Covid-19 be damned. All festivities have been put on hold. Flashing back to normal times....Nowhere in Bollywood is Eid celebrated with more fervor than at Salman Khan’s. Everybody is welcome for Eid at Salim Khan’s home Galaxy Apartments in Mumbai. All doors are thrown open and the aroma of festive food emanates down to the streets of Bandra.
The guests pour in all day long while Salim Saab’s three sons and two daughters gather together to welcome the visitors who pour in all day. Sometimes they stay for just an hour. Others hang around for hours sometimes the whole day.
Sohail the youngest of the Khan brothers and by far the funniest and most down-to-earth, once told me about this Eid incident that made the family a little more alert though no less hospitable. Says Sohail, “There were guests once whom nobody from the family could recognize. We kept presuming they were guests of one or the person in our family. It was only hours later that we got to know they are gatecrashers. But they had left by then.”
Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail’s mother Salma is actually a Hindu. However for years she has been supervising the sumptuous Eid menu at the Khans’ residence.
“Nobody who visits the Khans’ residence is allowed to abstain from the culinary orgy. Eid Day is Cheat Day for all frugal eaters, dieting divas and anorexic types,” says Salman’s buddy Sajid Nadiadwala.
Salman himself heaps every plate with second and third helpings. Try saying no to him.
Veteran actress Asha Parekh, a very close friend of Salman’s second mother Helen says, “They are very good hosts. Every guests is looked after personally by one or the other brother. No one goes home unfed.”
Image source: SpotboyEarchives