Farooque Shaikh's handwriting had a big bold flourish, says college friend Parna Patkar

MUMBAI: The inner circle of Hindi cinema knows Parna Patkar as the mother-in-law of director Shaad Ali. In January this year, Shabana Azmi sent her birthday wishes saying, "Happy birthday my dearest friend Parna Patkar. Blessed to have you in my life. U bring stability and love into my chaotic world." Patkar also happens to have been a close friend of Farooque Shaikh and his wife Roopa since their student days at St Xavier's College in the late 1960s.
Thursday, September 22 marks 1,000 days since Shaikh Sahab's passing. Parnaji met TOI to share a treasure chest of memories spanning a half century. Each jewel reflected the generosity and genuineness of the man who impressed everybody he met by his giving nature. Parna Patkar, Parna Kara at the time, studied at St Xavier's from 1968-1971. She was Shabana Azmi's classmate. "Shabana and I have been best friends since 5,000 years," she laughs. "Both of us went to Queen Mary School in Grant Road and then joined St Xavier's together."
Shaikh Sahab was two years their senior. He was a pioneer of the Hindi Natya Manch and the Sangeet Mandal at St Xavier's. "Not that he could sing or anything, but he loved music. A Bengali girl named Haimanti Ganguly introduced us to him, and we became friends instantly. Shabana joined both groups so we all kept meeting frequently,'' Parna says.
"I remember him as a permanent fixture in the canteen. You would always find him sitting there faffing about and charming everybody,'' she laughs. "Obviously he was a very good-looking young man." Parna suspects he liked to linger in college. "He was there in the years before we joined, and he seemed to be there even after we passed!'' In fact after completing his graduation, Shaikh Sahab was studying for a degree in law at Siddharth College, Fort. He would often arrive to meet friends at St Xavier's helped by the short distance between both institutes.
Parnaji has read a few tributes that friends and colleagues have offered to Shaikh Sahab on this site. "One observation I absolutely agree with is that Farooque Shaikh would never allow anybody else to pay for food. You simply could not order a char aane ka Coke in the canteen or a samosa without Farooque being the one to pay. It was always his hand that went into his pocket before anybody else."
"And it was not as if this generosity was for me or Shabana alone, whoever was at the table had his tab picked up. You could scream, shout or protest all you liked, there was simply no question that anybody else could pay. And we girls were convent educated so we had firm principles about going Dutch. But Farooque would never allow any of our reservations to get in his way.''
Similarly, actor-producer Rekha Sahai had told TOI how she had surreptitiously tried passing her credit card to the restaurant manager under the pretext of visiting the washroom each time their group went out for lunch with Farooque Shaikh. But he caught on to the trick, and forbade her from leaving the table. It was always his treat.
Parnaji laughs as she recalls how Shaikh seemed to have made a special arrangement with a waiter named Pinto in the college canteen. "He had a running account with Pinto. And it was always Pinto who served our group, nobody else, so I am sure Farooque kept tipping him huge amounts as he was wont to do,'' she says. "And during our college days, all of us were on a budget because it was not as if any of us was working. Farooque Shaikh was not employed either but that did not deter him.''
"We occasionally visited Farooque's house in Nagpada during Eid. He would bring us Kit Kat chocolates, which were fashionably popular in those days, with sweet notes attached to them. Farooque would tease Shabana a lot. He would call me the silver lining to a dark cloud. The dark cloud was Shabana! Meanwhile we had nicknamed him Firki.''
Shaikh Sahab's generosity extended from the dining table to the study table as well. Shabana Azmi had recalled how he would tutor them both before the exams, once even filling ink in her pen and waiting outside the examination hall after she suffered a panic attack.
Parna agrees. "Farooque would himself bunk class but sit up nights teaching Shabana and me at my house in Kemps Corner. Particularly subjects like Logic and Psychology. I remember we were actually scared of a chapter on 'Attitude' in the Psychology textbook. We would struggle to understand concepts like 'attitude' because we had simply been mugging our way through. But Farooque would sit patiently and explain to us till midnight.''
Ironically, Shaikh himself bought his textbooks just a day before the exam, yet passed with flying colours. "He was so clever, he just had to read a page once to absorb its contents. There was no need to revise. To top it all, he would write reams that would fill eight answer booklets,'' Parna says in mock horror. "After the test we would ask one another how many answer booklets each had taken, and Farooque was the one who had sought the maximum number.''
If memory serves her well, the only setback he faced was when the college authorities threatened to deny him an "exam form" owing to inadequate attendance. This unique ability to recall helped him in his professional career as well. Producer-director Praveen Nischol who made the TV serial 'Shrikant' had told TOI how Farooque Shaikh merely had to scan reams of dialogue with a glance, and he would remember them through the day. "He did not ever need to return to the dialogues," he had said.
Parnaji cites one facet of Farooque Shaikh's personality that nobody has mentioned so far. "His handwriting! Farooque wrote big bold letters which ended in a flourish. The words were by no means small or hesitant. He was also extremely particular that people spell his name correctly. He wrote the 'S' in his surname in a distinct style.''
Shaikh and Shabanaji became active in theatre during their college days, especially as members of IPTA. "When they performed college plays in Tejpal Hall, the furniture would go from my house,'' laughs Parna. She herself did not take up theatre though, opting to work with an airline and then with production houses including YashRaj.
The phenomenon that was 'Tumhari Amrita' unfolded in 1992, and Parna accompanied the team on two tours of Chicago and London. "Shabana and I returned from London but Farooque travelled on to the US. When he came back he had brought my daughter Aarti, who was about 15-16 then, the special gift of a red Wrangler cap that she had been unable to get in India. It was such a thoughtful gesture because we had not even asked him to look for it. She was so pleased,'' Parna says.
The passage of decades only strengthened the relationship. Aarti, who is married to Muzaffar Ali's director son Shaad, designed the costumes for Shaikh Sahab's film 'Saas Bahu Aur Sensex'. "There too, she tells me, he was the most loved and respected member on set. No fuss about the kind of clothes he would wear, no tantrums either. Knowing how film units are, they get into scraps and fights. But one could not even imagine Farooque ever becoming party to any of this,'' Parnaji says.
The morning of December 28, 2013 brought a phone call that still brings a lump to her throat. "I was in Hinduja Hospital where my daughter had been admitted for premature delivery. It was around 2.30am when I received a call from Roopa. She said we are in Dubai and that this has happened, and I am unable to get in touch with Shabana. She asked me to call her to relay the message of Farooque's passing, and seek her help to repatriate his remains. I immediately rang Shabana's cook, told him to wake her up and alert her. That was how Shabana and Javed interceded so that the formalities could be processed fast. Farooque's family managed to bring him back December 30.''
Parnaji remembers that Shaikh Sahab's father Mustafa Shaikh, a well known advocate, had also passed away in the same manner as he did. "He also suffered a massive heart attack and it was over in an instant,'' she says.
A similar tragedy has hit closer home than one would imagine. After a brief pause, Parna says she lost her own husband Pradeep to a sudden cardiac arrest. "It was five years ago. I was out shopping for Ganpati and he was at home. He suddenly collapsed after suffering a severe heart attack. Farooque was there by us during the last rites.''
Parnaji saw Shaikh Sahab's film 'Club 60' after his passing and remembers sobbing through to the end.