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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Farewell, Zohra Sehgal

The grand old

lady of Indian
stage and
cinema, an
indomitable
spirit, bows out

Academy. In 1962, she won a

dance scholarship taking her
and children to London.
Meanwhile, her sister Uzra
Butt moved to Pakistan in
1964 with her husband,
Hameed Butt. She led a quiet
life in Rawalpindi, until 1985,
when she joined Ajoka Theatre.
Due to visa restrictions, the
sisters could meet only rarely.
The stage play Aik thi Nani
they acted in together was
symbolic at many levels,
adapted from their personal
stories. Samiya Mumtaz, their
Lahore-based
grandniece
played the role of the granddaughter in the play. Uzra Butt
passed away in Lahore in
2010, aged 93.

Zohra Sehgal with her daughters, 1965

Zohra Sehgal: Always punctual, professional, prepared. Photo: Subi Samuel

being widowed at a young age.
Born Sahibzadi Zohra Begum
Mumtaz-ullah Khan, she belonged to a respected and
wealthy Muslim family in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh,
India. Graduating from the
British-run elite Queen Mary
College, Lahore, she embarked on an exciting road
trip from Lahore with her
uncle, driving across Iran,
Palestine, Damascus, Syria,
and Egypt.
From Alexandria they took

a ship for England via Europe.

En route, Sehgal got admission at a ballet school in Dresden, Germany, and stayed on,
staying in the house of Countess Liebenstein. The first Indian to study at the institution,
she spent the next three years
studying modern dance.
In 1935, she joined Uday
Shankars troupe then touring
Japan. She also danced in
Egypt, Europe and the USA as
a leading lady. In 1940, she
started teaching at the Uday

A road trip for peace

eet Star Malik, a man on a
mission. The 34 year-old,
self-proclaimed Peace and
Friendship Envoy for Pakistan and India is driving
across three continents, 21 countries and
65 cities for this cause. And he refuses to
let his degenerative eye disease stop him.
The London-based, Pakistani-origin
Malik was in Bahrain with his white
Honda CRV when we spoke on the phone.
The car is decorated with miniature flags
of the countries he is driving across, as
well as a photo of Malik wearing a jacket
with sequins on its lapel, and his trademark star-shaped earring adorning his left
ear.
Born in Kuwait, Malik has lived in the

mination to do something, as the forced

isolation got him thinking, seeing things
differently, and thinking about things he
hadnt considered much before.
On a radio show about India-Pakistan
relations, he heard a caller talk about how
her parents had met as college students in
London, in 1960, and decided to marry.
Both were Muslims, but one was Pakistani and the other was Indian. They married secretly but when their families
found out, they created so much pressure
that the couple eventually ended their
marriage.
I was really moved, Malik told me
over the phone from Bahrain. She
started to cry, talking about how she
never saw her parents together - she was

In Spain: Star Malik with his peace message

UK since 1984. In the 1990s, he spent
some seven years in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where his family is from. He started
his own company in 2009, Star Chauffeur
Services in London.
But life hasnt always been rosy for
him. At age 27, he was diagnosed with a
rare degenerative eye disease, kerataconus, which affects the structure of the
cornea. Undergoing various tests and unable to do much, he shut himself up in his
room, withdrew from his family, friends
and social life. He spent his time praying
and listening to Indian and Pakistani programmes on the radio.
The initial despair gave way to a deter-

so young when they split up. It made me

realise how many lives are still affected
by tensions between India and Pakistan.
You know how sometimes something
happens that just sits with you. Well, that
story sat with me. I vowed that after my
eyesight had been stablised, I would do
something to improve relations.
He had grown up with views about
the other country much like those of any
other desi migrant, but the eight months
he spent in isolation, in a darkened room,
changed his perspective. I dont see the
differences anymore, he says.
Thats when the idea of the peace journey was born. He initially wanted to do it

THE FIRST STEP

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

AKA, with inputs from

Asadullah Khan, Dispatch
News Desk in New Delhi

Feedback, contributions, photos, letters:

