Irrfan Khan's death anniversary: Wife Sutapa Sikdar pens heartfelt note on his final hours

A year ago Indian cinema lost one of the most gifted and versatile actors of his generation, Irrfan Khan. Khan breathed his last at Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai on April 29, 2020. The Lunchbox actor had battled a rare form of cancer called Neuroendocrine for two long years. On Irrfan Khan's death anniversary, his wife Sutapa Sikdar penned a heartfelt note remembering her husband's final hours.

Irrfan Khan's wife Sutapa Sikdar's emotional tribute to late husband

Irrfan Khan married writer and his fellow NSD graduate Sutapa Sikar on February 23, 1995. They shared a loving relationship for 25 long years and have two sons Babil and Ayan. On her husband's first death anniversary, Irrfan Khan's wife Sutapa Sikdar penned a heartwarming note on Facebook about Irrfan's final hours, difficult time afterwards and their fond memories before they got married.

Sharing a photo of Irrfan Khan with his hand immersed in a water bed, Sutapa began the note with a quote by Irrfan Khan's favourite poet Anaïs Nin. She shared an interesting anecdote from Irrfan's final days that she and her friends sang his favourite songs in hospital a year ago while nurses were surprised since people usually chant religious slogans in critical cases. She had been doing this for two years for him because she 'wanted him to go with memories attached to those songs'.

The next morning Irrfan died and she wrote, "next day you left for the next station I hope you knew where to get down without me.. 363 days eight thousand seven hundred and twelve hours..when each second is counted. How exactly does one swim this huge ocean of time? The clock had stopped". She wrote about the mystical time Irrfan left them saying "At 11.11 on 29th april for me .…irrfan you had a keen interest in the mystery of numbers. .and funny you had three 11’s on your final day . some say actually many say this is a very mystical number 11/11/11."

She expressed there were umpteen responsibilities she had to take over after him and the most difficult was to change her signature without his name. She wrote, "My fingers kept stopping on that how could I just take his name away and make it Sutapa, I was unable to sign took a day off and the name game played on my mind. Like a film in a projector".

Sutapa also wrote in detail about an incident from their drama school days and how he constantly used to mispronounce her name and she used to tease him for that. She ended the note by saying, "All of you stay in peace remember us that we loved you, all of you. And remember all of you is missed by someone or the other.. all your families grieve.. may you all rest in peace! I hope there is enough space. I hope some of you will forgive us for not being able to give a respectable cremation  #irrfan #NSD #nationbleeding #wearesorry #restinpeace." 

Promo Image Source: Sutapa Sikdar's Facebook