THIS ABOVE ALL
Blend of beauty and grace
KHUSHWANT SINGH
KHUSHWANT SINGH
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In my long life I
have had the good fortune of meeting many beautiful women
ranging from filmstars like Ingrid Bergman, a few Bollywood
celebrities, including Nargis, Parveen Babi and a host of others
whose names now escape me. However, if asked who I thought was
the most beautiful of the lot, without hesitation I would reply
Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar, Rajmata of Jaipur.
Some years ago
when a producer decided to make a film on her life, he could not
think of anyone in Bollywood who could match Gayatri Devi in her
looks except Aishwarya Rai. Besides having been a stunner in her
younger days, I found her most unassuming, totally free of
arrogance and unusual in her behaviour. She had been in poor
health for quite some time. During this summer she was on her
annual vacation in London. She had to be hospitalised.
Among the visitors
was Prince Charles on behalf of the British Royal Family to
enquire about her health. Following prolonged illness, she died
at the age of 90. She was listed among the world’s 10 most
beautiful women. I first set my eyes on her at a lunch party in
my father’s home in honour of her husband. She was newly
married. I kept gaping at her from a distance and wondering what
made her agree to be the third wife of a man with a family of
his own.
Gayatri Devi was most unassuming and free of arrogance
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I never understood
the code of immorality of our princely order. She killed her
quota of tigers, played polo, married an already married man, a
polo player. Next I ran into her in the home of Minoo Masani,
leader of the Swatantra Party. Jayaprakash Narayan was the chief
guest. Gayatri Devi had been recently elected Swatantra Party
member of the Lok Sabha. She came in late and promptly sat down
on the carpet beside Jayaprakash Narayan’s feet.
He remarked in
Hindi: Dekho zamana kaisey badal gaya hai (see how times
have changed). A maharani sits at the feet of a commoner.
When Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency, among those she put
into prison were Gayatri Devi and Rajmata Scindia of Gwalior.
Their palaces were searched. Nothing incriminating was found.
Nevertheless, both were kept in jail alongside prostitutes and
pickpockets.
Indira Gandhi had
a streak of vindictiveness, particularly towards good-looking
women of the aristocracy. I met Gayatri Devi a few times in Prem
Kirpal’s flat. She occasionally dropped in on him to have a
drink. She knew I was a supporter of Indira Gandhi. She did not
hold that against me, nor ever said a word against Indira
Gandhi. She allowed me to call her by her real name, Ayesha, and
accepted my invitation to visit my home with her nephew.
I saw her
wandering around unescorted in Delhi bazars, just getting the
feel of how common people live. I saw her standing in a queue of
servants and taxi drivers in front of a liquor vend to buy a
bottle of booze. She invited me to Jaipur to address students of
her Gayatri Devi High School on Parents’ Day. I went. I told
students: "Don’t let your fathers choose your
professions. Choose what you like to be the best. Don’t let
your mothers choose your wives or husbands. Choose your own. If
it does not work out, get a divorce and try again. Learn to make
your own mistakes. Don’t waste your time on prayers. Its a lot
of mumbo jumbo. Instead, read, work, have a good time." And
so on.
Needless to say it
went down very well with the boys and girls. Parents were
appalled and protested to Gayatri Devi. She was amused. Later
that evening she had hosted a dinner party for me in the hotel
she owned. She was a little late. I asked her why. She replied
with a smile: "I was doing my mumbo jumbo." a
Made for each
other
When we
see a happily married couple, we usually say, "they are
made for each other." That is what most people say about
Meghnad Desai and his Punjabi wife Kishwar. It is true but it
took them a long time and earlier broken marriages to discover
they were made for each other. Kishwar is the daughter of Rosha,
who was head of the Punjab Police, and regarded as Chandigarh’s
beauty queen. She married a promising young man of her own caste
and became Kishwar Ahluwalia.
She bore her
husband two children. The marriage did not work out and her
husband got a posting abroad. She brought up her children, sent
them through school, college to further studies abroad. It was
hard going, looking after offspring and paying for a flat she
had bought in Delhi. She slogged, made films, wrote for papers.
One time she
tracked me down to Goa, and then up to Kasauli to grill me for
some TV programme. While pursuing her vocation, she interviewed
Meghnad Desai. And they clicked. They had to wait a couple of
years for their respective divorces to come through to get
married. A Gujarati-born Desai settled in England. He made a
name for himself as an economist of distinction, held high
academic posts and taught at the London School of Economics for
40 years.
He was conferred a
peerage to become Lord Meghnad Desai. He married an English
woman, and fathered a couple of children. His marriage did not
work out, and he separated from his wife. Though a British
subject, he kept close contact with his mother country. For
quite some time he has been writing a weekly column for The
Indian Express. The President conferred the Padma Bhushan on
him. For him it meant more than the peerage.
He is a most
amiable, soften-spoken man with a computer memory of events the
world over. She always bubbles with vitality and goodwill. Both
are up to the neck writing books, making films and delivering
lectures. Last time he gave me his first book, Dead On Time
(Harper Collins). He has already several books under his belt on
economics, Marxism, Muslim terrorists, Ezra Pound and Hindi
films.
Between husband
and wife, they have bought film rights to the story of Noor
Inayat Khan, who was shot as a spy by the Gestapo in World War
II. Meanwhile, Kishwar has also written her first novel, and is
more than half way through her biography of Saadat Hasan Manto.
She rattled out this information at a breathless pace and a
victorious smile. The Desais are truly a dynamic couple made for
each other.
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