It was 26 years ago that they met — in Hyderabad, and the spirited couple continues to remain young at heart if the glint in their eyes when asked to relive those moments is anything to go by. They met on the cricket field, and that’s where Saad — nephew of celebrated yesteryear batsman Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi — was bowled over. “I have
always known that she existed for me,” shrugs Saad Bin Jung, now a Bangalore-based wildlife conservationist. “I actually laid eyes on her in 1983. Three years later we got married.”
While Sangeeta, a Sindhi,
exuded charm, his humour kept things going. The rugged, outspoken, outdoors man knew this was the one he wanted. A whirlwind of activities followed — in somewhat filmi style. “We would bump into each other at parties. I asked her out for a date, with a bougainvillea flower picked from the Secunderabad Club gardens. I couldn’t afford anything else then,” he trails off.
Hyderabad may have been conservative in the 1980s, but it seemed a perfect playground for their courtship. Recalls Sangeeta: “Once, I was returning home from Mumbai. He wore a silk shirt, rode a tricycle rickshaw, sang Kishore Kumar songs and whisked me away from the airport.” To impress her, Saad claimed to write Urdu poetry about her. They were actually Ghalib’s couplets!
But when one fine morning Saad came to Sangeeta’s home unannounced, it wasn’t poetry that was in the air. “My parents didn’t know I was seeing him,” she recalls. “I had fever and Saad came to my house dressed like a girl. Draped in his mother’s salwar kameez and wearing a wig, he came in an auto with my best friend Sherry. He walked past the security, went past my father, brothers and headed to my sickbed. None recognised him, but I got so nervous…my temperature just shot up to 105 degrees.”
Eventually Saad won over Sangeeta’s parents, the couple married, and shifted base to Bangalore. Today, their home in one of the city’s posh suburbs is a happy amalgam of Hindu and Muslim cultures. Their son Shaaz and daughter Zoha have grown up imbibing the essence of both sides.
Saad’s love for the outdoors and animals came naturally. The pursuit soon shaped into ecotourism — Bush Betta Resort in Bandipur — teeming with wildlife, flora and fauna. That’s not all. His wildlife encounters are documented in a book titled Wild Tales from the Wild.
His pet endeavour keeps him busy as he spends several days in a month entertaining guests in the Bandipur forests. Earning a livelihood from eco tourism was not easy. “The most challenging thing was to leave the family umbrella — that security blanket behind, to make a living on my own,” notes Saad.
Now with the children studying in Holland, they are rediscovering their relationship. A second innings, shall we say?
— kavita@epmltd.com