Duel in the dark

I was present at the Bangalore launch of his autobiography by Dev Anand recently. Among other things he has said in the...

I was present at the Bangalore launch of his autobiography by Dev Anand recently. Among other things he has said in the book, he has put it on record that he loved Suraiya, but she was indecisive. I saw Dev Sa8217;ab at the launch but he didn8217;t see me 8212; I was in the background. The same was the case in the mid-8217;40s at Marine Drive in Bombay. He would come to visit Suraiya who lived at Krishna Mahal in a sea-front ground-floor flat while my family was next door at Keval Mahal.

Before school hours in the morning, we kids would see a dozen or two Suraiya fans hanging about, craning their necks to see through her ground floor windows. She usually dodged them, with a burqa, deftly slinking into her big, American Packard car. It was the same story every day: disappointed fans would disperse, bringing to an end the morning8217;s boring routine for us kids.

It became less boring when Dev Sa8217;ab appeared on the scene. From neighbourhood gossip, we knew that a Dev-Suraiya romance was on, and it was not approved by Badshah Begum, Suraiya8217;s grandmother, who was a battle axe of a woman with a booming voice. There were evenings when we would see Dev Sa8217;ab8217;s little British Hillman Minx car, parked awhile in front. It would soon be gone as he was turned away. After a few days of being thwarted, persistent Dev Sa8217;ab figured out a way. Suraiya8217;s Krishna Mahal was a five-storey structure with an open terrace. The building had two lifts, one by the ground floor entrance of her flat, and the other near the back entrance. The lovebirds had decided that they would meet on the terrace.

Dev Sa8217;ab would park his Hillman Minx, not out front, but on the side road. He8217;d sneak in at the back entrance lift at an appointed time and reach up to the terrace, and she8217;d take the front lift up. Up on the terrace, they8217;d enjoy the sea breeze and stars and Badshah Begum was none the wiser. By and by, grandma did come to know. She snatched the engagement ring and flung it across the Marine Drive into the sea. That was also the time when Hollywood star Gregory Peck was in Bombay. In an interview, Suraiya had said: 8220;I have everything in the world except Gregory Peck.8221;Maybe Suraiya was indecisive, Dev Sa8217;ab.