Yasmin (Tirmizi) Ismail was a wonder women. I knew her since early very early 60s as her dad Colonel Tirmizi and my Khalu Colonel Najmuddin Mirza were colleagues posted in Kharian where I first met Yasmin, her sisters Perveen and Feroza. She was a close friend to my cousins. Times changed and we got busy that I lived in Karachi till one day of 1971 I saw Yasmin after 1962 at Goethe Institute during a stage play. She was thrilled to meet me and invited me to join her group CTP - Contemporary Theatre Productions she was heading with very few members like; Shireen Mazari, Rana Haider (now Fancy), Bubu, Rizwan, Aslam, Jaffery, Saleem Askari of Dhaka and her husband to be...later, Tariq Ismail. I joined the group and for the next five years we did several stage plays under Yasmin, Rahila Masood and Aslams direction at the selected auditoriums like Adamjee College, Fleet Club, PACC, The American Centre at the American Consulate of which Harold Pinters Birthday Party was a blockbuster next to Arsenic and the old lace. Yasmin herself acted in almost all. She was amazing as RAINA in GBSs Arms and the men with Shaheryar Azhar of CitiBank as Sergius and a Britisher working in Karachi then in 1973, as CAPT. BLUNTSCHELLI. I played a Serb Soldier Incharge. It was in 1972 that at the cast party of BIRTHDAY PARTY held at the residence of Mr. Gassman of Goethe Institute (who was married to my school/class fellow Shahla Saljuqis sister) I vowed to Yasmin to take her as my sister and she gladly agreed that till her last breath..she took me as her brother Sunny who lived in Canada. Yasmin was an amazing personality. Such a versatile and complete artiste. Her epic performance in Hasinas TANHAIYAAN will have its own focus in the serial..always. Our group met almost every third day but essentially on Saturdays that we use to paint Karachi red...visiting every disco and eat outs then. I did three PTV plays with Yasmin from Karachi of which one was directed by my buddy.... Late Hasnat Ahmed the younger brother of Shamim Hilaly. On that dreadful day when I was carrying the coffin box of Yasmin from her DHA-1 residence ...I was thinking about the same house where for seven days we had hours and hours of celebrations when Yasmin got married to Tariq and what a wedding it was. Now whenever I see Amal and Sila... Yasmins children...grown up now..... I think of Yasmin whos personality was none less then the awesome aroma or smell of jasmine itself. RIP Yasmin.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 10:17:39 +0000
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