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Abbas was well-known as Communist. But he was not the hard core
kind. He didn’t believe in God, that was sure. He lived a very
simple and Spartan life which shocked me on several occasions. I
remember his friend, Raj Kapoor, once telling him: “yeh kaisi
zindagi jee rahe ho Abbas Sahab. Zindagi sirf ek bar aati hai. Isme
aish kar lo, jee lo yahan mar lo yahan . Yeh kya communism-vomunnism
lekar bethe ho. There is no other zindagi, that other life is just
a dream. So make the best of the life given to you as a gift. Why
don’t you change and make life something to love? I know so
many of your so-called Communist friends who are enjoying life in
the name of Communism. Why don’t you too follow them? Why don’t
you go after all the comforts and luxuries your friends run after
and live in the name of that great ism called Communism?" Abbas
took Raj’s ranting as he was used to, silently, and never said
a word in return. Raj gave him examples of his Communist friends
like Ali Sardar Jafri, Krishan Chander, Sajjad Zaheer and others
who gradually gave up the basic principle of Communism but Abbas
stuck to his principles and the life he wanted to live and no Raj
Kapoor could tempt him to change his mind, something which made
Raj pick up a verbal fight with him which normally ended with a
hug and a lal salaam. "You are a one man institution. You don’t
even have a proper family. You live in an age-old, two bedroom flat.
What’s the use being such a great man and living the life of
a common man with so many wants.
Abbas had a landlord who was his great admirer and who charged him
only hundred rupees a month as the rent for the two bedroom flat.
The landlord, a staunch Roman Catholic, once said that he was threatened
by his family because of his firm belief in Abbas, a belief he described
as better than the teachings of saints and prophets and munis and
swamis". The landlord’s family cursed the landlord but
he refused to change his beliefs in Abbas. They almost broke off
relations with him but he wouldn’t change his mind about Abbas
and his beliefs. The only decoration in his house was a photograph
of him with Inder Raj Anand and V. P. Sathe who were friends till
the very end, a photograph with Satyajit Ray and another photograph
of the late president Dr. Zakir Hussain presenting him with the
Padma Shri. The furniture included just a couple of wooden chairs
and a table which was generally used for guests. He often called
it " my table for all purposes". Abbas, his sister and
his nephew, Anwar, lived in this house for years. The sister and
the nephew kept persuading him to shift to a better house instead
of making all those films which only helped him in loosing more
and more money and the money that came from his books which sold
very well both in India and abroad.
The family didn’t make it very clear but they had a distinct
dislike for all his ideas and specially his being a Communist. But
they couldn’t do a thing because the house belonged to him
and they depended on him to a great extent. The only earning member,
Anwar, worked for an airline as a junior executive. Abbas showered
all his love on him but the nephew showed no signs of showing any
soft feelings for the great old man.
Abbas loved wearing good clothes. Checked shirts and a scarf of
which he had a huge collection, a collection from various parts
of the world, and he never forgot to have a regular hair-cut even
though he had very little hair to cut, "the barber’s delight",
his friend, Inder Raj Anand called him. Rice and dal were his favourite
delicacies both for lunch and dinner but he never minded something
non-vegetarian, specially when he had guests at home. Abbas hated
alcohol and gave away cartons of whisky and vodka to his friends
who he said “believed they would die if they didn’t drink"
and wondered at the method in their madness.
He loved travelling and I think he must have travelled almost every
major country in the world under some pretext or the other. He loved
every country he visited but there was no country greater than his
India for him, his Hindustan, for whom he could do any thing, even
give up his life. And among this great man’s greatest qualities
was his caring for the common man and fighting out "wars"
with some of the greatest leaders who thought things anti-Indian.
For me, he was the first real anti-Indian I had come across, was
proud of and will always be proud of.
Ali Peter John
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