Sidharth Shukla, the dynamic winner of Bigg Boss 13 and our beloved 'collector sa'ab' Shivraj Shekhar from Balika Vadhu, breathed his last on September 2. He was only 40. We, at SpotboyE, have been working from home for months now, and it's generally a happy environment on the WhatsApp groups - where we interact for work (well, sometimes not). But the last two days have been painful. All of us have been crying, and writing, and editing, and reporting, and putting stories on social media platforms. That's our job (at least we did not shove cameras on a grieving woman's face).
September 3 was even more painful, as even the heavens cried when Sidharth Shukla was laid to rest. His family members were as expected inconsolable. But our heart went out to Shehnaaz Gill. She loved him. And loud enough. She never shied away from admitting her feelings for a man, who was 13 years older than her. Sidharth had always been a private guy. Nobody till date exactly knows who he ever dated. But Shehnaaz was an exception. Not that he came out in the open and made his relationship official, but he did that in his own subtle ways.
The relationship was, however, made official when Sidharth's last rites were conducted, and Shehnaaz partook in the rituals. Also, Sidharth reportedly breathed his last while he lay in Shehnaaz's lap.
The visuals that showed her dishevelled and devastated won't let us sleep for months. She for a while lay down on the floor where Sidharth's mortal remains were kept. Sambhavna Seth, in a chat with ETimes, said Shehnaaz continuously cried, and kept saying, "Sidharth mera bachcha," as she sat at Sidharth's feet. Can we imagine what she is going through? I don't think so. They dreamt of a future together...
Rita Shukla, his mother, is a wonder woman. She seemed to be the strongest person there was at the cremation. And this woman had lost her husband too - at a very young age!
Not only did Bigg Boss 13 give Sidharth the love of his life, it also gave him Asim Riaz, the frenemy. Asim and Sidharth went from being friends to enemies, and friends again today. When Asim sat in the rains lost in his thoughts, we wondered how useless those BB13 fights were.
Rashami Desai, who also had a couple of fights with Sidharth on BB13, too was seen crying. So was Arti Singh, his friend.
And then there was Shehbaz Badesha, Shehnaaz's brother. He accompanied the grieving Shehnaaz when she walked towards Sidharth's mortal remains. And when he saw Ken Ferns, SidNaaz's designer, he cried. He, later, changed the display picture on his Instagram account to one of Sidharth's.
Paras Chhabra, Mahira Sharma, Shefali Jariwala, Jaan Kumar Sanu, Sambhavna Seth and Abhinav Shukla among others were also seen at the ground. And everybody was crying.
Later, we saw Shehnaaz, her mother and Sidharth's sisters getting out of the car inside their apartment building - where Sid lived.
We are again reminded of the fragility of life. We are shivering...
Image Sources: Twitter/viralbhayani77/SanaKiUpdate/tusharr_v_aher/sameer14527/Bhavana89529547, Instagram/shehnaazgill90/kkk11_updates007/bollywoodpap/sidnaazmerijaanforeveralways/viralbhayani /realsidharthshukla