Teerth purohit remembers Shashi Kapoor’s visit to Devbhoomi, now awaits immersion of his ashes
Reminiscing Shashi Kapoor’s visit four decades ago, Paliwal says while his other family members left for Mumbai after the immersion of his parents’ ashes, he spent some days alone in Haridwar.
Images of Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor’s presence at sanctum sanctorum of Braham Kund at Har-Ki-Pauri are still fresh in the mind of teerth purohit stan Times.
“Accompanied by his elder brothers Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor had immersed ashes of his father Prithivi Raj Kapoor and mother Ramsarni at Ganga in Haridwar on June 20, 1972,” recalls Paliwal.
Shashi Kapoor, who passed away on December 4, was cremated at Santacruz Hindu Crematorium in Mumbai on December 5. Paliwal now awaits his (Shashi Kapoor’s) ashes to be immersed in the holy river.
Sharing details from his bahi (a document containing details about the person whose ashes are immersed) that mentions the death of Prithviraj Kapoor on May 29, 1972 and his wife Ramsarni on 14 June 1972 in a gap of 17 days, Paliwal says that both his parents suffered from cancer. He shows the document bearing signatures of Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor.
Reminiscing Shashi Kapoor’s visit four decades ago, Paliwal says while his other family members left for Mumbai after the immersion of his parents’ ashes, he spent some days alone in Haridwar.
Paliwal also recalls an earlier visit of the actor to Haridwar in the first half of 1950s, when Shashi Kapoor accompanied his father Prithvi Raj, brothers Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor had come for enactment of a theatrical presentation at Chitra Talkies near Shiv Moorti square. “It was first of its kind theatrical presentation in the Kumbh city, which is still remembered by the aged people,” he tells.
Arun Kumar, a 60-six-year-old trader of Shiv Moorti square, also fondly remembers the actor. “In those days cellular mobiles were not in existence when he (Shashi Kapoor) had visited with his elder brother Raj Kapoor for search of locations on way to Gangotri-Rishikesh for filming sequences of 1983 block buster ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’,” Kumar remembers.
“At that time Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan were top male stars, but Shashi Kapoor had his own charisma. Many of mine college friends had seen him sitting on Ganga ghats and giving smile and waving back to his fans. It is herculean task to reach out to stars today, but it was not the case with Shashi Kapoor,” says Arun, who had also seen Rajendra Kumar shooting for film Ganwaar in late 1969 at British era bridge near Motichur in Haridwar.
Shashi Kapoor’s fans paid tribute to him at Alaknanda Ganga ghat by observing two-minute silence and praying to deity Ganga for solace to his soul and also remembered his connection with Haridwar.