A dinner with Rukhsana Sultana, with Vinod Mehta in company, that I regretted

My second meeting with Rukhsana Sultana happened when my editor friend Vinod Mehta of Debonair called me from Mumbai (then Bombay) and requested me to fix an interview with her. Vinod came to Delhi and forced me to go along with him for the interview

Picture Talk/By NK Sareen

Rukhsana Sultana was a close associate of Sanjay Gandhi. She is said to have helped him carry out his sterilization campaign in old Delhi.

I was sent to her on an earlier occasion by a prominent Hindi weekly of Delhi and had met her as a jewellery designer. She used to live in a small house adjacent to Jantar Mantar. Though I wasn’t impressed by her jewellery I took pictures of whatever she showed me as I was assigned the task by the publication. After I finished my work and was about to leave, she held my hand and said, ‘Please wait, I want to introduce you to my daughter who is a budding classical dancer. She called out loudly and a short, fat girl emerged from behind the curtains. That was Amrita Singh. She went on to become a major actress in Hindi films and was married to Saif Ali Khan.

My second meeting with Rukhsana Sultana happened when my editor friend Vinod Mehta of Debonair called me from Mumbai (then Bombay) and requested me to fix an interview with her. Vinod came to Delhi and forced me to go along with him for the interview for pictures. She charmed Vinod with her big-broad smile and after the interview was over, she invited us for dinner which Vinod readily accepted.

On Vinod Mehta’s insistence I accompanied him to the dinner.

We reached her residence that evening at the appointed time. She was waiting for us. She took us in her Ambassador car to a Muslim family’s house somewhere in old Delhi. I don’t remember the name or place. The roads and lanes we crossed to reach that house had no street lights. While I had absolutely no idea, Vinod told me later he was expecting a dinner in a hotel or at her own house.

We went to the first floor of a dark, dingy house where Rukhsana called a short, stout man with one arm by name. The man, short but big, very politely asked us to sit down around the dining table.

As we sat down, Rukhsana started calling the sons of the one-armed man standing near, but in front of us, who happened to be the owner of the house. The sons started appearing one by one as their names were called by her. In all, they were 11 or 12, I am not sure. What really shocked us was that after each one of the young men (the sons of the one-armed owner) arrived, Rukhsana started asking them how many murders had they committed. Was that her way of introducing us to those big, burly young ‘murderers’, or she had some other plan by calling us to their house for dinner, we were not sure.

While I was regretting having accompanied Vinod, the dinner started arriving. All the dishes were filled with bones of some animal. I can’t name what the other dishes were, as I had never had any of them, nor do I know their names. There was nothing in the dinner for a vegetarian like me. They offered to make some arrangement for me but I opted out albeit I told them not to bother and waited for them to finish the meal.

What was going through Vinod Mehta’s mind while eating his ‘dinner’ I have no clue.

As we got down, Rukhsana again held my hand – that was her style I guess – saying she didn’t know I was a vegetarian. She said she felt very sorry, apologised, and profusely thanked me to get Vinod Mehta to interview her. That was the last I saw her.

[In this column, ‘Picture Talk’, the veteran photo journalist NK Sareen, a former Photo Editor at Expanse International and a writer, shines light on some of the pictures he clicked of personalities he often gets nostalgic about. The views expressed here are the author’s own and The News Porter bears no responsibility]