Monday, June 20, 2011

Captain Abbas Ali Khan

Those who have grown up on liberal diet of Indian Freedom Movement know about Colonel Shanawaz Khan and Dhillon and Captain Lakshmi Sehgal and Captain Abbas Ali Khan. These were the Officers of Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. Ask any Bengali and he'll tell you the real history-that freedom came to Indian because of Bose-not the Mahatma. So what if it was posthumous?

We Aligs are a bit different. A Super Refined (like super refined edible oil) Species of Homo Sapiens and Ashraf-ul-Makhlooqat combined. We do harbour no such consideration for our elders. Here is a story told by Mian. Captain Abbas Ali Khan used to visit the Public Relations Office. It had few old acquaints for him there. His son, journalist Qurban Ali, is also a familiar figure for PR Office. New people know new people and old people know old people. So once a new person from PR Office introduced Captain Sahab to another new person, "This is Captain Abbas Ali Khan father of Qurban Ali". Captain Sahab was not amused. He was displeased. (Just for sake of completeness daughter of (late) Captain Lakshmi Sehgal is Subhasini Ali. Ali because she was once married to Muzaffar Ali. She is very gracious to keep contributing to Alig discussion groups.)