• Top Story
  • Weekly
  • Latest
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Interview
  • Feature
  • Sports
  • News
  • J&K
  • World
  • Education
  • Health
  • Economy
  • Culture
  • Literature
  • Lifestyle
  • Books
What's Hot

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

January 8, 2025

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Trending
  • Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?
  • Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public
  • America’s Waning Global Position
  • Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir
  • Hundreds of Sheep Face Starvation as Forest Officials Bar Grazing
  • Photo Essay: Fire Fighting Service In Dal Lake
  • Pheran—How Kashmir’s Traditional Attire Evolved Through Centuries
  • Pheran—How Kashmir’s Traditional Attire Evolved Through Centuries
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
 Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed
  • Weekly

    Weekly Dec 25 – Dec 31, 2022

    December 25, 2022

    Weekly Dec 05 – 11 Dec,2022

    December 7, 2022

    Weekly Nov 28 – Dec 04, 2022

    November 30, 2022

    Weekly November 21-27

    November 22, 2022

    Weekly November 14-20

    November 16, 2022
  • News
    1. India
    2. South Aisa
    3. World
    Featured
    Recent

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024
  • Feature
    1. Interview
    2. Literature
    3. Editorial
    4. Opinion
    5. Top Story
    6. Books
    7. View All

    Interview: ‘Travel, Observing and Tasting is the Best Way to Learn’

    October 2, 2023

    AS Dulat’s Kashmir Stories

    February 4, 2023

    Interview: ‘People are Deeply Pained by Mirwaiz’s Absence from Jamia Masjid’

    November 16, 2022

    ‘Abrogation of Article 370 has Made Kashmir More Dangerous than 1990s’

    October 18, 2022

    The Poet of Love—Daagh Dehlvi’s Poetry has Native Idiom and Sufi Undercurrent

    May 30, 2023

    The Breadth and Sweep of Sahir Ludhianvi’s Works

    March 8, 2023

    Memories of Gulmarg

    January 28, 2023

    ‘If This Language Lives On, Rahi Also Lives On’

    January 18, 2023

    Kashmir Needs Collective Fight against Glaring Drug Abuse

    December 27, 2022

    Healthcare Emergency

    December 7, 2022

    Traffic Mess: Who is to Blame? 

    November 30, 2022

    Give the Artists the Space They Need

    November 23, 2022

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024

    Writer’s Block What!

    October 8, 2023

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024

    Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

    September 12, 2024

    Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

    September 12, 2024

    Book Review: The Divine Dialect of Flowers

    October 5, 2023

    The Collision That Birthed Religion

    March 18, 2023

    Book Review: What is the Meter of the Dictionary?

    March 2, 2023

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024

    Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

    September 12, 2024
  • J&K

    Hundreds of Sheep Face Starvation as Forest Officials Bar Grazing

    March 14, 2024

    Photo Essay: Fire Fighting Service In Dal Lake

    March 8, 2024

    Tatakooti—Challenges of Owning a Towering Peak

    October 5, 2023

    Interview: ‘Travel, Observing and Tasting is the Best Way to Learn’

    October 2, 2023

    What is Ailing the Apple Farming?

    September 16, 2023
  • Lifestyle

    Eating Together Binds Families

    November 22, 2022

    How Smartphones are Harming Children

    October 25, 2022

    Raising a Champion

    October 11, 2022

    The Reluctant ‘Urban Poor’

    August 28, 2022

    The Reluctant ‘Urban Poor’

    August 21, 2022
  • Economy

    Explained: What is a Credit Score and Why is it Important?

    December 27, 2022

    Rights of Special Bank Customers

    November 30, 2022

    How to be a Socially Responsible Investor

    November 23, 2022

    Stock Exchange Crimes

    November 16, 2022

    Avoid Debt Trap

    November 8, 2022
  • Culture
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

    Tatakooti—Challenges of Owning a Towering Peak

    October 5, 2023

    When Salim was in the Mood

    July 12, 2023

    Why Does Team India Fail Consistently?

