Introduction: Once the toast of high society, Maha and Nilofer now feel the chill
This the time of year Maha and Nilofer should be enjoying the most. One works with UNESCO, the other is a consultant on women and development issues and both had an active social fife. Suddenly, there's a chill in the air and it's not just the weather.
If it's tough being Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Pakistan High Commissioner to India, these days, it's tougher being his daughters. Even as they read reports of their father being baited at social dos, Maha (29) and Nilofer (30) are all dressed up with nowhere to go.
During their five years in Delhi, the sisters had integrated themselves well with city life. Often Maha, the more gregarious oft lie two, could be spotted at a beauty parlour in Vasant Vihar or sipping a Cafe Mocha all by herself at her favourite coffee bar.
Pre-12/3, they were a prize catch for Delhi's inveterate party-givers. Things have, however, changed and changed dramatically. One friend of the Qazis recalls a recent party, also attended by the Qazi family, where a senior journalist asked Qazi with what face he was attending the function.
A prominent Delhi artist and socialite said that, compared to last year, the sisters were rarely seen this season.
In this atmosphere, it's little wonder that New Year's Eve saw few invitations coming their way. It doesn't help, of course, that their movements are restricted post 12/13; they can't, for instance, go outside Delhi, so they have to skip parties in hip Gurgaon. So, sources say, the sisters spent New Year's Eve quietly. "I was at a friend's place we played scrabble and cards," says Nilofer. She tries to see the brighter side. "The common person on the street may hate me, but my friends are not affected by what's happening politically."
Amen to that, says close family friend Sarabjeet Anup Singh. "We had invited them to come with us to Agra to ring in the New Year but they couldn't. After returning I wanted to call them and wish them, but was advised against it."
Journalist Nalini Singh, who says she's a good friend of the Qazis and describes the sisters as "very amiable and friendly," refuses to believe that their isolation reflects the hypocrisy of Delhi society. It was at her party that her brother Deepak Shourie publicly confronted Qazi senior and accused him of 'gatecrashing'. Singh, while admitting that this did happen, maintains however that it was not a 'rebuke' to Qazi but an "outpouring" of emotion, "there are no personal hostilities involved."
"It's quite natural under the circumstances. I remember the Kargil war, when all kinds of social interaction had stopped with the Qazis. Even Vijay Nambiar must have been isolated like this in Islamabad. People just want to send a message across that enough is enough."
Argues hotelier Lalit Suri, "there
will be social hostility towards the Qazis. All the people who are committed
to India will certainly distance themselves from them. But I'm sure their
close friends will not abandon them."