After he had the hip fracture, Habib saab was recuperating at the then Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dixit's bungalow. They were old friends from the time Habib saab was a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha. She offered her place to Habib saab since it was difficult for him to travel to Bhopal in his condition and he got sick of AIIMS pretty fast. But , not the one to stay alone he would get his friends to keep going and visiting him. These were mostly all 'theater wallahs'. At the Delhi chief minister's bungalow, there is a very strong security detail. There is physical frisking then your bags go through the X-ray machine. The police people in charge of security found us, the theater wallahs to be quite funny. We, on our part made sure that Habib saab had his quota of rum in that room so that he did not have to get anyone to get his rum for his two evening shots.
As it happened, one day Shalini and me went to meet him with one full bottle of 'Old Monk' during the day and towards the evening - Sudhanva, Mahmood and one more friend came carrying a bottle each . The police man was quite bewildered. He let the first one go , then the second one but when it came to the fourth bottle of 'Old Monk' he could not help himself and asked- How much does the old man drink?
This only led to laughs in Habib saab's room when slowly these bottles were consumed.
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