RAJU BISHT, MUMBAI
In all the media coverage about the most shocking news to emerge from Bandra today, it is only India TV which got it right:
The suicide was not Malaika Arora’s father but step-father.
His name was not Anil Arora but Anil Mehta.
Both Malaika and Anil started their lives in Thane, then a thriving industrial township on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Malaika was a student of Holy Cross Convent High School, K’Villa. She, along with her sister Amrita and mother Joyce Polycarp, shifted first to Chembur and later, Bandra, after the mother’s divorce.
I knew Anil through my younger brother. He stayed at Jawahar Jyoti, down the road where we lived, and did his junior college from Saraswati Education Society School & Junior College, Panchpakhadi. The Aroras lived in Nataraj Society nearby.
Anil was four years junior to me but he had friends across all age groups. He was gregarious, with a smile always on his face.
He was a voracious reader and would often drop in at my place to check out my vast collection of books. He would either browse through the lot, enjoying my mom’s excellent coffee, or borrow some of the titles.
After college, Anil joined the Merchant Navy and we lost touch.
I bumped into him many years later, while I was enjoying Chicken Crispy at Paradise Restaurant (now shut down), Colaba Causeway.
“Hey Raju, great seeing you after all these years!” The smile was the same.
“What are you doing in this part of town?” I asked him.
“Have come to pick up grub for Malaika,” he said. “She is doing a model shoot in the adjoining building.”
Those were the last words Anil and I exchanged.
