Chances and Choices ---Revisited I got chance to get into glamorous world of show business or serious profession of journalism but I had already made an alternative choice to be in the academic world. In 1969, Urdu Poet , Mirza Ghalib Centenary was celebrated in India and England. Mr Fakhrudin Ahmed, who became President of India later,was the spirit behind it. He prompted his close friend, Mr Parkash Kaul, then Indian Deputy High Commissioner in London, to organise functions in England to raise funds for the Ghalib Memorial in Delhi.Parkash,a close relative of Nehrus--Indras first maternal cousin, was a confident outing officer. We were on friendly terms then. He sought my cooperation for the functions. We were successful in organising public events in Southall( with the support of Indian Workers Assoc.), Central London, Birmingham and Bradford, and raised substantial amount of funds. Ghalib Centenary Celebration Committee, London was constituted and I was its Joint.Secretary. Parkash roped in a troupe for the shows from India with leading lights of the Bollywood--Dilip Kumar( Sara Bano also came but she had an indifferent health),Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Om Parkash and music director, Ravi with his team. We spent almost a month together traveling in England and came to know each other quite well. At Bradford,an interesting incident took place. The organiser,Master Sadhu S Sadhu ( my fathers cousin) had made arrangements for our stay in an high end hotel. Prime Minster, Mr Harold Wilson was on an hectic tour of the area , addressing meetings on the day of function..A room was reserved for him in the same hotel to take rest in between meetings. Due to an oversight, the same room got allotted to Om Parkash.The PM was on his way, the advance security group was shocked to find a man,bearing a lungi merrily snoozing after sumptuous lunch. Om got panicky and created a commotion, saying all sort of things, @ # %7 ^, in Punjabi.Dilip and Sunil virtually dragged him, along with his effects, out of the room. When they explained to him what had happened, he calmed down. For the remaining days of the tour, he went on thanking God that the incident took place in Bradford not Bombay .It was difficult to distinct real and reel life OM. After seeing the success of shows Sunil Dutt thought that it would be a good idea to produce a film on immigrants.He started coaxing me to write a script and also to act in the proposed film without success. i am not sure if he had Waheeda in mind for the role of leading lady in the film. But he did throw hints to this effect.Later he approached the Board of Race Relations in London for support. The senior most officer of the board, whom I knew, contacted me to elicit my response to the project. I explained my position,but he suggested that I should meet Sunil to see if I could do something for him. Next day I was to meet the editor of monthly,Race-Today,published by the Institute of Race Relations in central London, in connection with my article. On my way i went to the place where Nargis and Sunil were staying. After a brief meeting I again politely declined his suggestion to get involved in the show business. I told him that I had a firm offer from the University of Birmingham for a place to pursue combined Masters and Ph.D programme. He was certainly not amused by my remark made in a lighter vein that I would prefer to try my luck in Hollywood directly rather than via Bollywood if ever I opted for an acting career. Given his status as a successful actor and husband of Nargis, Sunil considered my response as a snub and never forgot it.However, Nargis, a reticent , dignified lady, hardly interacted with others during the tour. I found Dilip a quiet gentleman with the demeanour of a serious scholar. Waheeda Rehman, a dusky, very attractive , shy young lady, was constantly under protective shield of her elder sister Without accomplished music director Ravis excellent contribution, shows would not have been such a success. i found him to b a soft spoken gentleman Chances to be a professional journalist will be explained in the next post.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 11:29:44 +0000