That day there was palpable tension in the air, a sort of livewire current that you could touch if you stretched your arm in front of you! Almost the entire JNU had congregated to chant in a rising crescendo Lal Salaam! Lal Salaam! with the Spartan, sloganeering Shabana.
That memory of my brief encounter with the perfervidly spirited Shabana stayed with me for a long time. It also had a bearing on my next getting together with the feisty actress; and you will learn exactly how in a minute.
My next chance meeting with Shabana Azmi took place roughly about six or seven years after my 1990 or 91′ JNU encounter. I was in an all-new role professionally, having moved over from a Diplomatic Mission to now working with the hospitality industry. I was
starting off as the Marketing Communications Manager with the Hyatt Regency, Delhi.
Shabana, too, at this time, was or just about to be nominated as a MP to the Rajya Sabha.
In the mid-90s, Hyatt was a very happening place, constantly engaged in novel and newsworthy, game-changing, and torch-bearing activities.
One mid-morning, the Director of Sales & Marketing and I were invited at IHC to attend a United Nations event that was being helmed by Jacqueline Lundquist, the extremely energetic and enthusiastic spouse of Richard Celeste, the American Ambassador to India in those years. The event centered on the theme of the girl child, and Shabana Azmi was the
guest of honour.
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Once again, Shabana spoke with the kind of conviction and ardour that only the believers and the doers can embody. She spoke with fervor that instills faith. And her eloquence was both excitable and emotive.Shabana has carved a place for herself as a high-profile social activist, whether by aligning herself with important causes or by doing meaningful cinema. She has not been evasive about letting her opinions be known publicly.
With my expectations built high on the previous interaction with the fiercely forthright actress-activist and the reputation Shabana Azmi has carried, I sought her out at the end of the event and held her up for a brief discussion. I caught myself lamenting to her about the status quo of the country,
“This disparity in the social classes Shabana ji, this huge divide that exists between the haves and the have-nots……something concrete must be done with a sense of urgency.”
“I agree, Aruna. But it is quite deep-rooted. It has to be from grassroots upwards,” Azmi responded. “And the girl child…. the woes she faces from the time of her birth in this
country for no women,” I was imploring the actress to wave her magic wand.
When I look back, I realize that I behaved like a wide-eyed, bumbling teenager who, in her naiveté, was of the belief that this strong, action oriented, opinionated woman leader would, like Moses, take us all to the Promised Land. Besides, I had seen Azmi spellbind big gatherings and have them latch on to her every word. Like an awkward, full of wonderment groupie, I kept asking her how she would deliver the poor and the needy out of their misery.
I reiterated the plight of the girl child in India, the main topic of the event we all had just attended. “To let them first survive, live a decent life, then bring meaning and purpose to it…. have the freedom to dream! I wonder how many more years we will take Shabana ji.”
“Whatever time it takes, Aruna. We have to be relentless. It’s not going to be easy,” she asserted. At one point, I knew she wanted to disengage and get to her waiting
vehicle; but I was unstoppable. “Ms. Azmi, please do something to bring about a change,” I urged her. “You have the edge and influence to make a huge difference.” “Can I do anything to be of help,” I prodded.
Shabana smiled and said, “We all can do something in our small or big ways. It will all help.” Her cine avatars, the towering persona that I saw and heard at JNU, and the way she exercised a sense of power and control over her elite audience here, made me feel that Shabana Azmi was just what we needed as a catalyst of change. If she was irritated, she did not let me see. She acknowledged that something sincere had to be done. She agreed that she would seriously look further into it.
She added, “Sure, you must get involved.” Having assured my tiny, frantically beating heart that yearned to be as much of a crusader as she was in my eyes, Shabana click-clocked on her sensible heels to rush to her car. Clad in a beige Tussar silk sari with an eye-catching neckpiece and hair neatly tied in a low bun that rested on her nape, she looked every bit the power woman the world believed her to be. The chinks in the armour of my She-knight began to appear much later. She had featured in a public service advertisement for AIDS, in which she had to hug an AIDS-infected girl and tell the world that it was safe to do
so. And that we had to show compassion to those who were affected by the fatal disease, especially young children! Whether it was the doing of her detractors or, there was an iota of truth attached to it, but stories began to come out about how Shabana had emphatically asked for a healthy girl to be filmed with in the advertisement. The reports saddened me as I felt the pedestal of an icon I had held high was crumbling.
A year or so later, while I was at The Imperial Hotel in Delhi, a media friend shared with me the episode from another Five Star hotel where Azmi and Akhtar were staying and what a high-maintenance Prima Donna Shabana was proving to be. She was persistent that every whim of hers be met with. She even threatened to cancel the trip and the event if
she was not put up in the Presidential Suite. While the reports around the AIDS commercial could not be confirmed, the hotel story I had no reason to doubt.
L. Aruna Dhir is the author of the bestselling Memoir – Hotel Adventures with the Stars – published by Vishwakarma Publications. She is also a recognised International Hospitality Writer, a national-poll winning Corporate Communications Specialist, Poet and India’s first-ever Creative Writer with Archies Greetings.
As a seasoned Hotelier, Aruna serves on the Board of the Association of Commonwealth Leaders’ Conferences (ACLC), a front-running Commonwealth Body that works towards developing leaders and influencers of tomorrow, with Princess Anne as its International President. L. Aruna Dhir is also a Member of WTN – the World Tourism Network.
