Javed Akhtar remembers coming to  Mumbai with 27 paisa, shares his journey of struggle and hard work 

Veteran lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar first arrived in Mumbai on October 4,1964, at the age of 19, with just 27 naya paisa in his pocket.  On Saturday, reflecting on his 61 years in the city, he penned an emotional note expressing gratitude for how kind life has been to him.

Taking to his X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “On 4th October 1964 a 19-year-old boy had disembarked at Bombay central station with 27 naya paisa in his pocket. Went through homelessness, starvation, unemployment but when I look at the grand total I feel life has been too kind to me.”

Born in 1945 in Gwalior, he added, “For that I can not but help but thank Mumbai, Maharashtra, my country and all those who looked at work kindly. Thank you, thank you so much.”

Talking about his journey, Javed told Hindustan Times in 2006 that he slept wherever he could, sometimes on a verandah, sometimes in a corridor, and sometimes under a tree, alongside several other homeless, jobless people like him. “At last, in November 1969, I got some work which in film parlance is called a break,” he added.