A marriage by chance

Dilip Kumar was the most unlikely stimulus to the match between Lord Meghnad Desai and Kishwar Ahluwalia, writes Pavan Varma.

Of course, marriages are made in heaven (if they work), and in the darkest recesses of hell (if they don't), or in Paris if your name is Lakshmi Mittal, but the one I attended recently at the Marleybone Town Hall seems to have been the doing - quite unwittingly - of Dilip Kumar.

The great thespian has of late been the subject of many books. One of these was penned by none less than Lord Meghnad Desai, the world renowned economist and member of the British House of Lords. In January this year Meghnad journeyed to Delhi to discuss the book with his publishers, Roli Books. The editor assigned to him was the attractive 47-year-old Kishwar Ahluwahlia.

Marriage was the last thing on their minds when Meghnad and Kishwar met, but then cupid struck most unexpectedly. Meghnad was afflicted first, and if Kishwar was not smitten in equal measure to begin with, who can blame her? Meghnad was an improbable suitor. He was 63, already married, and with grown up children. She had never met him before. Her interest was in literature and media; she knew little about economics. He was charming no doubt, but in an avuncular sort of way. Kishwar had no reason to be anything but the professional editor with him.

But she had not bargained for Meghnad's persistence, or his charm. The amiably rotund Lord, with his shock of white hair in the style of Sai Baba, pursued her with missionary zeal, not as much in person as over hours on the phone. Finally, after a long champagne session, she succumbed.

As Meghnad and Kishwar waited for the Registrar to begin proceedings in the Blue Room, they must have been thinking how much their life has changed thanks to Dilip Kumar. Seven months ago they did not know each other. Although Kishwar - whom I have known for many years - was unhappy with her marriage, she could hardly have dreamt that she was on the brink of matrimony with a stranger sixteen years her senior who would spirit her away to a country where she had never lived before. And while Meghnad's divorce with his first wife was in the pipeline, he could never have believed that such a momentous decision was to follow his book on the original Devdas.

I do not know of Lord Desai's economics sensibilities, which I believe are prodigious, but I do know of his love of Bollywood, especially old films. At one party in Delhi, after a celeberatory round of drinks to felicitate the couple, Meghnad and journalist Dilip Padgaonkar and I spontaneously began to sing an old Hindi film song. A former President of India, who had come to know Meghnad well at the London School of Economics, was rather bemused at this impromptu chorus, and left somewhat hurriedly. Many more songs followed!

Meghnad and Kishwar certainly appear to be very much in love. A mixed group of people - some family, some friends, a couple of peers, Kishwar's daughter and Meghnad's children - watched solemnly as the two completed the official ceremony. After the Registrar left, graciously allowing the assembly to hang on for a few moments more, Meghnad pulled out a small dibiya from his pocket and put sindoor in Kishwar's hair. It was a touching moment.

The wedding was followed by a boozy lunch at the couple's new home off Denmark Hill Road. They are now off to Australia for a couple of weeks where Meghnad is to be a Visiting Professor at the Melbourne University. Meanwhile a new joke is doing the round at Roli books. After Kishwar resigned to marry economist Meghnad, another woman senior editor left too. Someone called Pramod Kapur, the affable publisher of Roli, was left to ask: "Has she left to marry Amartya Sen?!"

(A Stephenian, Pavan Kumar Varma is a senior Indian diplomat and presently Minister of Culture and Director of the Nehru Centre in London. Author of several widely acclaimed books likeGhalib: the Man, the Times and the recently released Being Indian, he will be writing the column Hyde Park Corner, exclusively for HindustanTimes.com)