My morning started with a call to the one and only, my super-hero Shabana Azmi. She is, believe it or not, 75!
“It is not as bad as it sounds,” she chuckles. “I have my bad days, and broken bones are a constant fear. Let’s hope I go through this day without any thing broken.”
Luckily the only ‘broken’ thing in Shabana’s life right now is her precious play Broken Images, which now goes to the US. “It is going to be super-hectic tour…like one city every day. I look forward to being on stage every time.”
Birthday this year began with her god-daughter Namrata Goel dropping in with musicians and guitar. “It was so fun much. In the afternoon my girl gang, we call ourselves Dher Sara Pyar, indulged ourselves with a full treatment at a sauna bath. Then in the evening we all sang our favourite songs, till the wee hours when my birthday arrived. The day itself will be an open house: friends dropping in casually… Evening is my friend Boney Kapoor’s birthday party for me.”
Shabana feels blissed this birthday. “I have the craziest friends and family. I remember when I was in the hospital after the accident (Shabana had a near-fatal road accident in January 2022) everyone turned my room into restaurant. They were constantly ordering food from the Taj while I was lying helpless in bed. When I was on a hunger strike for the slumdwellers(in 1986) Javed(husband) and Tanvi (her sister-in-law) would drop in. They would teasingly call me ‘Bapu’ and then head to the nearby restaurant for a meal, describing this starving woman, me, of exactly the dishes they were going to order…. We are all very much into masti, and no one takes me or themselves seriously.”
