa Zindagi,’ based on her grandparents, has brought her closer to a person she never had the opportunity to meet. Taking to Instagram, Juhi revealed that her grandfather passed away long before she was born, and she had always felt the absence of not being able to know him personally. However, working on the play has given her a special connection with him, almost as if she has spent years in his company.
The ‘Yaaran Naal Baharan’ actress wrote, “Today marks the 121st birth anniversary of my Nana, Comrade Syed Sajjad Zaheer. 5th November 1905. This birthday feels different. Somehow, it no longer feels like just my grandfather’s birthday. I never had the good fortune of meeting my Nana. He passed away long before I was born. And I have always missed the chance of knowing him But something beautiful has happened through Ek Lamhaa Zindagi, my play about my grandparents. Through this play, I feel I have come to know him so well. Almost as though I’ve spent years in his company.”
“Although he is not physically present in the play, since the story unfolds through my Nani’s point of view, he is there everywhere. In every emotion, every memory, every turn of the story. Everything, in a way, revolves around him,” she added.
Juhi went on to state, “And through this journey, he has become such a close, yet larger-than-life character for me, if I may say so. Icons.. Legends..Words we use so casually today. But how fortunate am I to belong to a family where these words truly mean something.”
“I feel an immense sense of pride in being the eldest grandchild of Syed Sajjad Zaheer. And for that, and for so much more, I have my mother, Nadira Zaheer Babbar, to thank. Happy Birthday, Nana. You continue to live through your words, your legacy, and now, through our stories.”
Syed Sajjad Zaheer was an Indian Urdu writer, Marxist thinker, revolutionary, and member of the Communist Party of India.
–IANS
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