THE GREATNESS OF MY GURU, ABBAS SAHAB WAS THAT HE RECOGNISED THE GREATNESS IN MEN AND WOMEN WHO WERE HIS JUNIORS

Ali Peter John

I have heard of so many kinds of gurus. I have seen many more gurus. I was tempted to accept some of these  gurus, even when I knew that they were fake and fraud guru .But if there is one guru I have accepted, admired and even worshiped in my own ways , it was,should I take his name ? For the few who know me and the fewer who follow me ,it will not be difficult to guess who I am  talking about. Yes ,the one and only guru I had who  taught me what being a true guru was .....

He didn't have to preach or write about what a guru was. He showed it by his everyday work and in the way he interacted with people of all classes of society. I would like to write a book about Abbas Sahab, but it is  my belief that he is much bigger and greater who fit into a book or a biopic at a time when books are being written on every Hari ,Iqbal and Harry which is keeping me away from fulfilling my wish to write that dream book  about him and now  with my own age and failing health, I don't know if this ambitious wish I have will be fulfilled....

I had this strange Idea about an ideal guru. My belief said that  a genuine guru is one who wouldn't just gives "gyaan"and spreads it ,but also has the  courage and the humility to accept "gyaan"from others, so what if is it from the most powerful, the most  intelligent, the most  wise and even the man  who works as a sweeper or is a doodhwala or a newspaper boy who delivers  the  newspapers every morning. And Abbas Sahab did all that I saw in an ideal guru without making any efforts and without making it sound like  a crown on his already much-decorated head.

Let me give you some examples of the honesty and sincerity of Abbas Sahab and you will know why  I respect him the most ,after  my mother, of course....

Abbas Sahab had written  the script of "Aawara"for Raj Kapoor and the showman in the making was thrilled with the script. Shailendra who was working  with  Raj  after  the  success of "Barsaat "was to write  the songs of "Aawara "too.Raj had paid him  two hundred and fifty rupees per song  and he  asked  Shailendra  to go with  him  and meet Abbas Sahab. Shailendra was meeting Abbas Sahab for  the  first time. Abbas Sahab asked him to recite two lines of the theme  song he had written  for the film. Shailendra recited  the first two lines of the theme song which went, "Awara hoon ya gardish mein hoon aasman ka tara hoon".And it is said  that  Abbas Sahab stood up and  congratulated him and told him that he had captured the spirit of his script in just  two lines. His respect for  Shailendra grew after  that first  meeting .

Years later, Raj Kapoor was  planning  his most ambitious  film  ,"Mera Naam Joker ".The script was again  written  by Abbas Sahab  .The well-known actor  Manoj Kumar  who  had ambitions of being a writer of films and was respected for  his knowledge  about writing  but other directors like Raj Khosla and  almost every director with  whom he worked as the  hero. Raj Kapoor wanted him (like many of  his  star-friends)to make special appearances in his film.it was while  Raj Kapoor was  having  a  talk with Manoj that Manoj wondered aloud  if he  could  try  to  attempt writing  the first part of the film and Raj Kapoor mentioned the request made by Manoj to Abbas Sahab and  my guru being my guru not only accepted the request of Manoj, but  also  told  Raj  that  Manoj would be  the proper  writer to  write  the  first  part of the film which was written in three parts. When the film  was released,Abbas Sahab was the first to not only congratulate Manoj but  also  thank him.

Abbas Sahab had also written the script  of " Bobby "on the desperate request of Raj .But when "Bobby "turned out to be a  bumper hit ,Abbas Sahab didn't take any credit for it .On the  contrary, he told me, "if I had directed 'Bobby ',it would have been a very big flop like most of my films. Raj is a genuis as a director  and I can't take any credit for the way he  puts life into my scripts ".

Abbas Sahab was making" Faasla ",one of his last films in which he had introduced Shabana Azmi and  a new actor called Raman Khanna whose only  ambition was to be "at least one third of Rajesh Khanna ".He as usual wrote the  entire script but there was a court room scene in which he was not getting the dialogues right. He spent time to  get  the  correct lines and when he still couldn't find them, he  approached his best friend, Inder Raj  Anand who was the highest paid dialogue writer of the time to  help him with the dialogue. And who  could say  no  to a  request made by the powerful-humble Abbas Sahab ? And  Abbas Sahab gave the name of Inder Raj Anand as the co-writer of "Faasla ".

There are so many examples  to prove  why  I call  Abbas Sahab a guru who  not only  gave  "gyaan "but also  received  "gyaan ".

And what  can  I  say  about  the  man who was even willing to  accept  the  advice of his  typist and secretary Abdul Rahman, his  assistants, Athar Siraj and  even his junior most actors like  Athar Nawaz  and  the  son  of  a  friend  ,Shakeel  Farooqi and  above all his brilliant cinematographer Ramchandra ?

And I may have  done a lot  of  work  during these  fifty years, but  I  believe  that  my greatest  challenge and test  was when Abbas Sahab asked me to help him out in writing a book on the  Emergency. It was  an experience  I will always  cherish  .And how can I forget that moment when the book was out and he just  marked out my name he had mentioned in his  acknowledgement with my name marked out in red, his humility didn't make him  take  credit or feel  that  he had done me a favor by  putting my name in the  list of  some  of the  senior writers  and  journalists  of the time  .

And  I  can never  be  at peace with myself if I don't keep repeating the truth that he was the greatest guru in my life who has made me what I am today and where ever I will be in the  time  to  come.

AUR BOHOT  SAARE GURU AAYENGE AUR JAAYENGE , LEKIN AAP JAISE GURU SIRF EK  BAAR AATE  HAI  AUR PHIR RAH  JAATE  HAI  ZINDAGI BHAR . MAIN AAPKO SUKRIYA NAHI KAHUNGA, KYUNKI AISI  BAATEIN AAPKE  SHAAN KE KHILAAF HOGI