Old is Gold

Old is Gold
Originally uploaded by firozeshakirphotographerno1

My father was a very polished gentleman, late Mohomed Shakir Esq .
He was a migrant or runway from Lucknow.
He told me later in life that he belonged to the race of Moghul Pathans.
He went to Lucknow simply once in his life time to get married to my mother.
He went the last time to bury his mother Late Khurshed Baji of Vazir Ganj.
He was a romantic a cross between Clarke Gable and Raj Kapoor the old time star of Indian cinema.
My father never scourged, never cut his forehead, stayed away from anything that would mess his attitude to life.He was not against all this as he allowed me to scourge , I was the only one who did this from the age of 12 at Kaiser Bagh or Babaralli Imambara at Bhendi Bazar with a Khoja friend Firoze Badami.
My dad was back bencher but always sat at a Lucknow hyped Sabil called Imamiya Sabil.. that was founded by his Mamu , uncle late Maqbool Bhai
My dad year after year would have Khichda prepared at the Sabil on Ashura day , we kids to supervise the sacks of wheat , cereals and other stuff so that the khansama or cook did not pilfer the same..
These are memories of my Dad.
He never interfered with our lives.He was deeply hurt when my sister married a Hindu boy,he never get over it, he did not mind when another sister married a Sunni guy..or when one of my brothers married a Roman Catholic girl who converted to Islam..
He was not alive when my kid brother married a Hindu Brahmin , so this is how tolerant he was,he saw my boozing spree that hurt him the most, I was the eldest but a woman if he loved more than his own daughters was my wife Afshaan, she was from his Lucknow..she was younger than my older sister, and dad was not there when we got married in Lucknow.. my mom got me married to tie me like a bull on heat to the lamp post of the family farm..he called my wife affectionately Dulhan.. or Bride all his life he never called her by her name .
My dad's passing away was a great blow to my mom Shamim Shakir, within the following year she died of diabetic complications both lie buried side by side at Rehmatabad Shi cemetery in Mumbai.
Being a god looking man charming my dad was vulnerable ,the other woman never let my dad get congugal peace..between the lip locked graves of my mom and dad lies the remains of a woman whose bones I told the grave digger not to disturb but let it lie at both their feet..this was when we were burying our mom...
So when we go to say Fatiha on their graves at Shabbarat the Shia All Souls Day we are also saying a Fatiha to the Other woman the bane of a married indian Man.. most of the times..