All the people - Rashid

Life and people in this beautiful city of Mumbai never seize to amaze me and today was one such chance meeting with a man called Rashid.

As I stepped out of my meeting at Lower Parel I gave Raunaq a call and confirmed that I was on my way home. He said he would wait for me for lunch and so I quickly jumped into a taxi urging the cabbie to speed up towards Bandra. I got off 20 mins later at the Linking Road KFC corner and quickly hopped into the Habit Shoe Store (my favorite shoe spot) just in case they had something interesting ... after browsing and finding nothing I jumped into a rickshaw and headed towards Andheri. I thought of Raunaq being hungry and reached into my bag for my phone... and reached ...and reached ...and reached ... it was not there!? Yikes -- Dam yaar Priya how do you manage to do this each time?

'Bhaiya gaadi rokiye hamara mobile kahin chooth gaya hai, aapke paas mobile hai kya?' 'Nahin Madam'. He stopped and I frantically looked around while my mind raced for ideas on what to do next. I saw a puny looking man standing next to a car with a mobile in his hand - he was the driver of the car. I requested him for his phone and he gave it to me a little reluctantly. I quickly dialed my number and it rang and rang ... nobody picked up. I was crestfallen! I breathed deeply and dialed once more and after a while a man' voice at the other end answered, 'Hanji boliye'. 'Dekhiye yeh hamara mobile hai ... ap kaun hain!?' 'Ji main taxi wala hoon .. agle passenger ney humko aapka mobile diya aur woh hamarey saath surakshit hai - aapko mil jayega. Lekin abhi hum Dadar ja rahe hain aur uskey baad hi wapas bandra ayengey. Aap hamein 45 minutes mein phir sey phone kariye toh hum aapko wahin KFC par milenge ... hamara naam Rashid hai aur hamari taxi ka number 921 hai'. I thanked him and gave the phone back to the puny driver and thanked him too.

I had 45 minutes to kill and I desperately needed to go to the washroom too. So I went to Sanju-Vanita' place in Khar and after using the Loo I called my son and apprised him of the situation and asked him to carry on with his lunch. I then spent some time chatting with Vanu -- she fed me some yummy lunch and chai. Exactly 45 minutes later I called Rashid on my mobile again. This time he was close to Bandra and said that I should meet him at KFC in 10 mins. I said quick good-byes and thankyous to Vanu, Sanchu and Utsie and sped to KFC.

Outside KFC, I waited and waited and peered had at every cab that passed by but there was no sign of Taxi 921 for more than half an hour!! I requested a lady dressed in a burqa sitting in a rick to lend me her phone and she willingly gave me her phone when I told her that I had left my mobile in a cab and that I was trying to trace the driver, 'Arrey baap rey, aapko yakeen hai ki wo phone waapis zaroor deyga?' 'Haan mujhe yakeen hai'. I called Rashid once again on my mobile ... he said he was stuck in traffic at Bandra masjid and should be there in a few minutes. On impulse I rushed into KFC and bought a Chicken Zinger and a Cooler.

A short while later, I saw Taxi 921 drive up thru the crazy traffic and I waved out. Rashid waved back and I smiled. I rushed to his cab and thanked him profusely as I he handed me back my mobile, 'Aapke husband ka phone abhi aaya tha ... aap unko phone kar leejiye'. I gave him the burger and cooler and some money for taking the trouble and burning his gas for me in the terrible heat on aamchi Mumbai and then finally I took down his car number and full name ... Rashid Kalu Ansari Taxi No.JA-921-C-01 saying that I would inform the Taxi Union of his goodness.

I left bidding goodbye and blessing Rashid for a great life ahead ... feeling tired but relieved I called my husband, my son, Vanita and my parents (I had seen a received call from Mum - she also must have spoken with Rashid)...and I then called the lady in the rick and the puny driver and told them that I had traced my mobile ... they were happy and I think they felt good that I called to let them know ... and then smiling to myself and thanking God for saving the day I finally reached home :)

I called my friend Vidyadhar for the Taxi Union' numbers. I spoke to Mr. Quadros the Secretary of the Union and he was very pleasant and heard out my experience and said that I could write an appreciation note for Rashid and fax it to his office and that they had a system of rewarding such members. I did so immediately and felt good ...

Like I said, every one I met in this day was supportive and helpful and amazing in their own little way ... and I felt that I had completed the circle. God please bless each of these individuals and in some way make their lives happy :)

Golden Era' Everlasting Beauty … Waheeda Rehman

These beautiful B&W shots of Waheeda Rehman are from the suhagraat scene of the film 'Chaudhvin Ka Chand' … Guru Dutt her newly wedded husband asks her to take her time to open her ghunghat for him (he has never seen her face before); he however cautions her that she may as well get a look at him as he is this grotesque guy with ugly teeth etc… she panics and lifts her ghunghat to reveal the face shown in the picture above … and her husband gasps and says 'Subhaan-allah' and when she sees his handsome face she breaks into a smile :)

