With Sadia Dehlvi gone, Delhi has lost a creative soul   

Late last night I got to know of Sadia Dehlvi’s passing away…For a very long time, I sat there, sad and forlorn, thinking of my interactions with her at Khushwant Singh’s home. I recall I had first seen Sadia at one of the diplomatic receptions, where she had come in with her father. She had stood out, with her attractive personality and in a dazzling attire. I recall, as soon as she’d walked in, all eyes turned towards her and I had to ask one of the guests who she was! And as soon as I was told her name and that her family runs the Shama group of publications, all those images of back home came flooding. My mother and khalaas/maternal aunts were addicted to reading this Urdu publication, which carried the latest on the literary front and also had ample focus on films and Bollywood stars…If I recall correctly, there were also pages after pages on cuisine, fashion and the latest on the who’s who on the social–political circuit.

Thereafter, I used to see her looking all very attractive and charming at the various functions and book launches that this capital city hosts (used to!) in plenty. But I was formally introduced to her at Khushwant Singh’s home. He loved her company and they would keep on chatting. Khushwant was also very fond of her Pakistan-based husband, the suave and sophisticated Reza Pervaiz, who would make it a point to call on him whenever he was visiting New Delhi. On one Diwali evening, as I was visiting Khushwant, Reza had called from Karachi to wish him on Diwali and Khushwant looked so happy…He kept telling us that Reza called with Diwali greetings.

She would visit Khuswant later along with her mother. Later, the Dehlvi’s huge mansion in New Delhi’s posh Chanakyapuri got sold off to Mayawati…Thereafter, Sadia had shifted with her mother to Nizamuddin East and her father had gone to live with one of her brothers’ family in Gurgaon..

What had kept her going was the zest for life and as I have mentioned, she found that much needed anchorage in Sufism and religion…Perhaps, her son, Armaan Ali, was also a great source of strength for her.

Bright and talented, Sadia looked restless. Perhaps, that restlessness paved way for her creativity - her writings, her brief foray into film and serial making, interest in cuisines, and, of course, her quest for Sufism. If I’m not mistaken, it was Sufism that gave her the much needed anchorage in the last few years of her life. In fact, in the last ten or twelve years she had become very religious. I recall when she had come for the launch of my book on the Dagars and Dhrupad, at the India International Centre, she was not to be seen for several minutes. She had quietly gone to the back lawns to offer the evening Maghrib namaaz. Yes, she had started praying very regularly and had even started covering her head.

I met Armaan rather accidentally. About four years back, I was doing a coffee table book on the Dagars and was visiting their home very regularly. And it was there I met him as he was one of the students, mastering the classical Dhrupad. And he came across a very well-brought up boy…It’s through him I got to know of the passing away of his father, Reza Pervaiz, and also of his maternal grandfather, Yunus Dehlvi, the man who put Urdu publications up on the pedestal…

Maybe, Armaan manages to put back to life the so many aspects of the illustrious Dehlvi family - literary publications, cultural evenings, Mughlai cuisine and much, much more.

With Sadia gone, the capital city has lost a creative soul.

May her soul rest in peace.