Amitabh Bachchan penned beautiful lines about Ritu Nanda, who passed away in the early hours of January 14.
Nanda is Bachchan's 'samdhan'; his daughter Shweta Bachchan's mother-in-law.
As soon as the Bachchans heard the news, they rushed to Delhi to attend the funeral.
We present the Big B's beautiful words on his blog:
That silent knock at the work place .. the hurried expression of worried concern .. the hours that sleep in most parts of the World that seek the midnight .. shuffled steps , soft anxious and disturbed conversations .. and then within a blink .. the lights go out
.. she has gone
.. distance and absence accentuates the grief .. feel of loss, concern for those by the side, and the need to be in the embrace of them that see and suffer in the exact .. such are the incomprehensible moments that the day in the day of lives throws at us
.. faces bear gloom .. uncertainties of being there .. rushed compilation of travel and grief in a relentless combination .. an entire night of possibilities and non possibilities .. and eventually the departure of some .. of the other later
.. that silence of the clothing depicting the mourning hour .. they convey in our culture that all is not well, or that it be known and the silent passings be in respect of the moment
.. the rites are over .. to ashes they have been reduced .. a crowded hall in the home filled with the close knitted relatives and dear friends, embrace break down hold hands, hold
.. and the silence of condolence gradually creeps in
.. polite conversation, of reminisce, of association , of happy times spent together , of the fight and struggle for the ailment for years .. and most of all the loneliness of them that are left behind .. the vacuum .. the emptiness .. the presence that filled up the entire home .. lost and gone
.. that empty favourite chair .. that corner of preference .. the unstinted care and concern for all when present, now suddenly not in existence
.. the voice of the bird that built her little nest, heard no more .. the delicate nest shedding its strains of the making .. the command the control the authority , suddenly absent
.. attempts by several for pleasant conversation that depict the times spent with her .. expressions and attitudes just before she breathed her last .. indications that it was known to her .. words spoken never heard before
.. is it at times, the knowledge of an end in its proximity
.. only they would know .. and only they would never be able to share!
.. the unknown unseen curse of life , known it shall happen, yet the expectation of belief, that it shall never happen to us
.. some moments deserve the silence of condolence .. for them that have been lost to us ..prayers
.. an ideal daughter, an ideal sister, an ideal wife, an ideal Mother, an ideal in-law, an ideal Mother-in-Law, and an ideal friend .. has left us for good in a distance we cannot cover .. for now!!
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Gauri Khan was also spotted catching a flight to Delhi for the funeral.
Karan Johar.
Apoorva Mehta.
Kaajal Anand.
Photographs: Pradeep Bandekar
