Veteran actor Dharmendra recently worried fans after a brief health scare, which even led to false rumours of his demise. The 89-year-old was dealing with age-related issues, including breathlessness, but by November 12, 2025, he had recovered enough to return home. His wife, Hema Malini, expressed relief and gratitude after his discharge. While their love story remains one of Bollywood’s most cherished tales, Dharmendra once revealed that his first brush with love happened long before Hema came into his life.Growing up in a small Punjabi village before the 1947 Partition, a young Dharmendra fell for a girl named Hamida, the daughter of his schoolteacher. She was older, studying in class eight while he was in sixth. On Salman Khan’s Dus Ka Dum, where he appeared with his son Bobby Deol, Dharmendra fondly remembered stealing glances at her and wishing he could sit by her. As he put it, “Hum man hi man mein kehte rehte the. Thandi aahen bharte rehte the. Samne wali ko maloom hi nahi tha.”
Hamida never knew about his feelings, as the shy young boy never expressed them. Instead, he kept his love locked away and later immortalised it in a poem. When Bobby mentioned the poem on the show, Dharmendra explained that he had written it back when he was still a student, before Partition. “Main jab padhta tha, partition nahi hua tha, tab ki baat hai.” He then recited the heartfelt verses, “Main chhota tha, maasoom thi umar meri. Woh kya thi, pata nahi. Paas jaane ko jiske, saath baithne ko jiske ji chahta tha. Woh taliba thi aathvi ki, main chhathi ka tha. Hamare school teacher ki beti thi, naam Hamida tha.”Their story never progressed. When Partition struck in 1947, Hamida and her family moved to Pakistan, while Dharmendra’s family remained in India. They never met again, but the memories of his first innocent love stayed with him forever. The poem hints that the two did exchange a few words at some point, and Dharmendra even recalled the sweet confusion of their conversations:“Yuhin muskura deti, main paas chala jaata. Woh khaamosh rehti, main sar jhuka deta. Woh poochti kuch aur thi, main keh kuch aur jaata tha. Woh kehti, ‘Udaas mat ho, Dharam. Abhi waqt hai, tere imtihaan mein sab theek ho jaayega.’ Keh kar chali jaati, main dekhta rehta. Woh ojhal ho jaati, main sochta rehta, ‘Sawaal kya hai, yaar?'”
