Have you ever come across any woman, you feel, deserves to be instantly widowed and immediately entered into your matrimonial alliance?
If your diplomatic response is: have you? My hypocritical submission is: I am coward to the core and, therefore, am not in a position to unnecessarily destroy my home by telling the uncomfortable truth. But your evasive reaction, thanks to my less-than-noble tactics, has spilled the beans.
The late Miss Mridula Sarabhai, however, was not one of them. She was short-statured, flabby, black and had no sense of gait and dress. The agency which has created and groomed her had all the pros and cons in mind and knew that all Mata Haris’ life was utterly risky.
Her most visible oddity was the prefix “Miss”. Today in the place of “Miss”, word “Ms” is used. It is a later-day correction or improvement.
“Ms” conceals the marital status of a woman. And this is the age of concealment. The past was not that secretive or possessive. Her parent agency had trained her as a conscientious objector, as a pro-Kashmiri justice-loving Indian and as an ardent admirer of the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. Her “ardent” admiration would, as a rule, take her to jail, duly charged by the central government with crimes like subversive activity or activity inimical to the interests of the state.
Not only that, the children of the Sheikh would look at her as mother-figure. If Farooq Abdullah as a small boy or any of his brother or sister needed, say, a footfall or a few shuttlecocks or a toy-gun, she would happily provide all that. She spent on their education also. The government coffers were wide open for her. All the largesse ostensibly from the personal account of Miss Sarabhai, who was by the way, wealthy in her own right also, was ….
After a long incarceration, the Sheikh also went to Tonk in Rajasthan and was a guest of Mr. Yousuf Siddiqui, the first Managing Director and Editor of the Radiance Weekly. Understandably, the Sheikh was accompanied by his alter ego, who was too tired. She asked the Editor to awaken her when the Sher-e-Kashmir starts speaking. The Sheikh, naturally, also knew who and what she was.
After Miss Sarabhai’s death the government recognised her services. I happen to be one of those who have seen her photographs with the late Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi.
Miss Sarabhai was extremely popular among the beleaguered Kashmiris. She would solve their various problems from her spacious bungalow in New Delhi. Each and every sympathiser or acquaintance of the Sheikh was welcome on her dinning-table, serving “halaal-meat”. Once me and the late Maulana Mohammad Muslim, Editor Dawat had also that honour. I was reluctant to dine as the nature of dish was unknown to me. The Editor Dawat smiled to convince me “it is halaal.”
The late Mr. Nehru was the most eligible widower of his tumultuous times. Many ladies – so says O.P. Mathai – saw him in their daydreams. One of them was Miss Padmaja Naidu and the other was Miss Mridula Sarabhai. Both having darken shades and less-than-impressive persona.
The question I pompously posed in the beginning relates to women, not virgins. Now would you like to react, of course, without aiming at the destruction of my home?