Table Of Content

1 AM NOT AN ISLAND BY THE SAMF AUTHOR Ek Ladki Zaafran ke Phool Main Kaun Hoon? Saat Hindustani Ingilab Outside India Return of the Red Rose That Woman I AM NOT AN ISLAND An Experiment in Autobiography KHWAJA AHMAD ABBAS VIKAS PUBLISHING HOUSE PVT LTD New Delhi Bombay Baagalore Calcutta Kanpue VIKAS PUBLISHING HOUSE PVT LTD 5 Ansari Road, New Delhi 110002 ‘Savoy Chambers, 5 Wallace Strest, Bombay 400001 40 First Main Road, Gandhi Nagar, Bangalore 560009 ‘80 Canning Road, Kanpur 208004 8/1-8 Chowringhee Laac, Caleutta 700016 Puorocraras: F, Ropinson ISBN 0 7069 0477 X 1V02A1601 Rs 45 Printed at Dhawan rrinung worn, con samyeputl, ‘New Delhi 110064 No man is an island, entire of tself Every man is a piece of the continent... Every man’s death diminishes me Because Lam involved in Menkiad, And, therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee Joan Donne Preface ‘This book was begun on my 60th birthday. By the time it was finished, more than two years had passed. There was every chance that such a book could not be written—or at least, not completed. Tt was begun at the insistence ofa friend, Whem he suggested to me to write my autobiography I ssid who would be interested ym the autobiography of a jack-of-all-trades like me? He said that is just the point—~many more people would be interested to read about politics, literature and films. So the work was begun. But when the book was half-finished, Twas nearly finished. First there was something wrong with my eyes which was diagnosed by ophthalmologists as cataract ‘of bath eyes. Then there was the cerebral stroke which com- pletely paralyzed me though it was only for half a night—it ‘could bave been fatal but for Dr Singhal the neurologist, and Dr Gandotra, my family physician. Dr Singhal tested_my reflexes in his own Hombay Hospital, and later in the Tata ‘Memorial Hospital J was subjected to atomic X-rays. Still Dr Singhal was not satisfied and he said he would be sure of my future heatth if | had the E.M.I. test which was possible only ia America. And so through the courtesy and generosity of the Government of Maharashtra, the B.P.C.C. (thanks to my old friend Rajni Patel) and the Kashmir Government (Shaikh Abdullah), I journeyed all the way to New York and submitted myself to the E.M.I. test at Montefiore Hospital and an Angiogramme test (which is a kind of operation) at Denbury Hospital, and then was declared immune from any further stroke. All this time, I could not read or write—and still ‘sannot—except for an hour or two after putting in an eye lotion. Mercifully enough, T cond see pictures and plays. ‘Much of the later part of the book had to be dictated while lying in bed, and the checking of facts and dates and quotations