About Selim Khan

Salman Khan's father is Salim Khan, who wrote scripts for legendary films like Deewar, Don, Zanjeer, Trishul, Sholay, and Mr. India, and dominated the golden era of Hindi cinema with commanding performances. His mastery of shayari and poetry commands genuine respect. Actually, to call it mastery understates it — his thinking operates at an exceptionally elevated level.

Once, in a program, he said: "Aansu nikal aaye to khud punchiyega. Log punchne aayenge to sauda karenge."

Translated into Bengali, it means: When tears come to your eyes, wipe them yourself. If others come to wipe them, they'll make business out of it.

It's a beautiful and deeply meaningful statement in Hindi, though something gets lost in Bengali translation. The depth of this thought is immense! If one could live by it, one could easily keep oneself away from much suffering.

Salim Khan also says: "Accha aadmi wo hai, jiska dost purana ho, aur jiska naukar purana ho."

The translation goes: A good person is one whose friends are old, and whose servants are old too.

Dive into the depth of this statement. You'll realize there's no easier way to understand someone's character and mindset. Those who change friends and workers like clothes — whatever else they might be, they're certainly not remarkable as human beings.

It wasn't right to introduce Salim Khan at the beginning as Salman Khan's father. Just as we don't need to reference Shabana Azmi to recognize Kaifi Azmi, one of Urdu literature's greatest poets, likewise Salim Khan, one of India's mastermind creators, shines in his own light.

Rather, Salman Khan still gets invited to many events as Salim Khan's son, not as Salman Khan. Many intellectuals regretfully observe: "Alas, Salim Khan's son couldn't even come close to his father in terms of talent!"

I'll end with a small piece of information. What does Salman Khan himself think about such a father? Salim Khan is the only person on earth before whom the fear-no-one Salman Khan doesn't even dare to drink alcohol!

Postscript. Some have asked on WhatsApp/inbox whether I support Salman Khan's drinking.

To them I say: as long as the money for buying alcohol isn't coming from my pocket, I have nothing to say about anyone's drinking habits.

Salman Khan! The heights he has reached — I probably couldn't reach even one percent of that height if I tried my entire life.

When speaking about such a person's private life, I prefer to talk only about his positive aspects. For instance, he's a philanthropist.

You might ask, why doesn't Salman Khan get married yet? I'd say, if he got married, would any of his girlfriends have offered you a job as their house guard that you're sitting with your mouth open waiting for his marriage? Or is it that because he's not getting married, you can't start the basic task of lighting the lamp of your own lineage?

If Salman Khan drinks, it's his own liver that will be damaged. If he loves around as he pleases, he'll go to hell himself. Where's your problem in this?

Please stop being judgmental. The word "judgmental" has only one meaning: pointless!