Lunch at Salim Khan's Galaxy apartment is always memorable. "I'll give you vegetarian food; the vegetables are all from our farm, organic and pure," he said.

But it was more about warmth and an inclusiveness that went beyond home-cooked food.

When I reached, Arbaaz was already at the table having an early lunch. Salim and Salma run a house where their doors are always open and all their kids and friends drop in to share the table with their parents. Besides sisters Alvira (who manages most of Salman's work now) and Arpita (with her gorgeous baby), "Helen Aunty" was there too. Salman was in Abu Dhabi, wrapping up Tiger Zinda Hai .

Just before we sat down, I was telling Salim about Rajesh Khanna's unforgettable hospitality. About the time I was Khanna's guest in Madras (before it became Chennai) and when dinner was served, how he'd quietly take the rotis out of my plate, put it on his own and make sure the fresh, hot ones were served to me. Simply because I was his guest.

Salim absorbs information easily. During lunch, he asked me to try a besan roti. Handing it to me, he chuckled, "Now you can tell people that Salim Khan also gave you hot rotis."

The convivial table apart, there's something else cooking in this Khan house. I stumbled upon it simply because I happened to go over.

Krishna Raj Kapoor (one of Salma's kitty party besties) was there a few days ago, her eyes misty after a 20-minute audio that she listened to. Randhir Kapoor had dropped in sometime later and he was moved too. Shatrughan Sinha and Sonakshi heard it and wanted it to go viral. I heard it too and it's beautiful.

Few know that Salim had a very special equation with Raj Kapoor, an equation between the supreme Showman of Indian cinema and an educated, erudite but unknown youngster from Indore. After evenings of food and Black Label with close friends, RK would signal Salim asking him to stay back, and their conversations would start at midnight.

It led to Salim knowing RK a bit more than most others and admiring him with a clarity that few were capable of. After RK passed away, Salim had written a piece on him in Hindi.

Today, he has turned that piece into a 20-minute audio where he brings alive the story and the cinema of Raj Kapoor, touching on all the bullet points of his life, Nargis and wife Krishna included. It sounds impossible. A biography so concise and yet so vast. With just words and a little bit of music, Raj Kapoor the man and filmmaker may almost be visualised. There's dignity, intimacy and rare pathos too in Salim's lines.

That is the power of words. The power of Missing You, Raj Kapoor .

Perhaps the unfair buzz that once circulated in film circles that Javed Akhtar was the writer in the Salim-Javed team while Salim was more its handsome PR face, will die after people hear this audio bio.

When Lata Mangeshkar heard it in her own house from a pen drive that Salim had sent across, she rang up and told him, "Aapne mujhe rula diya. "

Fortunately, this audio is not going to be restricted to a privileged few. There are plans afoot for Salim Khan's audio ode to Raj Kapoor to be premiered online this December 14 on the Showman's birth anniversary.

There will be much build-up before the audio show premieres; it's a unique piece that will hot up the Net, a first of its kind that'll probably spawn a few me-toos later on. But Salim will always have the distinction of being there before anybody else.

You know the old query, "When was the last time you did something for the first time?" Admirable that Salim Khan at 81 can say, "I did it today."

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author