He would say, pointing to Harivanshrai, ‘this is a poet’ and pointing to Teji he would add: ‘and this is his poem!’
That’s how Indira Gandhi remembered her father Jawaharlal Nehru introducing his friends from Allahabad, writes veteran journalist and Nehru watcher Promila Kalhan, who was among the 50 guests who attended Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Maino’s wedding 47 years ago.
Those of us who attended the wedding of Nehru’s grandson Rajiv some years later were aware of the fact that Teji Bachchan played the part of the bride’s mother. Sonia arrived in Delhi a couple of weeks before the wedding which was fixed for 25 February, 1968 and she stayed with the Bachchans.
As per Indian tradition, the bride-to-be does not stay at her in-laws’ house prior to the wedding. It was Teji Bachchan who hosted Sonia and her family at the Willingdon Crescent House and is believed to have helped her learn and adjust to Indian traditions during that period.
Writing for the Telegraph, Rasheed Kidwai explained how a saree draped by Priyanka Gandhi exploded the“time capsule” recently. A saree worn by Priyanka Gandhi at her cousin’s wedding jolted memories of the “seven decade-long Bachchan-Gandhi friendship that stretched seven decades and three generations since the day Sarojini Naidu introduced poet Harivansh Rai and Teji to Nehru and Indira.”
He elaborated just how close the families were in the events that took place just after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
After Indira’s assassination on 31 October 1984, Teji had shown the presence of mind to pick Rahul and Priyanka up from St Columba’s and the Convent of Jesus & Mary School. Rajiv Gandhi had been away in Bengal and Sonia had taken Indira to hospital.
– Rashid Kidwai, Telegraph
The Love Story
Born to a family of army officers, Teji Suri shared Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s keen interest in all things literary. In a blog written to mark his mother’s birthday last year, Amitabh Bachchan wrote about how his parents fell in love.
My Mother, unknown to my Father till they accidentally met, My Mother, who had never heard of who my Father was. My Mother who left her all – her luxuries of her opulent home in Lahore and Rawalpindi and Lyalpur and Karachi, her English Governesses and a fleet of my Grandfather’s Lancer’s and Rolls Royce’s, to marry my Father, an unknown of meagre means, in their very first meeting, within hours.
A man of few words, Harivansh Rai Bachchan was “enamoured by Teji’s charms and spirited commitment to the society”. They married in 1941.
The Artist
Teji was an accomplished singer and a theatre artist. She performed with several troupes in Delhi and Allahabad. After marriage, she acted in Shakespeare’s plays translated by her husband.
Teji, as a young wife and mother, was also interested in things literary. I remember watching her act in a Hindi version of Shakespeare’s Othello. When the play was halfway through at a New Delhi theatre hall, Jawaharlal Nehru, accompanied by his secretary, walked into the hall and quietly took a back seat. But his entry did not go unnoticed. From the stage, Teji called out to the prime minister and requested him to take a front seat.
– Promila Kalhan, veteran journalist & Nehru Watcher
The Mother
Amitabh Bachchan has been blogging memories of his mother of late. In a blog post this day last year, he wrote an ode to his mother, without whose confidence, he would not have left his day job to attempt a career in acting. Here’s an excerpt:
My Mother, with the gentleness of her chiffon saris, and the perfumed walk down the corridors of her College, where young students would await her arrival wondering which clothing she would fashion on the day and what the essence of her perfume.
My Mother, who gave cheer and reason to smile, to all that came in her proximity.
My Mother, born on the 12th of August, in the year which even she did not quite remember, except that she was perhaps 10 - 11 years younger than her husband ..
My Mother, like all Mother’s – the best in the entire universe.
Happy Birthday Ma
Teji Bachchan passed away in December 2007 at the age of 93.
(This article is being republished from The Quint’s archives on the occasion of Teji Bachchan’s birth anniversary. It was first published on 12 August 2015.)
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