[Photo: a painting of Dadi Prakashmani ji]

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Dear Ilander friends,

Presented hereunder is an account of a film star, a renowned dancer, a perfectionist professional, an editor and the last but not the least, a very good human being. Hema Malini, as all of you know her, has ruled over the hearts of cine-goers for about forty years now.

Before I tell you the details, let me tell you how I got introduced to her. Born in a village in District Panipat of Haryana, I was not acquainted with films upto the year 1969.We had no pucca road from our village to the nearest town. The nearest bus stand was 10 kms away while the nearest railway station was about�8 kms away. Till 1969, we had not travelled in a bus or train, as we never required doing so. This was the case with most of my class fellows also. So we had no introduction with the film world.

When I was in seventh standard, a book of Hindi grammar was introduced in our course. There were also ‘Muhaware’ and ‘Lokoktiyan’ in the grammar book. These are called ‘Idioms’ and ‘proverbs’ in English. Now, there was an idiom ‘Paani bharnaa’ which means to be ‘inferior’ or less important. The grammar book was published for the first time and by that time one or two films of Hema Malini had been released and she had become very popular ( as I understand now). So, the writer of the book would have thought it suitable to give a practical example for appropriate usage of the above said idiom. He wrote the following sentence:

Hema Malini ki sundarta ke saamne anya nayikayen paani bharti hain

[It means : other heroines are inferior to Hema Malini, in beauty]

Dear friends, this was our first introduction with the film world and of course with Hema Malini.

Renowned throughout India and abroad for her acting prowess, Hema Malini is currently a member of Rajya Sabha. She thinks that every citizen has the right to do something for the betterment of the country and wants to use her name and popularity for a good cause. A great advocate of women's issues she takes special interest in art and culture and the environment. She is also an exponent of Bharat Natyam.

She has a penchant for perfection and puts her best efforts in everything she does. She is very particular about cleanliness and wants that things should be at their proper place. When the office guys goof up and they don't do the assigned job, it is very irritating to her.
She has learned to control the self and remain calm and stable in trying circumstances. The provocations remain but she doesn't react to them, and is firm and authoritative.

Hema ji feels that God has given her everything. She is a devotee of Shri Krishna.
Very keen to propagate Indian art and culture, she has extensively toured throughout the world for it. Ballets, particularly those based on Shri Krishna and Ramayana, really fascinate her. She performs in selected music festivals and in some spiritual programmes. She had once visited headquarters of Brahmakumaris organization at Mt Abu and had an experience of Rajyoga meditation, most probably in the year 1995. There she also met with Dadi Prakashmani ji, the then Administrative Head of BK organisation.

A multi faceted personality, she is also founder and Editor of Meri Saheli, a women’s magazine. She is extremely influenced by her mother. Very few people know that she had (produced and directed?) a film named ‘Indira’, for highlighting the issue of gender discrimination in Indian society.
She can control her emotions and is a sedate soul.
Her favourite books are Dadaji Dilip Kumar Roy and Ma Indira Devi's ‘Pilgrims of the Stars’ and ‘The Fluter Still Calls’ in which Dadaji narrates Ma Indira Devi's experiences.
She would like to be remembered as Hema Malini, a good human being.

Thanks friends for reading a long narrative� on Hema ji. I will write, in due course,�about some more film personalities whom I met .

�������������� --Ranjit

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