Mumbai: Ten years ago on December 30, 2013, as Farooque Shaikh’s final journey was preparing to unfold, young Lubna Salim was stricken with shock and disbelief. “How can he go so suddenly?! Unke Eid ki biryani ke bartan abhi ghar mein pade hain!”
Ten years later, the exact measure of her loss is evident in each anecdote she narrates.
Farooque Shaikh (Rehmatullah Alaih)’s tenth Remembrance Day is being observed today Thursday December 28. He passed away in Dubai and was laid to rest two days later in Mumbai on December 30, 2013.
Lubna Salim knew Shaikh Sb from an early age given that her father, eminent Urdu writer Javed Siddiqi, was his friend from Nagpada-Bombay Central. In 1992 Javed Sb wrote the landmark play ‘Tumhari Amrita’ featuring Shaikh and Shabana Azmi which ran till 2013. Her mother Faridaji, a costume designer of repute, had designed the wardrobe in ‘Bazaar’. Each of them hailed from IPTA stock.
In 2004, Lubnaji herself produced the memorable play ‘Aapki Soniya’, which was ‘Tumhari Amrita’s sequel, featuring Sonali Bendre with Shaikh Sb. Her husband Salim Arif was the director.
A few days ago December 13, a day after winning the ITA Award for Best Supporting Actress, Lubnaji generously made time to meet and offer tribute to her friend and silent inspiration. She relived a lifetime of memories — his handsome visage, open hand, meticulous habits — and their common love of food! Most of all, how at an impressionable age, she imbibed a wealth of virtue from Farooque Shaikh that she continues to practice assiduously in her own life.
Shaikh Sb would guide Javed Siddiqi, Lubnaji and Salim Sb along a food trail of the choicest non-vegetarian restaurants in South Mumbai. She laughs and says, “Anybody who knew Farooquebhai knew it will be an ‘experience in food’, a gastronomical challenge involving every cuisine. We used to have food holidays! Salim and I love food too, but we are not voracious eaters. You love the finesse, enjoy the taste. That was a connection Farooquebhai and I had apart from work.”
Their regular haunt was Chinese N Grill Restaurant below Minara Masjid at Mohammed Ali Road. “Here we would follow a fixed menu of seekh kebab and paya. Sometimes barah handi in the neighbourhood. The well known Bade Miyan behind Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba was our favourite for kebabs, biryani and everything else in between. And then a trip to Girgaum Chowpatty beach for many varieties of kulfi in one session!”
Shaikh Sb never let anybody else pay for food. He would always foot the bill. “He was so fond of feeding people that he would order the whole menu at Bade Miyan! He himself ate very little of each dish but loved to feed us more! The waiters’ eyes would light up on seeing him. It was a sight to see! Farooquebhai would order everything on the menu. Everything about him was grand! But he would not eat too much. He would just pick at it. When we asked why, he said he had tried this dish and would now move on to the next one. He enjoyed what he ate!” Lubnaji says.
Javed Siddiqi and other friends like Avtar Gill and Javed Khan, who has since passed away, have mentioned that Shaikh Sb would always pay for the food — but never for alcohol! He was a consummate teetotaller and did not touch liquor.
Siddiqi Sb had said, “We would say to him, Bhai Farooque, you are paying Rs 2,000 for food but will not pay Rs 200 for our liquor?! And he would firmly reply, No, I will not pay for alcohol. You want to drink, you pay. He was a man of strict principles.”
Lubnaji still remembers the first time she saw him. “i was very small. Farooquebhai was attending a gathering at Khilafat House. At that time ‘Noorie’ had just released and he was being mobbed! I remember he was wearing a shirt and pant, and he had a habit of running his fingers through his hair!” she laughs as she enacts his mannerism. “I rushed to the terrace to see the new superstar — this fair skinned, rosy cheeked man! Such a handsome man!”
Her parents were old friends of Shaikh Sb. “Mom (costume designer Farida Siddiqi) and Dad were members of IPTA just as Farooquebhai was. He had done this famous play called ‘Khalid Ki Khala’ (Charley’s Aunt) where he enacted the role of the ‘khala’ dressed in drag! It was hilarious. He would say my girlfriend is coming from Burma. My mother Farida played that role! The next time I saw him was in Rangmandir, Bandra during this performance. In one scene, he wore these fabulous women’s clothes and came and plonked himself on a chair like a man, then straightened up demurely remembering he was supposed to be a woman! Farooquebhai had the naughtiest twinkle in his eye — a true fellow Arian! He had a brilliant dry humour which not everyone understood Very witty, extremely well versed, lively, the life of the party.”
“Equally, he never minced words and was very clear to differentiate between right and wrong. Well read, very aware, very well meaning. I have seen him dip into his pockets and tip waiters generously… 100-200-300 rupees without counting or calculating percentages. I have imbibed this practice in my life as a rule — the satisfaction of seeing the smile of the receiver that conveys that we are happy and indebted, we like you! That was enough for him. He did not give money for that reason. But their smiles were enough. Farooquebhai was a man with a pure aura!”
“He was so grounded that he had no qualms taking a rickshaw. And he never came empty handed to rehearsals of Aapki Soniya. Some food was always brought or was coming. He loved the sandwiches from Marriott and would order from there. I learnt from him — just open your heart! Don’t expect to receive anything. It is not give and take. I saw so much of me in him.”
“He could connect with classes and masses. I too can sit at a seven-course dinner and sit on the floor to eat a common meal. He was never stuck in his image.”
“Like me, he was hyper! He would sit and rise with a jerk. He had no time to waste. Quick to smile, quickly annoyed with anything improper. I would meekly take any scolding from him!” Lubnaji laughs. “He would call me Producer Sahiba! He had saved my number in his phone diary this way too!”
She admired the genuineness, spontaneity and honesty of his talk show ‘Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai’.
“We used to talk talk talk. He would come to Daddy’s office at Four Bungalows. I remember for Aapki Soniya, he wanted a particular type of handmade paper to affix the letters which he got us to source from a company in Worli. He was so particular about the colour and style of the table and chair. He said, I have a pot belly, I cannot squeeze myself into a chair with handles. We gave him two costume changes. And do you know, he would carry his own hanger, bring his own clothes and carry his own bag. I began to follow the same tradition. I do my own work in theatre. Farooquebhai kept in touch with his ancestral village in Gujarat, he visited regularly to monitor the farmyards znd stables. His kingly style of charity operated at another level altogether.”
“He has impacted me in this respect too. He reinforced my feelings that material things are so immaterial beyond a point. We are in this world for a certain period of time, after that what happens. For Farooque Shaikh, giving was not about power, never about pity. The fact that hundreds of people had arrived for his last rites, the fact that so many people remember him to this day means so much. Sonali Bendre and I still connect and there is never an occasion when we don’t remember Farooquebhai. Wherever he is he must be very happy. People who impact you to this extent in life are very superior souls.”
“If it has impacted me like this, imagine how it would have impacted Shabana Azmi. She said she cannot ever do Tumhari Amrita again because she cannot imagine anybody else in his stead.”
“He treated me so well. He gave me the full respect accorded to a producer. Knowing that I am new, so young, still giving me that respect. He would even buy his famous white chikankari kurtas why because pet mota ho gaya. He would buy kurtas from SEWA Lucknow because they support village artisans. And he would lug a big suitcase so that his kurta came straight — no crease!”
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