Email: amankiasha@janggroup.com.pk
Fax: +92-21-3241-8343
Post: aman ki asha c/o The News,
I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi

with an Indian counterpart, but says he

couldnt find anyone willing to volunteer
so much time.
The idea is to interact with Indians
and Pakistanis living abroad and document how they co-exist and want peace.
Malik started the first leg of his peace
journey earlier this year from London,
and drove through various countries in
the European Union.
The second phase was delayed due to
financial issues, but is nearing its end
now. He started from Kuwait, going on to
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar (driving
there on July 15 morning), and will end in
Muscat, Oman.
Clips of his meetings and expressions
of support are being posted to his website, http://www.starmalik.com.
He had hoped to complete the entire
journey, concluding with Pakistan and
India, before his 35th birthday on August
23rd. However, the second leg was held
up due to delays in the Saudi visa. This
led to other delays, forcing him to change
his plans. He now plans to return to London in time for Eid, then embark on the
third and last phase of his journey in a
few months, picking it up from Dubai.
Malik wants to spend a month in
Dubai meeting Indians and Pakistanis and
obtaining their views. Then, if he gets the
visa, he will head to India via Pakistan to
deliver the peace messages he is collecting from the people he meets on his travels. The grand finale will be to auction off
the car and use the money to start a peace
institute.
Malik has already touched base with
some celebrities on both sides, whom he
hopes will support his mission, like Hans
Raj Hans, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri
and Divya Dutta (who were in Pakistan at
the same time as his visit there last year),
Javed Akhtar and Imran Hashmi. He
wants to reach out to others like the
cross-border couple Shoaib Akhtar and
Sania Mirza, Waseem Akram, Ali Zafar,
the tennis doubles Aisam-ul-Haq and
Rohan Bopanna (Indo-Pak Express),
Shahvaar Ali Khan, Mekaal Hasan and
others.
His deteriorating vision allows him to
see only with the aid of hard lenses inserted in his eyes for a maximum of six
hours. He then has to take a break for a
couple of hours before he can insert them
again.
Despite this and various setbacks -visa delays, falling ill in Sweden and being
hospitalised, financial constraints -- he
carries on, driven by a belief that he is
here for a mission. The encouragement
and appreciation he receives from Indians
and Pakistani worldwide also keeps him
going.
I believe times are changing and the
younger generation does not really care
about the animosity, he says.

Shankar India Cultural Centre

at Almora.
It was here that she met
her future husband Kameshwar Sehgal, a scientist, painter
and dancer from Indore, eight
years her junior. After initial
opposition from their families,
they got married on August 14,
1942. They moved to Lahore
and set up their own Zohresh
Dance Institute. However, unsettled by the growing communal tension, they soon returned to Bombay.

By now, Zohras sister Uzra

Butt, younger than her by five
years, was a leading lady with
Prithvi Theatre. Zohra joined
her there and also joined the
leftist theatre group, IPTA. She
made her film debut in 1946
with IPTAs first film production directed by Khwaja
Ahmad Abbas, Dharti Ke Lal.
She was also in another IPTAsupported film, Chetan
Anands Neecha Nagar, the
first Indian film to win the
Palme dOr at the Cannes Film
Festival.
After her husband died in
1959, Zohra moved to Delhi
and became director of the
newly
founded
Natya

Sisters: Uzra Butt and

Zohra Sehgal in Ajokas
Aik thi Nani

he grand old
lady of Indian
stage
and
films, dancer,
activist and choreographer
Zohra Sehgal, died on July
10, 2014. She was 102 years
old.
Sehgal got her first break
in films in 1982, with Merchant Ivorys The Courtesans of Bombay. She went
on to play Lady Chatterjee in
The Jewel in the Crown.
She also had memorable
roles in The Raj Quartet, Tandoori Nights, and My
Beautiful Laundrette. In 2002,
at the age of 90, she played the
lead role in Chalo Ishq
Ladaaye.
Her first love, however, remained dance and theatre.
When she first performed in
Lahore for Ajoka Theatres Aik
thi Nani in 1993, she and her
sister Uzra Butt appeared on
stage together after four
decades.
They returned to the
Prithvi stage with the play in
2004, for a theatre festival
marking the birth
anniversary of
Prithviraj
Kapoor. Their
performance
was considered
one of the highlights of the festival.
Beyond her
identity as an
internationally
acclaimed
performing
artist, Zohra
Sehgal was
an icon in the
fields of education and left
wing politics.
An exceptional woman,
her indomitable spirit remained unbowed even after

