Kaifi & I: A Memoir
by Shaukat Kaifi
edited & translated by Nasreen Rehman
Zubaan, 2010
This new work is a fascinating stroll down memory lane with the renowned theatre and film artiste Shaukat Kaifi, of her marriage of more than half a century to the iconic poet Kaifi Azmi. Set against the backdrop of a newly independent India, Shaukat Kaifi's narrative is infused with romance and energy – in their relationship, as well as what their lives were all about – literature, poetry, theatre and politics. Vignettes of Shaukat's hometown, Hyderabad under the nizam, represent a different world from the one she comes to inhabit with her card-carrying communist husband.
From Shaukat's vantage point (close to the party but never being a member), we get a glimpse of the camaraderie and mutual support in the commune. But we also learn of the later disintegration in the party, and also of an interesting discomfort with emotion. Following the death of her first born infant son, "It became clear to me that most people feel uncomfortable around those who cannot control their grief and tend to walk away … in time I learnt to smile." Shaukat also reveals that, were it not for her obstinacy, one of the finest actors in Indian cinema and theatre, Shabana Azmi, would not have been born. Going against the wishes of the party leaders, who felt that an infant would be a burden on the party's meagre resources, Shaukat refused to undergo an abortion, supporting herself during her pregnancy through acting and programmes on All India Radio.
Throughout, Shaukat shares intimate portraits of eminent theatre personalities associated with the leftwing Indian People's Theatre Association and the Progressive Writers Association in the 1950s. During the sugar-rationing 1950s, for instance, we learn that Dina Pathak never carried her allotted tin of sugar to the table, and that Habib Tanvir would give her a spoon from his. More than anything else, however, Kaifi & I is an enchanting story about love that is consuming, but not total surrender, as in Kaifi's poem dedicated to Shaukat soon after they met in 1947: "You will fly when you're free and not ensnared by love/ Heaven is not just in the arms of a man/ Walk unfettered on the path of freedom with me/ Arise, my love, for now you must march with me." (Laxmi Murthy)