‘Bina’ there, done that

Sincerity seems to be her best asset. Revealing candid moments from her unrequited love affairs, she confesses, “I was romanced by Shammi Kapoor just after his wife died. I was young and we used to meet secretly on our terrace while I was visiting Mumbai, from London. I had a Sindhi friend, Gita, who was in love with Shammi’s friend, Frank and when it was time for the four of us to meet, we were waiting for her cousin, who I was staying with to go to sleep, but she was wide awake. So we sent a note in lipstick that we were not able to meet, but the note didn’t reach them. Soon that night, those two boys got angry and very drunk. They went to Mohammad Ali Road and millions of fans gathered around them. They declared on the street ‘Love is the most wonderful thing. You must all experience it. But no matter what, don’t ever fall in love with a Sindhi girl. She will break your heart’. Raj Kapoor was against our marriage and so were my parents. So we decided to elope, but when Shammi was away for a while, Rajji called me for an intimate lunch and warned me against Shammi’s shenanigans, and my parents told me to marry Andy.”

The high-flyer has had her moments of tryst, with celebrities who crossed her path and each one of them left a deep impression. After she joined the flock of Indian tantrik Chandraswami, she got closer to names such as Adnan Khashoggi, the Sultan of Brunei, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret Thatcher.

Recalling her time as a newly married bride, she says, “I felt lost in New York and my husband was busy. I was offered work and I readily agreed. I met Jacqueline Kennedy when she had come shopping to where I worked. Actor Raj Kapoor stayed with us in New York, when he came there for some medical treatment.”

She always had an uncanny ability to turn events into positive reflections. Was she very vulnerable when she was young? She says, “After I came back from the United States, I started designing jewellery and Indira Gandhi complimented my baubles. Delhi teaches you a lot and it also brings out the creative side in you. I turned Hauz Khas into what it is today.”

Thanks to her social connections and high-profile friends, she was playing to the capital’s entertainment-starved elite at her nightclub and the Once Upon a Time restaurant, where the Jessica Lal murder took place. “Murders are happening all the time, but when I was in Tihar jail, I asked myself ‘Why me?’ and that’s when I decided to write this book,” says Bina on a happy note as things turned in her favour after a period of struggle and strife.

Letting the cat out of the bag, Bina leaves with a hint that someone in Hollywood who has read her memoir Bird In A Banyan Tree approached her to use the same for a film plot.