Sanjay Khan’s wife Zareen Khan passed away in November last year. While she was married to a Muslim and born as a Parsi, she was cremated as per Hindu rituals. While people raised questions, in a recent interview, Zareen’s daughter, jewellery designer Farah Khan Ali has broken silence on it. She revealed the reason why Zareen had wished to be cremated was that she wanted her ashes to be immersed in water. Opening up on her demise while getting emotional, Farah said in an interview with Vickey Lalwani, “She was hale and hearty, she went to sleep in the night. She was so peaceful, that when she passed, it couldn’t have been painful.” She added further, “She would always tell us, that I pray to my Sai Baba that when I go, I’m taken in an instant in my sleep. Even though she was born a Parsi, married a Muslim, she asked us to cremate her as a Hindu because she wanted her ashes to be immersed in flowing water in Kashmir. She was claustrophobic being in a grave. That was one of the reasons she wanted to be cremated as a Hindu. When she passed, there was so many unkind comments about why are we cremating her as a Hindu. I come from a family where we were taught to love all religions, celebrate all festivals. I can ignore trolls well. I’m an expert at ignoring trolls. At the end of the day, you only have that much time and you need to just pay attention to people who matter and people you love.” She revealed further, “At her prayer ceremony, we had five priests from different religions – Parsi, Sikh, Hindu, Christian, Muslim all saying different prayers and then the children and all of us spoke about her. Over 2000 people showed up at a her prayer ceremony because she was so loved.” When asked how Sanjay Khan dealt with Zareen’s death, Farah said, “I think men don’t take loss very well. My father was no exception. He also took my mother for granted because she was always there and today I think he deeply misses her. But he also is someone who keeps himself very busy because if he doesn’t keep himself busy, he will be in deep pain. Right now, he tries to block it out because he lived with her and she was there 24/7. He’s not taken it well, he’s dealing with it as are all of us.” She broke into tears while missing her mother and said, “I write to her, telling her about my day and what she means to me. I do that every other day. She was my universe, my world. There will never be another Zareen Sanjay Khan. She had two superpowers, to give everyone love and to forgive and forget.”
