Meena Kumari’s connection with Bhera, district Sargodha. A few posts are shared. Comprehensive information about her, including her videos are given on Wikipedia. For information.
TALENT WILL BLOSSOM ONE DAY
As shared :
Rabindranath Tagore’s niece (his cousin’s daughter) left the family home as a young widow when she could not bear the restrictions of widowhood. Hemsundari was married off as a child and she became a widow soon after.
Because of her differences with her family, Hemsundari severed her ties with the Tagore family after she became a widow, which was a difficult decision to take at a time when women in India were in ‘purdah’. That was not all; Young Hemsundari embraced Christianity and married an Urdu writer and journalist, Pyare Lal Shankar Meeruti and they settled down in Lucknow.
Hemsundari worked as a nurse in Lucknow after her marriage. The couple had two daughters. One of her daughters, Prabhavati, had a good singing voice and decided to move to Bombay in search of a career in singing. Prabhavati was not very successful in her career, but she found her life partner in Master Ali Bux, in Bombay.
Master Ali Bux was a Sunni Muslim from Bhera in Punjab. He was a veteran of Parsi theatre, played the harmonium, taught music, wrote Urdu poetry and played small roles in films. His wife, Prabhavati, who was a Bengali Christian, was a stage singer and dancer, under the stage name of “Kamini”. After her marriage to Bux, she converted to Islam and took on the name ‘Iqbal Begum’
A second child was born to Iqbal Begum and Ali Bux, when they were going through a very difficult time financially.
After Ali Bux could not pay the gynaecologist who had delivered the baby, he thought it prudent to leave the child on the steps of an orphanage. However, on his wife’s insistence and his doubts about his action, he returned to the orphanage and found the child still in the cradle where he had left the baby. He picked the child up and brought the baby back home
The small child was named Mahjabeen Bano and was affectionately called Manju by her family and close friends
In Manju’s growing years, Ali Bux’s family went through a lot of financial problems. The once abandoned child helped the family to keep their head above water by dancing and doing bit roles in films, from the age of six
Baby Meena blossomed into one of India’s most cherished actresses and reigned on the silver screen as MEENA KUMARI
Note : For more information about Meena Kumari see Wikipedia—also video links on YouTube.
As shared: Meena Kumari in her very personal library at her Pali hill residence. Now look at the huge collection of books behind her & the one she’s holding in her hands is called “THE EGYPTIAN” by Mika Waltari. I tried to find out the names by analysing the pic (I have in high resolution), some of them are “Jungle Lore”, and “The First Year of Wars in Pictures” & some of them are related to the film industry, general knowledge etc. Her education was the result of private tuition & mainly her self interest, the knowledge she gained resulted from being called “A book worm”. She was deprived of school & education from an early age & she knew its importance. In an interview after her death, Her sister Khursheed told in an interview that a master used to teach Meena Kumari English & even during her last time, Meena Kumari always insisted she read & write, she used to say:- “Padha likha kar aapdi, acchi cheez hoti hai”. (I have already shared that interview). She had collected the rarest books worth lacs of rupees during that time & it’s mentioned in her biography that she used to read Alistair MacLean, Agatha Christie, Emily Bronte & Gulshan Nanda novels a lot.
Apart from this, there are so many photographs that l have seen which are autographed by her & she had beautiful handwriting in English too. There are many Filmfare interviews of her in English she had an excellent vocabulary. This is just a little clarification that l have written specially for people who were amazed or should I say can’t digest the fact that Meena Kumari knew English too. As an admin of this page, it’s my duty:)
Video on Mina Kumari by Headmaster Ali Hassan ( Retd).
