For musician Adnan Sami, his birthday falling on the same date as India’s Independence Day is not a coincidence. The Lahore-born singer firmly believes that he was always meant to be an Indian citizen and is grateful to share his birthday with his country.

“Today, I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as a coincidence. My destiny was written in India. My future and my dharmabhoomi were all connected to India. The love I have for India was so rooted from my childhood that it was like the angels were telling me. ‘You need to shift your focus over there’. I can’t write off this part of my life as mere coincidence. It’s far deeper than that,” he shares.

Sami, who turns 50 this year, says, “The way God created my destiny, it was almost as if it was planned that I was supposed to be an Indian. It was my destiny to be an Indian. It was unfortunate that the Partition happened, but God had his own way of telling me that I belong here. It’s like my birthday was the biggest hint that I belonged to India.”

The musician may have got his Indian citizenship only in 2016, but he admits that his relationship with India started the day he landed in the country for the first time in 1999 for work. “That was a start of an incredible love affair, and it continues, and reflects in my music and in everything I do. I’m a romantic at heart, I write love songs. And the ultimate love story I have is with India,” he muses.

However, Sami can never forget the struggle he had to face in order to get through the citizenship process and the fact that his application got rejected for technical reasons.

He recalls, “I never lost hope, I never gave up. I said, ‘I’ll do it again’. And that’s why it took me 16 years to do it. People think that one fine day, I became an Indian citizen. They have no idea how long I had to wait. And it was worth the struggle. I’d have waited another 16 years,” the Padma Shree awardee continues, “I just felt that this was home, right from the moment I landed here for the first time. This was the missing piece of the puzzle which made my life complete. I’ll never take it for granted.”

While the singer-composer is overseas with his wife Roya and daughter Medina, he says they do have some big plans for his 50th birthday. “Agar meri taraf se celebration mein koi kami aati hai toh woh pura desh poora kar deta hai. Everybody has a reason to smile on my birthday and I love that! It’s very special,” Sami concludes.