By Dr. Sohail Ansari
Akshay Kumar starred the Bollywood movie ‘Rustom’. Many of you might have seen the movie. The film was actually based on the real life story of Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, an Indian Navy officer, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his wife’s paramour in 1959. This case shook India.
So, how is it relevant to this page? Here it is how.
The victim’s sister was Mamie Ahuja. She had been impressed by the young Sindhi lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, and gave him a ‘watching brief’: to safeguard the reputation of her slain brother, Prem.
They were both originally from Karachi before immigrating to India.
Ram Jethmalani rose the ladder and served as India’s Union minister of law and justice, as chairman of the Indian Bar Council, and as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
The following news about Mamie Ahuja is from 1937.
FILM ACTRESS AT THE POLLS
Miss Mamie Ahuja, an Indian film actress who received her training for acting in England is to be a candidate for election to the Sind Assembly, according to native newspapers in Karachi.
Other candidates for the same seat include Sind’s first woman lawyer and a Karachi woman doctor; the stage, the law, and medicine will be engaged in the contest. Another proof that things move even in ‘the unchanging East.’
Miss Ahuja is the daughter of a Karachi merchant of ancient family. One of her ancestors was Governor of Shikarpur before the British conquest of Sind. She has appeared In several pictures produced by the Eastern Arts Company.
Good Old Karachi 