From the memoir: Salima Hashmi writes about watching film shoots with her father, Faiz Ahmed Faiz

No one was more startled than my father when I came first in my class in the Matriculation exam. The poor man, in the faint hope of spurring me on to some kind of academic achievement, told me, “If you get a First Division in the matriculation, I’ll buy you a gold watch.” I telephoned him at the Pakistan Times when the results came in. “Abba, I got a First Division, and I’ve come first in my class.” There was a very audible “Heh?” at the other end. I myself have no idea how I managed it. I had absolutely no interest in what marks I would get. I just wanted to get through and have done with it. But true to his word, when he got home, he called up from the landing on the stairs, ‘Tumhari ghadi le kar aaya hoon [I have come with your watch].’ I don’t know how he could afford it, but he had bought me a gold watch. I treasured it for a long, long time.

I was shy and retiring, though a bit pampered, and from the day I started school it was a nightmare. I never ever went willingly. As a little girl, I...

Read more

News