The Lal family traces its ‘Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb’ to growing up in culturally rich cities like Agra, Lucknow and Bhopal. “We hosted mehfils, mushairas and qawaalis at home,” he explains. Pakistani poet Fehmida Riyaz would invariably stay with them every time she visited India. “Mine was the first Hindu house she saw in India in 1981, and thereafter she always stayed with us. Amrita Pritam requested Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to allot a house to stay on her visits,” recalls Subodh Lal, who has just finished writing a book on close family friend Femida Riyaz, who named her daughter ‘Veerta’, he recalls fondly. Though his father passed away a few days after December 6, the family observes his death anniversary on December 6 each year.Distressed at communal hatred, he is however convinced that this phase would not last for long. “We have to return to Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb’; there is no other option. No country can develop without communal harmony,” says the optimist in him.(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday.)
Source link
