Taimur asked if I was going to die: Saif Ali Khan recounts night of attack

New Delhi: Why did eight-year-old Taimur go with his father Saif Ali Khan to the hospital in the dead of night after the horrific knife attack at their home? Many thoughts were running through the actor's head and one of them was this -- if "God forbid" something were to happen to him, he would like his son to be around.

"He (Taimur) was absolutely composed. He was fine. He said, 'I'm coming with you.' I was getting a lot of comfort just from looking at him at that time. And I didn't want to go alone," Saif has said in an interview with Times of India, his first since the January 16 attack.

"My wife sent him knowing what he would do for me. Maybe it wasn't... at the moment, it was the right thing to do. I felt good about it. And I also thought, if God forbid, something happens, I'd like for him to be there. And he wanted to be there also."

It was a very filmy scene, recalled the actor, who was stabbed multiple times and was taken to hospital in an autorickshaw with a portion of the knife still lodged in his spine.

In his detailed recap of the intruder attack and its aftermath, the Omkara star said Taimur and his house help Hari rushed him to the hospital. He also spoke of how fortunate he was to escape paralysis and that he will never keep a weapon at home, notwithstanding the family's trauma.

The 54-year-old underwent a six-hour emergency surgery after the attack at his 12th-floor apartment in Mumbai's Bandra suburb last month. Saif and wife Kareena have two sons, Taimur and four-year-old Jeh.

Kareena, he said, was making calls frantically but nobody was up.

"And we looked at each other, and I said, 'I'm fine. I'm not going to die.' And Taimur also asked me - 'Are you going to die?' I said, 'No'."

Responding to naysayers asking why there was no driver at their home, Saif said, "Nobody stays here all night. Everyone has a home to go to." He also said there was no time to call the driver.

"I went downstairs and out. The first rickshaw was me going to a hospital."

"The rickshaw guy saw the blood and he knew something had happened. But I think because of the kid, he kind of gave the whole thing some respectability. He saw that we were decent people, somehow. I don't know how. And he was so amazing... he took a shortcut and took it easy on bumps. He drove me to Lilavati," the actor said.

The shock and adrenaline was so overpowering, he said, that he didn't initially realise he had been stabbed.

According to the actor, the intruder was hiding inside Jeh's room.

Geeta, their other house help, rushed in to their room around 2 am.

"I kind of lost it and went in there to see that and I saw this guy holding (what I thought were) two sticks over Jeh's bed – it was actually a hexa blade. So he had a knife in each hand and a mask on. It was a surreal scene. And something just kind of took over and I just grabbed him. I ran and pulled him down, and then we were wrestling. He was thumping me as hard as he could in my back, and it was just thuds."

It went on for a while with the actor getting slashed on his neck, palm, wrist and arm, as he tried to ward off the attack "barefoot, bare-handed in a kurta pajama".

Meanwhile, Kareena had taken Jeh out of the room.

Eventually, Geeta pulled the attacker off of the actor and shoved him away.

"It was a filmy scene where I was covered in blood and we took two decorative swords off the wall. And that’s what Taimur saw – me covered in blood and Hari, the other house help, holding two swords. So, it was vaguely heroic, at least that moment (laughs). We said – ‘let’s get him’. And Kareena said – ‘No, let’s get out! Because we’ve got to get you to a hospital, and I’ve got to get Jeh out of here because I feel he’s (the intruder) still around, and there could be more of them.’" Saif said he lost some feeling in his right leg because he had been "nicked in the spine".

The doctors told him a good three-four inches of the knife went in behind his shoulder blade and worked its way right to the spinal cord.

"And there’s spinal fluid leaking out, which is why the feeling in the leg was going. That’s how close it came: Just one more millimetre and we’d be talking paralysis. It’s not like, you know, a back spasm or something that we’re underplaying," he said.

The kids are okay, Saif said.

"Jeh has given me a plastic sword, and said, ‘Keep this by your bed for the next time the chor comes’. He says, ‘Geeta saved Abba and Abba saved me.’ Taimur is a little concerned about security."

The other big question being asked is why the celebrity didn't have any security.

"I've never believed in security. I don't want it. I never wanted to walk around with three of these guys. I think it would be a nightmare for me. And I still won't, because I don't think this is an attack on me. I'm not under threat."

He also termed the attack mistake and firmly believed the intruder climbed a drainpipe and squeezed through a hole and arrived in their house.

"I don't think he knew whose house it was. It's not an inside job. It's none of these things. And the police have done a fantastic job." he said, stressing that he still felt very safe in Mumbai.

A Bangladeshi man named Shariful Fakir, also known as Vijay Das, was arrested last month for allegedly stabbing Saif and is currently in judicial custody, according to the police.

Sara and Ibrahim Ali Khan, his elder children from his first marriage to actor Amrita Singh, were also emotional after the attack.

When he was discharged from the hospital on January 21, many clips surfaced online showing the actor walking comfortably.

Many on social media speculated about the seriousness of his injuries, a claim quickly rubbished by his sister, jewellery designer Saba Pataudi.

The actor said he never thought about "how to present it".

"The more I consider the PR aspect of it, I’ve come to the conclusion that I think my life is pretty interesting for actually what it is, it doesn’t need a twist. It doesn’t need to be twisted and presented...

"Walking around after that, it’s still painful to stand for too long. The aches and pains are there, but they’re getting better every day. And I think it will be a complete recovery."