The Muslims are not a cause…my country is my cause. I am a human being first. My mother was Roman Catholic, my father is Muslim, I am married to a Sikh and I believe in Vedanta..

Be it a political scuffle with a controversial chief minister or battling the scourge of AIDS into the country, Nafisa Ali , former Miss India, National swimming champ and sporadic film star, is making the headlines once again, with her crusades for rehabilitating cyclone victims, opening patient facilities for HIV positive victims and masterminding child welfare schemes. Regular page three appearances apart, the lady means business, says RENUKA CHATTERJEE.   

Nafisa Ali is setting the screen on fire again but it isn’t Shashi Kapoor who is igniting her passions. It’s Gujarat’s chief minister, Narendra Modi and they’re passions of a very different kind.

Strange bedfellows? But this is Ali in a different role altogether, one that’s a far cry from the sensuous child-woman of Junoon . A recent letter she wrote to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, protesting against the Gujarat riots, is signed, ‘Nafisa Ali, Social Activist’.

No screen role, this. The lady means business. Sitting in her airy but spartan office (no air-conditioning, no plush sofas) at Action India, the trust for ‘citizen-motivated’ social service that she set up in 1997, she insists that you watch a video of her documentary on Gujarat, Where Did We Go Wrong? As scene after scene of anguish and destruction, of families (Hindu and Muslim alike) and homes torn asunder by the riots, fill the small screen, Ali holds forth on her bête noire. Clearly the case that the Gujarat government has filed against her for ‘disturbing communal harmony’ has not stopped her in her tracks: "It has just proved my point that what is going on in Gujarat is unjust, uncalled for and, in a way, state machinery is working against a minority. For what? It is the best way to come to power – minority-bashing, blame Pakistan for everything – and that is exactly what Narendra Modi did. In every speech of his, he has spewed communal hate…how can a chief minister who has got the mandate of the people, when there is a riot, not go to a single relief camp, other than one Hindu camp? A chief minister does not have the right to take sides, to be partisan to an event…but the BJP’s rise to fame has really been Somnath to Ayodhya, a kind of agenda of minority-bashing and actually making people believe that Hinduism is under threat, which is absolute, utter rubbish and nonsense! No educated person will accept this rubbish philosophy that they are trying to psyche people into believing.’

Though the fiery politico-speak seems at odds with all her other personae – Miss India (1976); national swimming champ; wife of celebrity polo player, Pickles Sodhi and no mean horsewoman herself; film actress of the yester- ( Junoon , 1979) and not-so-yesteryears ( Major Saab with Amitabh Bachchan, in 1998 and Yeh Zindagi ka Safar with Amisha Patel, in 2001), and star of the infamous Page Three – politics, she would have you believe, runs in her veins. "The last home minister of the country, Indrajit Gupta, was my uncle and I live with this, that if he had been there, Gujarat would never have been allowed to carry on – till today, people are traumatised that justice is not being done.’

Thus briefed, it comes as no surprise that Ali herself is a member of the Congress Working Committee. She acknowledges Sonia Gandhi as a role model of sorts ("For me, as a human being, I really admire her because as a person who never wanted to be anywhere near politics, she has suffered so much, she has given up her whole life for the country, for the party.") – and is unabashed about her political ambitions. Ask her if she would stand for election, if offered a ticket and pat comes the reply: "If the opportunity arose, I would not shy away from the responsibility."

Would she take up the Muslim cause? "The Muslims are not a cause…my country is my cause. I am a human being first. My mother was Roman Catholic, my father is Muslim, I am married to a Sikh and I believe in Vedanta. In our home, we have an altar for gods from all religions and I have taught my children that it does not matter by what name you call him -- Allah or Christ – God is God."

Right on. Does she never miss a cue? Apparently not. Sample this: If her life is devoted to God and country, how come she’s branded with this socialite image? Her response: "Look up the word ‘socialite’ in the dictionary. It’s not a negative word. I used to get upset by it until I looked up the meaning – it means someone who sets trends and if that’s who I am, I’m fine." (The New Oxford Dictionary defines the word as ‘a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment’ but no matter. There are dictionaries and dictionaries.)

And what of the charge that she’s been known to actively seek the limelight, push herself in front of cameras? Another cool reply, smile still in place: "If I’m at a party and the photographers want to take my picture instead of someone else’s, what can I do? I will never turn my face away from a photographer, out of respect for him. My father (Ahmed Ali) is one of the oldest living photographers – he’s 82 and still taking pictures – and I’m a photographer myself. So I would never stop someone from taking my picture, out of respect for what he’s doing."

