MUMBAI, Jan. 16 -- At a time when identities are increasingly getting boxed into rigid compartments, the Sankranti celebration hosted by poet Kaifi Azmi's family once again shone as a luminous reminder of India's natural syncretism. It was not merely a festival gathering, but a quiet, resolute affirmation that faith, culture and belonging need not exist in opposition. For Kaifi Azmi, whose family had always marked Makar Sankranti, Holi and Diwali with equal warmth, belief was never a boundary but a bridge - an invitation to shared living rather than guarded separation. Born on 14 January 1919, Azmi shared an intimate bond with Sankranti, a coincidence of date that over time grew into something far more profound than personal sentiment. The festival became, in his life, a symbolic meeting point of the personal and the political, where celebration itself was a form of gentle resistance. That spirit travelled with him into his marriage with Shaukat Azmi, blossomed in their commune life, and found a permanent home at Janki Kutir in Juhu, where hospitality was not an act of courtesy but philosophy. The doors were always open; poetry, debate and companionship flowed freely, creating a space where difference was welcomed and curiosity was sacred. On Wednesday, as his daughter Shabana and son Baba Azmi carried this tradition forward, Sankranti unfolded not as a ritual but as a living statement. The presence of actors Rekha, Vidya Balan, Neena Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh, Urmila Matondkar, Sandhya Mridul, Dia Mirza, Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal, Divya Dutta, Soni Razdan; lyricist Vijay Akela and singer Mohammed Vakil transformed the evening into a mosaic of artistic voices, each adding a quiet cadence to the larger harmony. "In our fractured times, the evening is not merely a social occasion but an assertion of hope," Shabana Azmi told this writer. "It reaffirms that India's strength lies in its ability to hold many faiths, languages and traditions in one compassionate embrace, and that coexistence is not an abstract ideal, but a legacy that must be continually lived and protected." Her words carried the weight of inheritance, shaped by a lifetime of watching her parents practise what they believed, quietly and without spectacle. Her brother, cinematographer Baba Azmi, echoed that sentiment, recalling how their father's home was once a living salon of ideas and companionship. "Our father always kept the doors of this home open. Some of the tallest poets, performers and litterateurs would come in at any time to spend time with him. Today's celebration brings back memories of those times. ." In his voice lay a gentle nostalgia, but also gratitude - for a tradition that had refused to be diluted by time. For many present, the evening was both a reunion and a reminder. Actor Vidya Balan, accompanied by her husband Siddharth Roy Kapur, spoke of the emotional continuity such gatherings offer. "I have attended this celebration in the past. This place, the poetry, the people and the conversations are such a throwback to all the values that Kaifi Saab espoused." Her words captured the spirit of the evening: not a recreation of the past, but a return to its moral centre. Actor Kanwaljit, who first attended the Sankranti celebration when he was Shabana's classmate at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, in 1972, remembered coming here as a young man far from home in Saharanpur. "I was happy to be here then because I was away from my family. But today, the idea of celebrating Kaifi Saab and his ideals keeps me coming back," he said. Music, as always in Kaifi Azmi's universe, became the language that dissolved formality. Well-known ghazal exponent Puja Gaitonde lent her voice to some of Kaifi Saab's most iconic songs - such as Waqt ne kiya, Aaj socha toh aansu bhar aaye, Jhuki si nazar -- to have the gathering join in with spontaneous gusto. Filmmaker-actor Tannishtha Chatterjee sang Kaifi Azmi's clarion call for women to be equals in the fight for justice and dignity -- Uthh meri jaan ke mere aaath hee chalna hai tujhe. At a time when public discourse is often marked by anxiety, polarisation and shrinking spaces for nuance, the celebration at Janki Kutir was like a soft but firm refusal to surrender to cynicism. Sankranti was not just about harvest or renewal. It was about continuity - of values, friendships and a belief that India's real inheritance lies in its ability to make room for everyone at the same table....