In the early 1950s when I was a freshman in Delhi, Saeed Jaffrey was a promising actor and an announcer on All India Radio. He mixed with the intelligentsia and was invited to all the posh embassy parties.
That turned his head a little. Though born into a Muslim family he was completely secular and loved his scotch. The great Jawaharlal Nehru, a Kashmiri Brahmin, was his hero.
When Nehru was about to leave for London to attend the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, Jaffrey was ordered to secure an interview with him. However, the crush at the airport was impossible to negotiate as there were dozens of ministers and civil servants protecting him. Jaffrey made a decision.
He switched on his recorder and rushed towards the plane as Nehru started to climb the steps. He shouted Khuda Hafiz! (‘God protect you!’). Nehru, an Urdu speaker, stopped for a second and shouted back Khuda Hafiz! Khuda Hafiz! That night All India Radio broadcast the sound clip. Jaffrey later wrote: “Millions of Indian Muslims that night must have breathed sighs of relief when they heard their Kashmiri Hindu boss of the nation use this reassuring Muslim prayer.”
Many years later in London, Jaffrey played the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in Dilip Hiro’s play To Anchor a Cloud. My wife, Jamila, starred opposite him as Mumtaz Mahal, the empress in whose memory the Taj was built. Saeed had the best lines and, being the pro that he was, he milked them.
