Everyone has a god on earth they worship. I worshipped my father. I worshipped the ground he walked on. Whatever I am today and whatever I will be or achieve in the future, I owe it all to his blind faith in my capabilities. He always said, "I want you to be the kind of person the world will look up to and want to emulate."
My father was Chief Justice Nasirullah Beg. He kindled in me a love for poetry. If I wrote poems, it was his love for Shakespeare and Keats that goaded me on. While he shaved before going to court, I sat behind him on the stool in his dressing room and recited last night's poetry. I wrote for the sparkle in his eyes or his comments "That's good!" or "Could be better!" It was he who imbued in me his love for English literature. One of my most precious memories is of the time when my family and I were the guests of Pandit Nehru at Teen Murti House. I was only ten. Panditji asked me to recite something and I recited 52 verses from The Life and Death of Abraham Lincoln. I still remember Pandit Nehru's remark. He said to my father, "You have a genius in the family. Educate her. Do not get her married early!" I was filled with pride and happiness, but I know that I owed it to my father, who inculcated in me this love for poetry and belief in myself. My father's great pain in life was that I got engaged at 14 and married at 15. He swore to himself that he would help me finish my education after I got married.
My father came from a family of legal luminaries. His father, Mirza Samiullah Beg, was the Chief Justice of Hyderabad and the Governor of Nagpur during the pre-Independence days. He sent both his sons — my father Nasirullah Beg and my uncle Hamidullah Beg — to Oxford to study law and become Barristers. They both rose to the heights of the legal profession in India. My grandfather was very patriotic and was involved in the freedom movement. Pandit Motilal Nehru was a personal friend and stayed at my grandfather's house whenever he visited Hyderabad. This was the beginning of a close friendship between the two families.
Every day, in front of his mirror, he had an open diary in which he wrote a new word — he told me the meaning and made me memorise it, while I sat starry-eyed in front of him. Every day, I wrote a poem or a short story to please him, while he shaved. For me, he was my idol, my mentor, my teacher, my best friend. One of my father's principles was his utmost punctuality. When his car left for court, it was 9 am. When he came back from court it would be exactly 4 pm. You could set your clock by his timing. He was very British in his habits, style of dress and respect for time. If he had an appointment at 6 o'clock, he would be there at 5 minutes to six.
We lived in Lucknow, where my father was posted and later moved to Allahabad, when he became Chief Justice of the High Court in Uttar Pradesh. In fact, it was during his tenure that the Allahabad High Court held its centenary celebration, which was attended by the then President of India, Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the Governor and leading Chief Justices. My father addressed this august gathering and his speech was greatly appreciated. Later, my father became the Chairman of the Minorities Commission.
My father guided me and became my real inspiration to take up a career. When I started my business, he taught me to have faith in my own abilities. He said, "There is no such thing as destiny, you can make your own destiny, you can be, what you will yourself to be." I decided to open a herbal clinic in my own home in a small way. It was my father from whom I borrowed Rs 35,000 and started my first herbal clinic in the verandah of my home. Behind the success of one herbal clinic to the expansion into a worldwide chain lies not only my relentless determination and hard work, but also my father's faith that I would succeed.
My father's views on religion were most secular and encompassed all religions. He would tell us, "I don't believe in religion per se. All religions are good. There is only one God. All of us are pilgrims, moving towards one spiritual power and that is God. By which name you call Him does not matter. You must believe in the goodness of every religion. All of us on earth worship one spiritual power in different names and languages, but we are all one."
I remember my sister and I were staying in the school hostel for some time. The mother superior called my father and told him, "All the children go to Church, but your girls are sleeping. Can you please send a Maulana to teach them Islam?" My father smiled and said, "Since my children know no religion, can you please teach them yours?" I will never forget my father's words. Till today, these lines have governed my thoughts, my ideas, beliefs and heart... that the whole world worships one God in different names... methods of religions may be different, but in actual fact, all humanity is one.
His thinking and opinions were a great influence on me. It was as if he had personally groomed me. Once I went shopping and I asked him, "Can I buy a pair of earrings?" They cost 50 paise (8 annas in those days). He asked "Is it necessary?" I said "No." So he said "Then it is a waste — Don't buy it." When I walked with him, if I saw a beggar and went past him, he would say "God was testing you. You failed." He quoted Stephen Grellet: "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." He told me, "God gave you one chance and you let it go. You must stop and do the good you can." I still follow that habit.
