It is said that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had an interesting way of introducing his friends Harivanshrai and Teji Bachchan at social gatherings. “He is a poet,” Nehru would say, and then pointing to Teji, he would add, “And this is his poem.”

Even before the couple’s first son Amitabh’s now-illustrious acting career took off, they were names to reckon with in India’s accomplished literary circuit and high society.

On Friday, an illustrious chapter of the Bachchan family came to an end with the demise of 93-year-old Teji Bachchan—her poet husband passed away in 2003. Teji Bachchan died at 1.05 pm at Lilavati Hospital, said Doctor Narendra Trivedi, vice-president of the hospital. She was in the hospital for one-and-a-half years after being admitted with “age-related problems”.

She was shifted to the ICU last month after “developing internal bleeding” and the entire family was by her side on Thursday night after her condition deteriorated. She is survived by sons Ajitabh and Amitabh, his wife Jaya, their daughter Shweta and son and daughter-in-law Abhishek and Aishwarya. “Amitabh became a star to the rest of the world, but to Teji Aunty he continued to remain ‘Munna’,” says actor Shatrughan Sinha, a close friend of Amitabh. “Amitabh’s sense of humour can be attributed to her.”

Born in a Sikh family as Teji Suri, she got married to Hindi poet Harivanshrai, who was a professor of English in Allahabad University, in 1941. Harivanshrai was still recovering from the tragedy of his first wife Shyama’s death when the couple met at a common friend’s place and fell in love after the former recited one of his love poems, Kya Karoon Samvednayein Lekar Tumhari. After marriage, the couple often sang at close-knit literary meets and Teji Bachchan even displayed her skills as a stage actor—she played Lady Macbeth in her husband’s Hindi adaptation of Macbeth. They also played a cameo in Yash Chopra’s superhit Amitabh-starrer Kabhi Kabhi. During one of her performances in the play Othello, it is said Teji Bachchan suddenly spotted friend Nehru at the back seat of the auditorium accompanied by his secretary.

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