Mama Shahnaz

Beauty may be skin-deep, but it can certainly get under your skin. If it is natural instinct to look at oneself, it is sheer craving to stare at other people, especially the rich and famous. It is even better when someone holds up a mirror, as Nelofar Currimbhoy does to her mother, Shahnaz Husain.

Flame: The Story of my Mother Shahnaz Husain paints a vivid picture of the Empress of the Beauty World, or Queen of Ayurveda, as the beauty-aid pioneer has been variously called.

Use of the word ‘flame’, one would presume, is for Shahnaz’s tresses, but the author says her mother was “born a flame; a flame so bright that not all of life’s storms could douse a single spark …” Certainly, young Shahnaz was fired up to accomplish something, despite her wealthy, influential background. And she did, by pioneering Ayurvedic beauty treatments, and creating the Shahnaz Husain brand that became a legend in the world of cosmetology. Shahnaz Herbals, which started off as a beauty clinic in the veranda of her Delhi home, with the help of her husband and daughter, is now a global company employing 1,800 people, and selling 250 products in 60 countries.

The author brings out Shahnaz’s persona intimately, through her childhood, adolescence and married life. She highlights the indefatigable Shahnaz, who achieved what she set out to, overcoming several odds and personal tragedies, including the death of a father she adored, the passing of her soulmate Nasir Husain, and the mysterious death of her son. Yet, devoting nearly half the book to setting the stage, and the obvious tone of awe in the writing, make the account a trifle treacly.

Post the half-way point, the ‘Business Memoir’ (as publisher Hachette calls the book’s genre) picks up speed, and thereafter, it is a rush to the finish – simply because of the events packed in. The variety of anecdotes and experiences narrated only whet one’s appetite. Surely there would have been many, many more, considering the pioneer Shahnaz Husain was, and the times she started and built her empire. One wishes Nelofar had borrowed more space from the first half for what she herself calls the “high impact, low-probability event” of Shahnaz’s arrival on the “sedate Delhi scene” and thereafter.

The users of Shanaz’s products would be thrilled to know that the idea for the moisturiser, which became a hit, came from Indira Gandhi, who was a cherished client. The encounter with the temperamental M.F. Hussain, who insisted on painting – here and now – Shahnaz, who was headed for a business appointment with Selfridges, and the long lunches with writer Barbara Cartland, liven up the narrative. So how did she do it? Shahnaz’s mantra was: “You are what you will yourself to be.” She “never accepted any act of destiny and remained in constant conflict with it, fighting back to change her life around and rewriting the script of her life as it unfolded.” But on a practical level,success is perhaps a result of her unremitting attention to quality, and to test every product personally, before putting them on the shelves. For her, each satisfied customer was worth a million advertisements, especially “one… liberated from a skin or hair problem…” This gave her the confidence to say, when MNCs came rushing in as the economy opened up, “I don’t have to face them. They will have to face me.”

Another factor is attention and care for her people. Shahnaz took personal interest in those who worked for her. Winding down her evening Durbar at a Delhi mall, where factory heads and others meet her, Shahnaz, the compulsive shopper, picks things for herself, as well as for the wives and children of her executives. She has also helped many womae earn a livelihood by encouraging them to take franchises for the spa and beauty products. Success may breed success, but caring generates long-lasting goodwill.

Many successful people have some unfulfilled desires. For Shahnaz it was education, as she had to quit school at 16 when she got married. Her father would have been proud to see her go to the Harvard as a student of Executive Education, and a key speaker too.

Success goes beyond the money made or the power wielded. The Padmashree she won for her contribution to Ayurveda pitched Shahnaz beyond the line of narrow commercial success to a national achiever.

Chronicling the life of person like Shahnaz may not have been an easy task for anyone other than her daughter. Nelofar has done a neat job of holding the lens on her mother, detailing the Shahnaz saga as it unfolded.

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