Is it just this big bad world we live in that makes Doubting Thomases of us all, or is Ali really too good to be true? There is the reality of her: the undeniable beauty, unadorned by even a hint of lipstick or eyeliner; the simple, printed churidar-kurta that could never have carried a designer tag; the trademark grey hair.

And then there is her work for the HIV positive. Though Action India has done rehabilitation work in Orissa after the cyclone and in Gujarat after the riots, its main focus is on AIDS. And Ali is quite clear that she wants to marshal her resources towards care, not awareness: "All the money that comes into India, over 98 per cent, goes in awareness funding but, the reality is, that the care is badly lacking. I made a documentary six years ago, where I saw the suffering of HIV positive people and my awareness shifted. I believe that people in our country are not statistics, where we just find them to be positive and then there is no facility available, or they feel ostracised or insecure. If you have a toothache you know where to go but if you have AIDS, where do you go?’

As a first step, Ali organised a charity ball with a fashion show by six leading designers, in March 2000. The proceeds went towards funding a 12-bedded facility for AIDS patients run by the NAZ Foundation. Another event along with Hollywood hunk, Richard Gere, and close pal, Bina Ramani, raised funds for Sahara’s hospice for the HIV positive, the Michael Care Home.

But, it is at the Ashraya Holistic Care Home in Village Rajokri on the outskirts of Delhi, that Action India’s energies are now focussed. "I went to Sheila Dixit (Delhi’s chief minister) and told her that I have the will but I don’t have the money." At that point, the Delhi government was just launching its Bhagidari Citizen-Government Partnership scheme for social welfare activities. Under this scheme, Dixit gave Ali a property in Rajokri and, with some funding from the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), Action India opened a 10-bedded, in-patient facility, Ashraya, last December. The centre is run by a team of doctors, nurses, counsellors and volunteers and will eventually expand into a 60-bed facility run through donor support. "My dream plan is to build a proper facility for all HIV-related problems – counselling, treatment, rehabilitation."

Ali as MP, could be a future avatar but for the present, she’s ‘ Major Saab Madam’, the name the villagers at Rajokri have given her and all her days go in working with the AIDS-affected. According to her, there is nothing sudden or surprising about her dedication to social work. "People don’t understand this about me – I am basically a very focused, simple person in terms of material wellbeing. I love the simple things of life, I love working with people…even when I was an army wife, what I enjoyed most was doing social service with the jawan’s wives. I don’t think of business. My children get upset with me at times, they tell me, look at other mothers, they make so much money. I tell them, God has given us enough, we have the basics of life – there is no end to want. I realised very early in my life that material benefits were not as important as health and family values."

Just as the cynicism is beginning to set in again, she divulges another home truth. "The turning point in my life came 12 years ago, when I prayed to God for a wish – something to do with my family – and I said that if it came true, I would go to Tirupati and shave my head." Ali’s shorn head made a fashion statement – she even took part in a fashion show minus her tresses – and she took to social work in earnest. "I always said that when my son was five, I would go back to work and social work is what I wanted to do." It began with a chance meeting with Bina Ramani at Dilli Haath. Ramani was just starting Umang, a children’s welfare organisation, and Ali joined the ranks. For the next few years, she worked with several NGOs until, four years ago, she set up Action India with her husband and a few friends as trustees.

Publicity seeker and political wannabe, or a committed social worker who delivers what she promises? It’s a tough call to make, as she veers between Sonia Gandhi-style rhetoric, Mother Teresa wisdoms and disarming frankness. A woman at ease with herself, who has enjoyed her life in its various phases. "For 15 years, I was an army wife, because I felt my husband and children needed me…I loved it, because in the army, it is possible to have such a happy life with so little." In films, she has staged no ‘retirements’ or ‘comebacks’ – acting, she says, will always be there: "I’m basically a shy person, so I think acting is great because it draws you out of yourself." She nurtures close friendships in the film world, especially with her first co-star, Shashi Kapoor and claims she gets a kick out of the high life, vicariously: "I love to see my friends with their beautiful jewellery and their fantastic cars. I enjoy all that but, it’s never been a priority in my own life." She is matter-of-fact about her looks: "If I’m a beautiful woman, I am beautiful in many ways." And age, it seems, holds no fears for her: "I crossed that hurdle when I let my hair turn grey."

More likely than not, there’s a bit of truth in all the images. But for the patients at Ashraya, it’s what she does that counts. And, as one leaves her office, it’s her warm peals of laughter that remain in the mind.