article about jeetendra

A beaming Jitendra arrived at Shyam Sadan, Girgaum to celebrate Ganesh puja with his former neighbours, on Wednesday.

Visiting the 4th floor where he had grown up, Jitendra said, "Thanks to Ganesha, I have risen from rags to the position I am today, and my children are also well-settled.

I remember the good old days when we used to pop in to the neighbour's house, when we ran out of salt or sugar. Such community living is absent in modern-day structures," said Jitendra. The actor visits his roots every year on Ganapati.

Says Shashi Kudterkar (68), his former neighbour, "Though Jitu is rich now, he started life in this chawl.

To his credit, he always keeps in touch with us. It's been more than 30 years that he left the chawl, but he comes here on the first day of Ganapati every year." In fact, on Kudterkar's insistence, Jitendra started celebrating Ganapati in his own house, 28 years ago.

"When Jitendra moved out of the chawl to Sneha Sadan in Colaba, every weekend, we'd go to his place and chill. Later, he moved to Pali Hill, and that's where he brought his first Ganapati," added Kudterkar and another neighbour, Babli Rao.

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