Dev Anand lived exactly as he wished to and kept working till the very last as a blessed soul, redefining the word ‘Evergreen’ in his latter matured decades. Have purposefully used the term ‘matured’ here, since Dev himself conveyed that there is nothing called ‘old’ ……. in his precious interview with another ever-gracious, elegant beauty icon of Hindi cinema, Simi Grewal.
Recalling his dialogues from the mesmerizing climax of GUIDE, he says,
“One never grows old, One just grows, matures and dies. Never tell a man or woman that you’re growing old. Only say you have matured!”
“I don’t fear DEATH. If it comes to me I will take it. It has to come to everybody. And I have reached the stage where “Na Dukh Hai, Na Sukh Hai, Na Deen Hai, Na Duniya”
“You are sleeping….. and you close your eyes…... you are in a different world …… and you are gone. You have died. You have not suffered. Who knows where you are? Its only the people left behind who suffer….. who cry for you! This is what I have learnt. And I am constantly learning.”
Next he gives a golden message for everyone experiencing the mature age. And he says,
“It’s a big disadvantage of growing old if a man is not creative!
Sitting at home and nobody is looking after you. You are in a wheel chair and the doctors come every day. And everybody is sulking and cribbing that what the hell this man is doing, he should die. He is a burden on society.
But when you are giving something back to the world….. its entirely different.”
Taking the message further, it is indeed very different, beautiful and sheer blessing, if one manages to be creative in his (last) mature years. As then he or she has all the experience of the world and can cherish the things much better than ever before.
In reality, a life lived well would always result in many blissful matured years just as a fruit becomes more juicy and tasteful when its ripe. Dev’s message to the mature souls is pretty loud and clear that the final years are not to be lived cribbing and sobbing with regrets thinking about the past or the departed souls.
In fact this is the time when one should try to live his or her every unfulfilled passion of life being more creative than ever before.
Listen to music, learn music, pick up an instrument, pick up a brush, a pen or go travel visiting places you always wished to see if possible. In short, do anything you wish but be creative as this the only time left as granted by the existence.
Setting an example, that is exactly what Dev did in his matured age and that’s what he would surely be wishing for his every true fan remembering him through his immortal images on screen in the present as well as in the future discovered by all the coming generations.
Interestingly, though said for a different character in an iconic film, the one line written by Gulzar fits perfectly on Dev Anand….. and it says,
“Anand Mara Nahin……. Anand Martey Nahin”
Cheers!
(Note : The complete interview can be seen at Simi Grewal’s official Youtube Channel shared in two parts.)
(Note: The article was first published on UC-News Mobile App in December 2017)