    December 27, 2022

    Hail Ben Stokes and Co.

    December 7, 2022

    England Tour of Pakistan

    November 30, 2022
 Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed
Home»Lifestyle»The Reluctant ‘Urban Poor’
Lifestyle

The Reluctant ‘Urban Poor’

Kashmir NewslineBy Kashmir NewslineAugust 21, 2022No Comments7 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

What is it about our culture today that makes us unable to admit that we are who we are?

by Soni Razdan

An actor at the BEEB (slang for BBC) was chatting with me while I was on one of my walk-on-part episodes. “If you have gotten a place at Guildhall”, he said, “on no account must you give it up. Write to all the charities you can find to get a grant. Do anything, part time jobs, anything, but do not give up that place.”

A chap after my own heart! That was all the advice I ever needed. I found the names of some three hundred organizations that gave grants and so on to deserving candidates. After writing to about fifty and getting, not surprisingly, negative replies, I gave that up.   Why would anyone want to fund my selfish dream of being an actress anyway? After all I wasn’t exactly going to save any lives.

So, one step at a time. I worked as an auxiliary nurse in the local hospital during my holidays, because the pay was great! My job was to do things like empty bedpans and clean the toilets and the floors, a lot of floors! I did it all with a smile on my face, because each floor I cleaned took me closer to my drama school. I made friends with the patients in the geriatric ward where I was stationed. I remember one woman lying there. She was beautiful. White with black hair, and always had her makeup done. I still remember the colour of her lipstick – a lovely deep pink. She wasn’t very old either I would imagine. Perhaps not even fifty. But she couldn’t move much because she was suffering from muscular sclerosis. She would lie there with an expression on her face that I, to this day, cannot forget. It was both accepting of her fate and saddened by it at the same time.

One day I went to work and she wasn’t there. That made me cry. She had passed away the previous night.

Well, I managed to make enough money for my first term fees – probably 300 pounds. I can’t remember too clearly now.

I also managed to secure a room at the Indian Students Hostel on Guilford Street near Russell Square. But I had no funds to pay for that – twelve pounds a week, including dinner and breakfast. Even for those days, that was a cheap deal. Or, for my food and transport and daily expenses. What to do now?

A very good friend of mine offered to drive down with me to London and help me look for a weekend job as an auxiliary nurse so that would then pay for my week’s rent and food. We did that then. We slept in his car while we did so.

I remember it was a weekend. We drove around from hospital to hospital. No one wanted an auxiliary nurse for the weekend. Dispirited and disheartened, and completely at a loss for what to do, we were parked outside a hospital in Knightsbridge or somewhere in that area. It was Sunday evening and the streets were empty and depressing as they usually are on a Sunday evening in London. We were debating whether or not to bother going in. Having nothing to lose, we decided that this would be the last one we tried. And one would have to find some other kind of job. That’s all!

Well… After meeting with the head matron, she hired me on the spot, starting next Saturday. And voila! Just like that I was in business again.

Let me tell you, the Indian Students Hostel was no picnic. I entered the bowls of the earth if that was possible. A crumbling edifice crawling with rats the size of cats. I kid you not! The interior was shabby and dismal. The furniture belonged to another era and should have been burned for firewood. But it was a haven for many Indian Students in those days including myself. And we all became such good friends that thankfully we are all still in touch today. One of the inmates was Kaushik Basu, who is the current Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank among other things. Alka, his wife, was also living there whilst studying. And many more such eminent personalities that managed to survive the hostel.

We had many a memorable evening watching TV together. All birthdays were celebrated with us cooking our fave ghar ka khana dishes in a kitchen that was the size of a broom cupboard and looked even worse. But we had the most amazing fun and were bonded in a home away from home. The only part I could not handle really was the rats that scraped and gnawed away through my walls at night, keeping me awake. My skin would crawl and I would lie awake listening to the sounds of them dancing around in my room. And the next day I would be at the local hardware shop buying putty to block up the holes that they came through. It was an endless losing battle, I have to say.