This morning I watched Guru Dutt' 1956 production and Raj Khosla' directed hindi film, C.I.D. the unforgettable musical treat, with hummable songs that are often sung in antaksharis across generations even today ...
- Boojh mera kya naam rey nadi kinarey gaon rey, peepal jhoomein mere angana thandi thandi chaon rey
- Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahaan zara hat key zara bachch key yeh hai Bombay meri jaan
- Aankhon hi aankhon mein ishara ho gaya baithey baithey jeeney ka sahara ho gaya
- Ley ke pehla pehla pyar bhar key aankhon mein khumaar jaadoo nagri sey aaya hai koi jaadugar

… and just as the suspense of the murder of Editor Srivastav is being followed by Inspector Shekhar (played by Dev Anand), he is taken to a palatial home of a beautiful mysterious lady called Kamini (the vamp of the film) played by the young and nubile Waheeda Rehman -- she looked stunning and gave a flawless supporting actress performance and was also picturised in the unforgettable song 'Kahin pe nigahein kahin pe nishaana' … The film made an interesting watch and towards the end Waheeda dominated the screen space with Dev instead of Shakila (the heroine of the film). After I completed the viewing I did a rerun of the songs … and in particular Waheeda' kahin pey nigahen … not only was she graceful and beautiful but the expressions too were perfect … her first hindi movie appearance clearly showed the glimmer of a star about to be born!

My curiosity about her grew and I surfed to view some of her unforgettable song performances on YouTube from films like -- Guide, Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Khamoshi, Kaagaz ke Phool, Chaudhvin ka Chand, Reshma Aur Shera … and then I chanced upon a catchy Telugu ITEM song 'Eruvaka Sagaro Rannooo Chinnanah' from the 1955 film Rojulu Maraayi, beautifully danced by none other than Waheeda accompanied by two men playing dhols … I was pleasantly surprised to watch the young damsel move gracefully to the tune and couldn't help tap my feet as I watched it again and again … as Waheeda has said in past interview it truly is a lovely song and indeed very hummable. I havent stopped humming it even as I type this blog … Waheeda appeared only in this song in the film but it is this song that became a super hit of its time … and it was after watching her in this film and learning the fact that she also spoke Urdu that Guru Dutt decided to offer her a role in his next film … shortly after he casted her in C.I.D. as the vamp Kamini and the rest is history … Go ahead and paste the following link in your address bar to watch this first visual treat of Waheeda http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAtR9RWIYno

Born into a muslim family one would have thought that her parents would object to any form of creative art .. however her parents were of different mettle. Waheeda born on 14 May 1936 in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India, started learning Bharatnatyam, an Indian dance form, at a very young age along with her sister from Guru T. K. Mahalingam Pillai, doyen among nattuvanars. They performed on stage on several occasions too. However her father, who was a District Commissioner, died while she still in her teens and hence never saw the success his daughter achieved … even though it was he that set the foundation for her career -- it was after all her dance performance in Eruvaka that gave her career the start.

Her first ever film as a heroine was a 1955 Telugu film release called Jayasimha with the great South Indian mega star NTR (N. T. Rama Rao with over 350+ Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films in his acting career), which was a modified Hamlet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz0wA8Jb59E

Her most popular releases were in the decades of 1950-70s. With her film 'Guide' in 1965 her career peaked and she won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her emotionally complex rendition of Rosie -- in this film in particular her two song sequences of the famous cobra dance and the song 'Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai' are my favorite watches of Waheeda. Her performance in Neel Kamal (1968) and Reshma Aur Shera (1971) also accorded her Filmfare and National awards respectively. And although she has given some memorable performances in her films Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Khamoshi, Kaagaz ke Phool, Teesri Kasam and Chaudhvin ka Chand she did not receive any awards for them. A few of her films failed at the box office too. In an open discussion with fans and media in Seattle and Washington October 2004, she stated that her most memorable films have been Pyaasa, Teesri Kasam and Guide. Her most successful film was with Rajesh Khanna Khamoshi while her most romantic scene ever was the song sequence 'Waqt ne kiya' from the film Kaagaz ke phool.

There is much talk of the romance of Guru Dutt and her and I can imagine why they must have had a relationship if at all. His work shows that he was an emotionally sensitive man but undoubtedly depressive (even Dev Anand had remarked that he being young and so creative he should not make depressing films) … but the fact was that he was married to Geeta Dutt (again my favorite singer of all times) and maybe that was the reason that things did not go further with them. Guru Dutt died in 1964 and a few years later so did Geeta Dutt.

The 1964 release of Shagun where she starred with Kamaljit did not do too well at the box office however it provided the base of her marital life -- it was during this time that Kamaljit (the hero of the film) proposed to her … they however married a decade later on 27 April 1974 and had two children Sohail and Kashvi.

Her recent releases showcase her as a supporting actor in Lamhe (1991), Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Water (2005), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Delhi 6 (2009) -- each of these films have been critically acclaimed. With time Waheeda has aged gracefully and it is good to see that she continues her romance with films even today… and as always it is a pleasure to watch my favorite DIVA of yesteryear on the big screen.