Note:

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Saturday, July 12, 2014

अभी तो मैं जवान हूं... ज़ोहरा आपा के नाम

Zohra Sahgal Grand old lady of Bollywood Zohra Sehgal passes away at 102- Nilendu Sen

          In a series of interviews conducted by Khushwant Singh, and co produced by my friend Anusha Khan in the late nineties the most memorable was the one he did with Zohra Sehgal... After talking of life and times the old sardar frankly recounted to the ever so alive Zohra an instance in 1935 where he was enamoured with her, especially as she recited the iconic poem by Hafiz Jalandhari...Without blinking she recited the poem in her inimitably expansive style on the show -- on the wrong side of 80 years, she looked as though she was just about warming up... Abhi To main Jawaan Hun.. It was not so much a recitation as much as an emphatic assertion, an assertion that both the interviewer and the interviewee lived upto till they lived.. Gave me the goosebumps..

अभी तो मैं जवान हूं
सुबू उठा पियाला भर, पियाला भर के दे इधर
चमन की सिम्त कर नज़र, समां तो देख बेखबर
है मौत इस क़दर क़रीन मुझे ना आएगा यक़ीन
नहीं नहीं अभी नहीं नहीं नहीं अभी नहीं
अभी तो मैं जवान हूं


Mujh Se Pehli Si Mohabbat by Faiz, recited by Zohra Sehgal


Nilendu Sen is a very senior journalist, an enthusiastic filmmaker and filmbuff, a scholar and a novelist. This post has been taken from his fb wall.