Sometimes, you get so close to a person that the way you address him and the way he addresses you is very different from how the world addresses him and you. Like Boney Kapoor may be Boney for the world, but I have rarely called him by that name. To me, Boney is Bones. Likewise, many years ago, I started to address Anil Kapoor as Anil The Kapoor. This, because he used to invariably greet me with the words, “Komal The Nahta”. Karan Johar may be Karan for the world but very early on, I started calling him, “Current”. As far as I am concerned, the electrifying name has stuck to him over the years. He may actually find it weird if I were to suddenly call him “Karan” now because he is so used to being called “Current” by me. In the same way, star secretary Rikku has all along been “Rikka” for me, never Rikku or Rakesh Nath (his real name). With Subhash Ghai, our pattern of greeting goes on these lines:
Me: “Subhash ji, namaste!”
Subhash Ghai: “Hum sab samajhte!”
In the same way, Satish Kaushik was always “Satishaan” for me. The ‘n’ in the twisted (by me) name was a mere nasal sound (as in, say, the Hindi word kehkashaan), not completely pronounced as ‘n’ (as in the Hindi word shaan). And to Satish, I was never Komal, because he used to address me as “Komala”.
At one public gathering, I greeted him quite loudly in my usual style, “Satishaan!” An industry person, standing close by and assuming that I had mistaken Satish Kaushik for Satish Shah, nudged me and whispered, “Aap galati kar rahein hain, he is Satish Kaushik, not Satish Shah.” I laughed out loudly and told him, “Maine Satish Shah nahin kahaa, maine Satishaan kahaa, main Satish ko Satishaan bulaata hoon.” As if on cue, Satish replied, “Komala, how are you?”
Sadly, with his passing away this morning (9th March), I will not have anybody to call “Satishaan” now… just as nobody will henceforth address me as “Komala”.