Dev Anand biography

 

A1.2.   Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:

Dharam Dev Pishorimal Anand (26 September 1923 – 3 December 2011), better known as Dev Anand, was an Indian film actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in Hindi cinema. Part of the Anand family, he co-founded Navketan Films in 1949 with his elder brother Chetan Anand.

The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002 for his contribution to Indian cinema. His career spanned more than 65 years with acting in 114 Hindi films of which 104 have him play the main solo lead hero and he did 2 English films.    Dev Anand’s autobiography “Romancing with life” appears to be a very honest portrayal of the man called Dev Anand. This article is composed on the basis of revelations recorded in his life story. Being a very shy boy Dev’s father put him up in a girl’s school in Gurdaspur. It is obvious that Dev had a very captivating face.

As a child Dev was fond of playing with marbles on the street outside his house. He was an excellent marksman from any distance. He was always sure of hitting every marble that he aimed for. Due to his marksmanship, he had won several marbles and stored those in a big jar, which was his proud possession. His father hated him for playing all day with marbles. Dev was afraid of his father. One day his father admonished him for playing with the marbles all the time. He said that this was not the way to attain stature in life. But he loved his mother very much.

 

While Dev was still in Gurdaspur, his mother developed Tuberculosis, a fatal disease during those days. The rare medicines necessary for her treatment were unavailable in Gurdaspur. Dev and friend Bhagoo used to go to Amritsar, more than thirty miles away from Gurdaspur, by bus to bring medicines for the treatment of his mother. Dev was fond of a special “Lassi” made from full fat milk, which used to have “Pedas” crushed into it.

One sultry summer day Dev was sweating outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar. A Sikh gentleman was selling “Almond Sherbat”.  Dev put his hand forward to grab the tumbler of “Sherbat”. The Sikh “Sherbatwala” saw the unique blessings of sun on Dev’s forehead. He quickly said that some day you will be a big shot in life. Dev narrated this to his mother, who hugged him and told his father to give him the finest education and other facilities so that her son gets what he aspires for. His mother soon became too weak to walk even and was moved to a sanitarium, where she died.

 

Dev was enrolled in Government College Lahore for his graduation, which he did with honors in English. But soon he discovered that his father had fallen on bad days. Dev wanted to go to England for higher education, so that he could get an elite government job on return to India, but his father admitted that he could not afford this. His father gave him the option to do his master’s degree from Lahore Government College and then serve as a clerk in a bank, which Dev declined.