Remembering Sridevi
ByMohammad Yacoob
Hawthorne, California
My wife and I were in a conversation on the Facetime with our daughter in Saudi Arabia when she told us about the sad demiseof Srideviin Dubai. The next day when we were talking to our younger daughter in Torrance, California, we were told that when she and her husband were talking to her mother-in-law in Sri Lanka, she informed them that Sridevi was all over Sri Lanka channels. A Bollywood icon was all over the world, Bollywood and Hollywood.
The news headline on February 24, 2018 described her passing away most appropriately: “Chandni Dey Gayee Sadma”. Sadma in Urdu means a jolt, shock, blow or stoke. It was really all of those. Sri Devi earned the nickname Chandni because of her superb performance in movie Chandni.
We all grew up on Bollywood movies in Hyderabad, and at that time (1950’s) the South Indian super stars in Bombaywere Vijayantimala, Waheeda Rahman, Padmini, Raagini and others. Now, in Los Angeles, our children grew up with super stars like Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi , Vidya Balan and others.
The death of Sridevi was a poignant moment for me too. I remember our younger daughter, when she was very young, crying when movie actress Divya Bharati died in 1993. She used to watch Divya Bharathi’s movies. It is very ironic that Sri Devi, whom Divya Bharati called her idol and confessed she was in the movies because she was a Sri Devi look alike, also passed away in very unusual circumstances. My wife told our younger daughter not to cry as she did in 1993; she said she feels sad about the death of Sridevi.
I started reflecting on how death can snatch away a human being from the clutches of life and away from those who love him or her; millions and millions of people around the world loved Sridevi for her talent and beauty. It brought to my mind an unpleasant event that took place in the 1970’s causing despair and anxiety to me, and now at the passing away of Sridevi, sadness. It reminds me of an Indian movie icon, movie actor Saboo Dastagir, not in Bollywood but in Hollywood. A son of an Indian mahout, Sabu, born and raised in Karapur, Mysore State, was discovered in 1937 and was cast in the movie Elephant Boy and later in many Hollywood movies. I always have goose pimples whenever I hear the name Sabu. Most of us in our lifetime seldom see a dead body, except when a relative or a dear one has passed away. In early 1970's, the only burial place available or known to Muslims from India in Los Angeleswas a specific area in the Forest Lawn Mortuary. The director of the mortuary told us that movie stars Sabu and Turhan Bey of Turkey were buried there and it was the most suitable area for Muslim burial. There was no separate burial site or a graveyard for Muslims in southern California.
The daughter of a friend, Mahmood Mayet, passed away and his family contacted the Forest Lawn mortuary. I was assigned the task of bringing some items to a room on the second floor of the mortuary building, where four ladies were engaged in preparing the girl's body for burial. I followed the directions given to me in the lobby and got on the elevator to go to the second floor. When the elevator door opened, I stepped out, went into a big hall and immediately went into a shock. Several dead bodies were lying on different tables in the big hall. My brain fogged and I saw nothing but darkness in front of me. I started breathing heavily, somehow managed to go to the other end of the hall, turned right and ended up in the room where some Muslim ladies were giving a burial bath to the baby. After making my delivery, I lowered my gaze, walked back to the elevator, and finally ended up in the lobby on the first floor. I was sweating and shaking.
Half an hour later, Salim Mayet, Mahmood Mayet’s younger brother, came in the lobby of the mortuary. I told him about my experience and he comforted me and told me that he had the same experience about two hours ago. I asked him about the ladies as to how they felt. He told me they were escorted to the second floor from the back side of the building.
Reading about Sridevi being underwater in the bathtub reminded me of my experience at the Forest Lawn mortuary. It was a very eerie feeling. I realized that some feelings come to the surface of your brain and haunt you for the rest of your life.
I found solace and peace in the poetic rendering of Dr Sir Muhammad Iqbal (He is famous for his poem “Saray Jahan say achcha Hindustan Hamara.”). One of his poems about death and an independent human being says: “O! God, this world or the heavens don’t belong to free and liberated human beings; here they have limitations on life and in the hereafter they have limitation on death.”
Here or there, Sridevi will live forever. May she rest in peace.
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