Heritage Lady

eryal Ali Gauhar, star of many TV dramas, has a past as amazing as the subcontinent’s. Born in 1959, she read political economy at McGill University, Montreal, studied media education at the University of London, and studied film and television at the University of Southern California. An acclaimed actress, she teaches film at the National College of Arts (nca), Lahore, and has written two well-received novels.

Feryal isn’t one of those celebs who patronise conservation for media space. She enrolled late in life to study heritage management and claims it has given her a new imagination. “Could it be that the old speaks to me of things which could have been, should have been? Could it be that my lingering gaze on the Gorak Nath temple in Gor Kuthree (in Peshawar) reads things written in languages I do not speak, yet understand?”

She compares her interest in the heritage of pre-Partition India like waking up before dawn. In Multan, she spends hours at the Jain temple; in Lahore, she stands at the subterranean Temple of Loh and wonders at the myths around the origin of her city of birth. About preserving the Bollywood past, she says, “It’s a question of reaching out and building bridges, of rekindling the flame of friendship extinguished by the fire which divided us. Finally, it’s a question of answering very simple questions: which was your favourite room, where did you go to hide from others, when you left, did you imagine you’d never come back?”