I was happy to know Dr Farooq Abdullah knew me as Ammaji

A page from personal diary of Meghna Malik A few days ago I got to meet Dr Farooq Abdullah, one of the most respectable people of our country. I had been to the Haryana Karmabhumi Award function and some of the most honorable people from different fields of medicine, art, social work were present. I was there to receive an award. I was delighted to receive the award as the people in Haryana deemed me fit to be honoured and I am grateful to them for bestowing it upon me. It was here that I met Dr Abdullah and received the award from him. It was humbling as he is such a graceful person. I spoke to him for some time when he told me he wouldn’t have recognized me otherwise, as I wasn’t dressed like Ammaji from Na Aana Iss Des Laado but as Meghna Malik. He was shocked to see the real me and said he would have never connected the two images. Then I told him that I keep getting these fan mails from people of Jammu and that one university professor once spoke to me through a friend. I still remember it clearly when he started talking to me and I replied back in English. He was shocked to hear me speak in English. He felt I had actually been picked up from some village. He couldn’t believe that I was an actor and that I have been acting like a Haryanvi woman all this while on the show. He was so shocked when I explained him all of it. It is lovely to meet such people and talk to them like these people in Haryana who came to me and told me their children who used to never speak in their dialect had started talking it after looking at Ammaji. They too felt the need to know their dialect. At times it’s nice to hear you are contributing to your country in your own little ways. But being at the awards and meeting other awardees and people coming from different fields was a lovely experience, especially meeting Dr Abdullah, receiving an award from him and he recognizing me was a big thing indeed!