He was sweating profusely, repeatedly wiping his forehead with a handkerchief in his left hand. With the right hand he would take off and put back his thick, square-frame glasses after rubbing the sweat dripping off his face with the sleeve of his check shirt. He was standing on the kerb. Time and again he would bend forward slightly, looking towards his right. Obviously he was waiting for someone. He was the same age as my dad.

I had recognised him; many others standing around me would have also known the popular broadcaster Ameen Sayani. Instead of the proverbial “face that launched a thousand ships”, his was the baritone that launched a million songs. I was all of 20, an outsider in the dream-city called Bombay, alone and unsure; trying to find my bearings in my first job selling high-end scientific calculating machines to naval dockyard and some scientific institutions in the city. It was the month of June. Monsoon had not hit the city yet. The abnormally high humidity levels were driving the folks to the edge. His shirt was soaked-wet. Unhappy with the weather he looked up, fanning himself with the kerchief.

I looked at him and smiled. I don’t know why I smiled but I know for sure that he smiled back. Hesitantly I walked the six or seven steps to him and bent down as if to touch his feet. He held me from my shoulders and pushed his sweat-soaked-hand in my hand. We shook hands squeezing and wringing his wet kerchief. A bus pulled up and we drew back our hands. We boarded the bus from Santacruz. We only had seven minutes of conversation before he got off at Bandra. His was a familiar voice that went on air every wednesday with Binaca Geetmala and also charmed us with dozens of radio commercials each day. He was ‘going to meet a record company official’, he said. We shook hands again before he got off.

The news of his passing away was an aide-memoire of meeting the man-with-a-golden-voice that humid day. In a sense he too was one of my heroes but I never expected to meet my hero on a bus stop. Thanks Mr Sayani for filling our lives with moments of music and joy, may you now find Lord Himself in your audience. 

Mr Ameen Sayani passed away on 21 February 2024 in Mumbai, India.