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Abbas had no vices. He never smoked and he hated the “stink”
of alcohol. The only thing that went against him at times was when
he raised his voice, when he flew into a rage. But he also had the
rare gift of calming down, cooling his temper, making the object
of his temper, wonder how this great man could change colours in
such a short time.
I remember the time when he fired the great Raj Kapoor for changing
a line in his film, Bobby and how Raj took it without any murmur,
sat at his feet and cried till he was tired crying, Abbas kept consoling
him like a little child. Then they got up, embraced each other,
and an ageing Abbas held Raj and led him down all the five floors
of his office. He never let Raj slip, stagger or fall even though
he (Abbas) was a frail and weak old man and Raj a full-blooded drunk
Pathan.
Abbas saw Raj off to his car and fired him for the last time and
said: "the next time you make mistakes and come to my office
drunk I will literally push you out of the fifth floor. You know
my temper better than anyone else. You are my best friend, after
all." Raj touched his feet, kissed his forehead and promised
him not to embarrass him again. "Kitne pyare aadmi hai, lekin
ye sharab aisi cheez hai, achche se achche aadmi ko shaitaan bana
deta hai. Kis zaalim ne banaaya sharab ko, shraap (curse) hai sharab
ko. Aur kitne ko maregie yeh sharab", Abbas grumbled as he
walked erect to his fifth floor office while I walked twenty steps
behind him.
I then remember a group of smart college students. He had no time
for them but he always cared for students, the future of this great
country. He gave them an appointment. One of the boys asked him
a question with the clear intention to prove that he was too smart.
Abbas gave all the students a long answer and the students took
down every word he uttered furiously. He then asked them to stop
writing and screamed his strong lungs out. He said whatever he had
told them during the last ten minutes was the long potential from
Ernest Hamingway and not a single world was his. He fired those
students for taking everything that came from abroad seriously and
everything that was an Indian lightly. "When will you young
sters learn to form you own opinions, find out what is right and
what is wrong, what is good for them and the country and what is
bad, I can not suffer fools. You are a generation interested only
in fun and games and have absolutely for serious issues that matter
to man, humanity and the world. I refuse to talk to you any more.
You can go with whatever opinion you form about me. Take me or leave
me. You are the representatives of the generation to come which
puts all kinds of fear in me. But I am an optimist, I have hope,
I know you will mature with time, change yourself, change the world,”
he asked.
Abbas was not scared of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar or Dev Anand or
any other star or politician. He was known to be blunt, brave and
blatant. The one politician he couldn’t stand was the late
Morarji Desai. Abbas once wrote an open letter to Morarji who was
a senior Minister, describing the sorry state of affairs in the
city of Bombay. He challenged Morarji to walk with him and see how
human beings lived in conditions which would put animals to shame.
He wanted him to see hunderds of men, women and children sleeping
on footpaths and living in hollow empty pipes.
Morarji refused to believe the story of Abbas and Abbas even wondered
if he had opened his letter. The only politician Abbas loved was
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Nehru loved him in return and consulted
him whenever there was a crisis.
Abbas had many other principles but the one which stood out was
his disdain. In one of his last sentences about fear, he said :
"my son, fear is the only enemy of man and woman. Do away with
fear and you can fight out of trouble".
The day we Indians forget what fear is I assure you we will be the
greatest nations in world". These days are days full of fear
and I remember Abbas and his statement about fear almost everyday
because fear is an every day happening in life in India.
Ali Peter John
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