N.B. Nair
A vendor who sells ordinary spicy and crunchy snacks in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand state is now a subject of research in the United States. The research is on inimitable personalities being carried out by Indian American Shashidhar and author David Frost.
The snacks vendor Pappu Sardar’s claim to fame is his die-hard admiration for Hindi film actress Madhuri Dixit. He has been uniquely celebrating Madhuri’s birthday – 15 May since the mid-1990s. On that day every year, Pappu Sardar cuts cake at midnight and treats his customers with his popular and mouth-watering snacks free!
Pappu’s shop in Sakchi market in the steel city is adorned with photographs of Madhuri, the screen goddess of the late 1980s and 1990s. His home is a virtual museum of Madhuri posters – a room is completely kept apart for his favourite actress – and a collection of all Madhuri films.
“I want people to remember this most popular and powerful actress Bollywood ever had,” said Pappu.
Pappu was saddened when Madhuri’s acting career came to an abrupt end at the pinnacle of her popularity after Devdas (2002). But when she made a comeback in Yashraj Films Aaja Nachle (2007) Pappu celebrated in style the return of Dhak Dhak girl.
But behind crazy celebrations of Madhuri’s birthday, what is little known about Pappu is his philanthropy. Madhuri does not titillate his mind but is only a means for the expression of his love for humanity.
Pappu, a school dropout, had to take over the family responsibilities after the death of his father. He now has a flourishing shop in a popular market in this steel city and spends a sizeable portion of his profits on philanthropic pursuits. But everything has got a Madhuri tag.
The Cheshire Home and an old-age home in Jamshedpur know this better. For the special inmates of Cheshire Home, he is Pappu-bhaiya, and Pappu never disappoints them.
A park outside – Madhuri Vatika — and water coolers in every room are Pappu’s contribution to the Home and he never misses a chance to be with them opening up his purse string liberally. And there are enough posters of Madhuri adorning the walls of the Home for abandoned.
The special children and the inmates of the old-age home were his special guests at the marriage of his niece several years ago!
Pappu has taken insurance for himself with the maturity amount going into a corpus for the support of these inmates.
Several poor children and unmarried girls are also recipients of Pappu’s largesse. He distributes educational tools to poor students in government schools.
During the peak of COVID pandemic, Pappu gave Oximeter, Blood Pressure Monitor, and other essential materials to a local government hospital.
Pappu’s wife has no complaints about her husband’s hook-up to the film actor.
“In fact, I got richer after the release of every Madhuri-starred film. He got me the dress Madhuri wore in those pictures stitched for me,” giggled Maninder Kaur, Pappu’s wife.
Image courtesy: FB page of Pappu Sardar