VARANASI: Bollywood actor Aamir Khan wishes to become a 'chhora Ganga kinare wala' by buying the ancestral place in the old city area of Varanasi where his mother spent her childhood. Once known as 'Khwaza Manzil' owned by maternal ancestors of Aamir is today in the ruins attracting gamblers as well as giving space to local children for playing.
Aamir, who turned 51 on Monday, reportedly expressed his birthday wish to buy his mother's ancestral home in Varanasi. Aamir reportedly said, "My biggest wish today is that if I could buy my mother her ancestral home in Varanasi. My mother spent her childhood in Varanasi. I've seen that home. Since then it has been in my mind that if I can request people there and get that house." Calling Varanasi "extremely beautiful and historic", he said that he can't wait to have a house there. "Varanasi is a beautiful and a historic place. So, If I get a home there, my mom's home there, that will give me the biggest happiness. Let's hope it happens," he said during his birthday celebration in Mumbai.
When TOI team visited the place a group of people were busy in gambling in a corner of the open space surrounded by debris and decaying walls. Some children were also there to spend their leisure time or playing.
Amir's first encounter with his mother's place in the narrow lane of Bharadwaji Tola near Chohatta Lal Khan, a walking distance from Prahlad Ghat on the bank of Ganga, was in December 2009 when he was in Varanasi for the promotion of his blockbuster film '3 Idiots' in disguise. With the help of auto-driver Ramlakhan he travelled through the narrow lanes to locate his mother's birth place.
During his visit Aamir also met late Nawab Kayam Raza, a native of neighbouring Katra Dara Shikoh and only relative from maternal side. "Aamir met my husband and gifted a golden ring," said Kaniz Fatima, widow of Nawab, who passed away in July 2015. She also showed the golden ring gifted by Aamir and an old photograph depicting Aamir and late Nawab at a tea shop. "Mein unke jam din par dua deti hun, aur to kuchh nahi hai mere paas dene ke liye," (I pray for him on his birthday, I have nothing to gift him," said the lady living in utter penury with her only son Varish Raza, a high school student. He also does some part time job and urns Rs 100 a day to run the family of two.
The property owned by Amir's maternal ancestors was sold out to others long ago. Even Fatima has no knowledge about the present owners of the property. A portion of the property was bought by a Sahu family living in front of the ruined Khwaza Manzil. An elderly woman of the family Gunja Devi said that they came to know about Amir's association with Varanasi only when he was here in 2009 during his film's promotion.
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