I don't believe in coincidences, but …

My father

- Abi is what I called him -

was born on 11th April 1900

•

Abi loved books (English and Urdu) and poetry (which he also wrote in Urdu) and music (he had a lovely voice and could read Music in the way it was written in the West) and adored humour of all sorts. He wrote well - a bit strange for a Doctor - and his English and Urdu were really well-written. 

All my loves come from him.

More than anything else, he admired good movies: mainly English (finding the Urdu movies too similar and 'old fashioned', unless they had some good classical songs in them).

In the last days of his life - although he had been an Atheist in his college days and when he was in the UK (and I don't remember him saying his prayers until much later in life) - he became a strong Muslim, for reasons that I understand and have written about earlier, much to the annoyance of some erstwhile friends.

This meant that he stopped going to movies,

for they interfered with his prayer times.

In 1957 on his birthday I asked him to accompany me to a film, for it had his favourite actors: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Elsa Lanchester. It was Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution. I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded … and he finally agreed to go, saying that he would say his Maghrib Prayers as Qazā.

What an amazing film that was!

I have seen it a number of times since then.

After the movie he and I went to my Mamooñ Jan's place, where he said his Qazā Namāz. Shah Sahab was also staying at Mamooñ Jan's house. An amazingly interesting man, Shah Sahab seemed to read minds and then talk to someone in the crowd about something … but it actually was meant for someone else sitting in the crowd that came to see him. I don't believe such things any way.

When Abi came out and after a few minutes another friend dropped in, Shah Sahab addressed him and said Qazā can't be decided from before and is only permitted if you have missed a prayer. And it is certainly not allowed after a movie. I was there and no one had said Abi had gone to a movie and was now saying his Qazā prayers. Hmmm. 

It is now 11th April 2020

Nuzhat and I are in our Lockdown Mode and looking through YouTube … and I find Witness for the Prosecution. No. Not the version I had mentioned earlier, but a BBC TV version. Ralph Richardson (later a Sir), Deborah Kerr, Diana Riggs. All wonderful stars. I had never heard of this … and we decided to see it.

Good film,

if you haven't seen the 1957 version.

•

Strange to find it on Abi's 120th birthday, though.

From Abi's birthday in 1957 to today is 63 years.

Abi died on 19th September 1963 at 63 years.