I went to 5 countries in 8 years — London, Paris, Germany, Denmark, the US and Copenhagen and qualified — with he goading me on — to be eligible to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest qualified cosmetician at my age because I started at 15. When I finally reached where he had dreamed of for me — with the world at my feet with a string of Diplomas, he sat down with me and said, "I am very proud of you Shahnaz," and I said, "I am doing so well — I could never dream of being where I am today." I had studied in leading beauty institutions in London, Paris, New York and Germany. He told me, "I can see you have the world at your feet — you have qualified from leading schools. You are swamped with success, awards, money and adulation. This kind of success is dazzling."
He told me to bring all my Diplomas. I got all of them and spread them on the dining table where he sat. I hugged him excitedly and said, "Daddy, are you proud of me now? Are you happy? Are there any more diplomas you want me to get? My success has passed my wildest dreams!" He said, "I am very happy, but I am worried." I exclaimed, "Why Daddy, why?" He smiled and said, "You have done so much for this world, where you have a temporary existence. In the permanent world, for your life after death, you have done nothing. You are doing great work for this world, but what are you doing for the next world?" I was shocked and stunned. I laughed and said, "Daddy, I am so young. I have the world at my feet. I have lots of time. I will start later — I am too busy now!"
He quietly smiled and gave me an example by saying that you can have a torch that gives perfect light. But the light can fail. The battery may run out, or there may be some mechanical failure. So, one should always be ready for such an eventuality. You have so much goodwill in the financial world. You must also build up spiritual goodwill. Shahnaz, the only certainty in life is Death. Don't wait, start now."
I did and have never looked back ever since. That is how I started Shamute, my free training institute for the speech and hearing impaired in 1984. He asked his friend, the then President of India, Giani Zail Singh ji, to inaugurate it. Later, in 2008, I started Shasight for the visually impaired. Thanks to my father's blessings, my philanthropic work has remained the nerve centre of my entrepreneurial success. I have always felt that those who cannot pay are actually paying, because they pray for me and prayer is one commodity that cannot be bought. It is an emotion that comes straight from the heart. It buffers you against life's unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances. Above all, it gives you spiritual strength and resilience to face life. I wanted to translate my spiritual values into reality by providing an opportunity for financial independence and a purpose for living to the physically challenged. When I hand out diplomas to our Shamute and Shasight students, the happiness in their eyes, I owe to my father. It means more than any achievement in material terms. I feel grateful that I have had this opportunity to pay back in a small way what I have received in plenty. After the opening of Shamute, I remember my father saying to me, "I think you are now on the right track — for your journey through life and after life!"
My father gave me some valuable teachings through his own life which really stood me in good stead. I will never forget an incident when my grandmother passed away. My father was very attached to her and he did not shed a single tear. When I asked him why he was so silent and holding back his emotions, he said, "Who am I to challenge the Will of God?" This left a very powerful impression on me. Whatever is beyond our control is the Will of the God. We have no right to question or challenge it. Just realising this truth makes me feel very humble. Due to the spiritual values my father gave us, I have always felt the presence of a Higher Power in my inner strength. I realised this even more when I lost my only son. I have faced grief and loss before, but the depth of this loss is impossible to fathom or measure. It is never easy to talk about grief, or to convey exactly what is going through the mind and the heart. One is left to deal with it in one's own way. But I surrendered totally to God's Will, as my father had taught me. It helped me to accept loss. It gave me inner strength by which I emerged stronger from tragedy and adversity. My father always said, "Adversity does not shake my faith in God. I never question it. The trials and tribulations of life should not shake our faith, but make it stronger."
There is no doubt that my father has been the greatest influence in my life, instilling in me the qualities and values that are indispensable. In fact, we need them to face the tempests in our life. He also had a lot of time for his children and was always interested to know about our activities and interests. Indeed, a father's relationship with his daughter is always very special. In his eyes, the daughter is always a "princess," while the father is often a role model and gives a real sense of security to his children, whether daughters or sons. In the context of life today, I would say that fathers become very busy and involved with their careers, especially when the children are older. So, it is extremely important to make the effort to spend quality time with your children and become their best friend. In life, it is very important for children to have someone they trust implicitly, the way I trusted my father.
I was always inspired by his saying, "Do not believe in Destiny. There is no such thing as Destiny. You will be what you will yourself to be!" I think the true value of education lies in the ability to deal with life with inner strength. In this respect, I would say that my father was my best teacher. He imbued in me the right combination of traditional values and progressive ideas and taught me to love and respect the rich heritage of India. It was his teachings that helped me to emerge from a sheltered life and venture into a totally different world of entrepreneurship with self-confidence, relentless determination, courage and inner strength. I have lived by what he taught me and even today, I feel that he is there with me in spirit... my friend, philosopher and guide... my father.
