Irrfan Khan and Sutapa Sikdar were one of the lesser-known couples in Bollywood. The duo who tied the knots in February 1995 were quite discreet about their married life. Recently, Sutapa recounted how Irrfan would budge her to cook Khichdi as she didn’t know her way around cooking in their initial days of marriage. On Friday, Sutapa shared a picture on her Instagram handle which showed a red-colored cover of a book titled Mrs. Balbir Singh’s Indian Cookery.
The book took her down memory lane as she vividly reminisced about the days that are now lost in time. In an immaculate and visually enticing description, she wrote, “Cleaning books is not a chore for me it’s diving into old anecdotes, memories, and I can spend hours doing that flipping pages. And with every flip, the places, people, smell and sound of that place comes alive. Each and every time… afternoon best spent. I found this tattered book today. And the memories came gurgling out like water.”
She further added, “I could feel the sweat on my forehead ions ago… the aroma of fried onion, which I hated… the Zeenat Aman kind of sleeveless maxie I used to wear to cook… the sound of BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and& Transport) buses honking through the grills of the kitchen… that lone Tulsi tree… Irrfan entering the kitchen smoking and giving me a puff with a helpless look on his face… ‘arre yaar khichri bana lete (You should have just made khichdi)”
Sutapa shared about her conundrums coming from a Bengali household and adapting to North Indian cuisine. She wrote, “A big transition happened in my life and food (habits) from Bengali to north Indian, and since I was not into marriage and domesticity I knew no cooking. New in Bombay with no family and no cook, I was nervous to say the least. With no YouTube channel we learnt the hard way… we bought cookbooks. And this was my first non fancy basic North Indian cookbook. Thank you Mrs Balbir Singh I don’t know who you are, but thanks for saving my life because butter chicken, which I find an extremely overrated dish, saved my life as my boys loved it. #irrfan #earlylife #memoriesforever.”
Sutapa Sikdar pursued acting alongside Irrfan Khan at NSD(National School Of Drama) Eventually, she made her foray as a film producer, dialogue writer, and screenplay writer. She went on to produce Irrfan Khan starrers like Madari and Qarib Qarib Single. She was also popular for writing dialogues for critically acclaimed films like Supari and Kahaani.