Uzra Butt and Zohra Sehgal in

New Delhi: a special bond.
Photo- Sandeep Saxena

Preserving Dilip Kumars

house in Peshawar
By Yudhvir Rana,TNN
house lost in
the narrow alleys of the
bustling city of
Peshawar is
becoming
a
focus of attention in both
India and Pakistan. After bestowing him with Nishan-eImtiaz in 1998, the country's
highest civilian award, Pakistan will give a new life to
the site where all-time great
actor Dilip Kumar was born
as Mohammad Yousaf Khan
in a Pashtun family of 12 children on December 11, 1922.
Incidentally, Sharif's ancestral house is located at
Jatti Umara, near Amritsar.
Manzoor Ali Memon,
spokesperson of Pakistan
high commission in New
Delhi, told TOI that Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif has declared the ancestral house of
the actor in Peshawar as a national heritage.
Dilip Kumar lived the
early part of his life at this

three-storey house, built over

five marlas land at Mohallah
Khudadad behind Qissa
Khwani Bazaar.
Memon said the government would convert the
house into a museum, showcasing the journey of Dilip
Kumar from Peshawar to
Mumbai. A gallery would also
be dedicated to the actor. He
added that the Pakistan government will extend an invitation to Dilip Kumar for the inauguration ceremony.
"The PM's decision is testimony to the enormous importance Pakistan attaches to
promoting art and culture and
paying tribute to living legends like Dilip Kumar, whose
contributions to the sub-continent cinema are unparalleled," said Pakistan high
commissioner Abdul Basit,

Dilip Kumar: venerated in India

and Pakistan. AFP photo
who met the actor in the first
week of June.
Dilip Kumar's father was a
fruit merchant and owned
large orchards in Peshawar
and Devlali in Maharashtra

Yousaf Khans family house in Qissa Khwani Bazar, Peshawar

B R
A most unusual flash mob

Delhi University Students for Peace pick

up pace ahead of their August plans
he theatre crew of the Delhi University Students for
Peace organised a Flash Mob for India-Pakistan peace
early Sunday morning, July 13, 2014 at Connaught Place,
New Delhi, as part of the citys first ever Raahgiri Day.
This innovative model, involving city officials, police department and civil society, aims to reduce pollution and promote healthy outdoor activities like cycling, skating, walking,
jogging, while blocking the traffic on a particular route, for a
few hours.
A sizeable crowd participated in the activities, and many
enthusiastically joined the Flash Mob for India-Pakistan peace.
DU Students for Peace plan to cycle to Wagah, starting on
August 1, to celebrate the Indian and Pakistani Independence
Days with their counterparts from across the border. They

near Mumbai. The family relocated to Mumbai in the

1930s. In the early 1940s
Yousuf Khan moved to Pune
and started a canteen business, and supplying dry fruits.
He made his acting debut in
Jwar Bhata in 1944.
India has honoured Dilip
Kumar with the Padma
Bhushan in 1991 and Dadasaheb Phalke in 1994 for his services to the Indian film industry.
Pakistans provincial Culture Department had announced in February, 2012
that it would purchase the
house to promote cultural activities and acknowledge the
great stars contribution to Indian cinema before and after
Partition.
The actor visited the
house in 1988 for the first
time after independence. He
visited Peshawar again in
1998 when he was in Pakistan
for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz.
Pakistani culture enthusiasts have long urged the government to preserve all sites
that have cultural importance. Besides Dilip Kumars
house, they have also been
calling for the preservation of
another house in Peshawar,
where the legendary Raj
Kapoor lived.
With inputs from Nisar
Mahmood, The News

want to ride the way to Lahore University and Qaid-i-Azam

University in Islamabad.
The convener, Praveen Kumar Singh, a student of MA Buddhist Studies at DU, says that "The idea is to bring the countries of the region together in a confederation on the lines of
European Union."

Beena Sarwar
A peace initiative whose time has come...

Destination Peace: A commitment by the Jang Group, Geo and The Times of India Group to
create an enabling environment that brings the people of Pakistan and India closer together,
contributing to genuine and durable peace with honour between our countries.