DAWN Archive: Gita Simoes (Obituary)

Courtesy: Daily DAWN Newspaper

On Women's Day (8 March), Sindh lost one of her finest daughters when Gita Simoes passed away in Mumbai. Born in Karachi in 1943, Gita was the only daughter of Devi and Chellaram Vaswani. She was also the granddaughter of Mangharam Khemchand Mahtani, a wealthy Sindhworkie merchant with trading establishments in Gibraltar, Tangiers and Morroco. Once he moved back to Karachi, he built Rock House - named for his beloved Gibraltar - near Gurmandir, and he and his three brothers lived here with their families.

When a large number of Sindhi Hindus migrated to India in 1947-48, Mangharam Mahtani could not bring himself to leave Sindh simply because he loved his land too much. He stayed on in Karachi and would often visit Thano Bula Khan where he also had a house. There, he chose to give back to the community by arranging for free medical treatment for the local villagers. A connoisseur of music, and a Theosophist with a deep faith in Sufism, Mangharam Mahtani would regularly organize Sufi musical evenings, and Gita would recall with pride that some of Sindh's best artistes had performed at his home. (Incidentally, Susheila Mahtani, the famous Sindhi singer, was their relative.)

In Bombay - as it was known then - Gita was educated at the prestigious Cathedral and John Connon School, but every summer, her mother took her back to Sindh. Thus was born Gita's love for the land and all things Sindhi. She had fond memories of fun-filled picnics in the Sindhi countryside, of sleeping under the stars on the roof of the Thano Bula Khan house, of the warmth of the Sindhi villagers and their beautiful embroidery.

Gita specialized in graphic art at Minneapolis, and on her return to Bombay joined the world of advertising, where she met her future husband - a tall and charming Goan man - Frank Simoes - whom she subsequently fell in love with and married. (Frank Simoes would later go on to found and head one of India's most successful advertising agencies.)

After several years in advertising, Gita joined the Taj Group of Hotels as Art Director. She established their graphic design studio and helped found The Taj Magazine. She also designed the cover for Kalyan Advani's annotated Shah Jo Risalo, a book which was published by her grandmother and won accolades in both India and Pakistan. She won the President's Award for Design, for her work in designing crockery for Air India.

In 2000, she, together with architect and urban conservationist Brinda Somaya, chartered accountant Ashwin Ramesh and others, founded the Hecar Foundation, which promotes public education about architecture, heritage and urban issues. Here she designed Vanishing Homes of India, a book of beautiful black-and-white photographs taken by T. S. Nagarajan, of traditional Indian homes more than a hundred years old.

For the last two years, however, Gita was consumed by her final passion: to create a book showcasing Sindhi heritage and history. Another book from the Hecar Foundation, it was to be a vehicle to enable young Sindhis to discover their community's past, a book for all Sindhis, whether in India, Pakistan or across the globe, to take pride in. Unfortunately, Gita passed away before this project could come to fruition, but the Hecar Foundation as well as her co-author, Nandita Bhavnani, and her assistant, Nishita Mehta, are determined to make Gita's dream come true.

Struck down suddenly by a fatal illness, Gita passed away last week on Tuesday. She leaves behind a daughter and son-in-law, Radhika and Aditya Kapoor, and two small grandsons, on whom she doted. On her final journey to the Banganga crematorium, she was covered with a length of Sindhi Ajrak. And an ethereal rendition of the popular Sindhi song, Dam-a-Dam Mast Qalandar, was sung at the close of her crowded condolence meeting held on Thurday.

Thoroughly Sindhi in mind and at heart, Gita Simoes would have been pleased.

Originally published in Daily DAWN Metropolitan's March 16, 2016 issue, pg 19.