Veteran actress Asha Parekh known for films like ‘Kati Patang’, ‘Caravan’, ‘Chirag’, ‘Teesri Manzil’, ‘Love In Tokyo’ among many others, has also been a recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The actress celebrated her 83rd birthday on October 2 and remains single. However, she has expressed having no regrets about not being married. In an interview, she had spoken at length about her decision to not get into it. Infact, she also revealed that she did come close to marrying a professor once, but here’s why it did not happen. Parekh had once opened up on marriage in an interview with Verve magazine and said, “Marriage is not all rainbows and butterflies; you have to give in to your partner’s whims every now and then, and that’s a two-way street.” She was further asked in this interview if she regrets not being married as often people do it for the fear of not being alone in their old age. She responded, “Not at all. I saw the kind of people that were out there. When I went out with the boys that my mother set me up with, I was completely put off by the whole premise of marriage. They were so fussy! They’d take longer to get ready than I did and would keep preening in the mirror. The narcissism was repulsive. I know it seems silly but these little things really nettled me. There was also the case of my heroes Rajesh Khanna and Vinod Khanna getting an earful from their girlfriends during outstation shoots because they were gallivanting and making merry at night instead of being in bed. I would’ve never been able to take someone dictating terms to me — I was just not cut out for it.”Recalling coming close to marrying a professor once, she veteran actress shared, “I did come very close to tying the knot once with a professor from the US. I was visiting him and we were in a cafe at 2 a.m., when he turned to me and nonchalantly said, ‘I have a girlfriend and you’ve come in the way’. It completely caught me off guard. In a way, that was the final straw for me in this whole wedding business. My friend was travelling with me at the time and when I told her that we were returning to India that very instant, she asked me how I wasn’t gutted that I was cutting ties so unceremoniously with the man I was supposed to be marrying.”Meanwhile, the actress had confessed to being in love with Nasir Hussain. Revealing why she didn’t marry him, Parekh said in her autobiography, “I was never a home breaker. There was never any ill will between me and Nasir Saab’s family. In fact, I was so happy to see Nusrat (Hussain’s daughter) and Imran Khan (grandson) at my book launch. I feel I’ve lived my life decently and without hurting anyone.”