So I started at my drama school, the hostel and the hospital all at the same time.

Drama school was terribly exciting, full of young hopefuls like me who had big dreams and stars in their eyes. It was also full of incredible talent, and that was what made it really special. The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an institution by itself and in those days was in a lovely little lane off the embankment in the Blackfriars area, in a huge old stone building whose very walls made one think of a London long gone, but yet present in so many of the wonderful buildings that they have preserved so well. I couldn’t say the same for my hostel unfortunately. That came to its rightful end too, and I escaped within an inch of my life, but more about that later!

The first weekend of my hospital duty arrived. I had just finished serving the patients their afternoon tea, when my eyes fell upon the Daily Mail. In it was a photograph of the lovely Olivia Hussey, the star of a recently made film Romeo and Juliet, directed by the maverick Franco Zeffirelli. The small piece stated that she was slated to play Mary in Franco’s production of Jesus of Nazareth, which was going to be shooting soon. Hmm, lucky girl, I thought, and carried on dutifully with my teacups and biscuit operations.

It was the following Wednesday, though I do not remember the date. Nor the year even. It was my third day at Guildhall. We students had assembled in the theatre in the school for some announcements or some prize giving, the details now have been erased from memory. When all that was over, suddenly I froze because the student on the stage was making an announcement.

“Will first year student Soni Razdan please go to the office immediately,” he boomed. “There awaits some news that might make her a star of stage and screen.” Or something to that effect!

I nearly fell off my chair. What on earth was going on? Anyway, I rushed to the office with nervous anticipation. They were waiting for me.

They told me that Franco Zeffirelli wanted to see me. He was at such and such address, and I was to go there immediately. And they were even happy to let me go out of the school, a rule that was absolutely not to be broken. My God! How did Zefferelli even know I existed? And why on earth did he want to see me of all people? (to be continued)

Born to Kashmiri Pandit father and British-German mother, Soni Razdan is an actor who has worked in notable films like Saransh, Raazi, No Fathers in Kashmir, Daddy and Page 3.

 

 

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Kashmir Newsline
  • Website

Related Posts

Eating Together Binds Families

November 22, 2022

How Smartphones are Harming Children

October 25, 2022

Raising a Champion

October 11, 2022

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

Team India’s Next Big Thing

July 6, 202227,463 Views

Why This Alpine Lake Trek Stands Out

July 6, 202225,423 Views

India’s Majoritarian Politics and the Role of Media

July 6, 202224,120 Views

Fragile Media Economies and Lack of Opportunities in Kashmir

July 6, 202223,225 Views
Don't Miss
Top Story

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

By Kashmir NewslineJanuary 8, 20250

BRI’s transformative potential extends beyond economic development. It has the power to reshape global trade…

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024

Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

September 12, 2024
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from SmartMag about art & design.

Based out of Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) and brought out in print as a weekly with online presence as well, Kashmir Newsline is solely committed to ethical, fearless journalism. We at Kashmir Newsline cover politics, geopolitics, international relations, social issues, health, sports and almost everything else as objectively as humanly possible. Kashmir Newsline carries detailed reports and in-depth analysis on multiple developments happening in Kashmir and around the world.

Facebook X (Twitter)
Our Picks

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

January 8, 2025

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024
Most Popular

Team India’s Next Big Thing

July 6, 202227,463 Views

Why This Alpine Lake Trek Stands Out

July 6, 202225,423 Views

India’s Majoritarian Politics and the Role of Media

July 6, 202224,120 Views
Facebook X (Twitter)
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Politics
  • J&K
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us
© 2025 Kashmir Newsline. Designed by NexG IT Solutions.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Go to mobile version