Dilip Kumar expressed his happiness at Pakistan government's decision to restore his ancestral home in Peshawar. He shared some childhood memories of growing up with his parents, siblings and cousins in the house and playing around near the Qissa Khwani Bazaar.
The veteran actor conveyed through Twitter, "I am at once full of fond remembrances of my parents, grandparents and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins who filled the house with the sounds of their chatter and hearty laughter. My mother who was frail and delicate was always in the spacious kitchen of the house and as a little boy I would wait for her to finish her chores so that I could just sit by her side and gaze at her beautiful face.”
Dilip Kumar shared memories of evenings when his family would gather for tea in the sitting room. "I have memories of the sitting room where the family gathered for high tea in the evenings, the large room where the ladies prayed, the terrace, the bedrooms, everything. I can vividly recall the piggy rides on my grandfather’s back and the scary stories my grandmother cooked up to forbid me from wandering out of the house alone.”
He also conveyed that he had beautiful memories of the Qissa Bazaar. I have lovely memories of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, where I received my first lessons in story telling, which later provided the impetus to choose meaty stories and scripts for my work. Every day as the trading closed in the market of Qissa Khwani Bazaar, a story teller would sit in the centre of the square narrating stories of valour and victory, deceit and retribution which I would listen to with wide- eyed attention, seated next to my father and uncles.”
The provincial government in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has decided to purchase the ancestral homes of two legendary actors of Bollywood, Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. The government plans to conserve the historic buildings that face the threat of demolition due to their dilapidated condition.
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