The unparalleled legal behemoth Fali Sam Nariman

The unparalleled legal behemoth Fali Sam Nariman, whom I affectionately called “Uncle Fali”, undisputably the last of the truly greats of the Indian Bar, breathed his last on 21st February, 2024, at the ripe old age of 95.  In an impassioned eulogy, our Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi tweeted, “Shri Fali Nariman Ji was among the most outstanding legal minds and intellectuals. He devoted his life to making justice accessible to common citizens.”

I had the singular privilege of knowing Uncle intimately for more than 50 long years. I always looked upon him with the utmost reverence as a warm and sensitive father figure! He was a perfect gentleman, a kind, gracious and well-meaning soul with a golden heart and a well-disciplined health freak! Right from the very moment I met Uncle for the very first time, I conceived a deep and abiding admiration for his razor-sharp intellect, his tireless zest for work, his superlative literary skills, his discernible pertinacity, his innate simplicity, his matchless sense of humour and his disarming personal charm.  None of us could enter his presence without being infectiously smitten by his nobility and warmth combined with his handsome “Prince Charming” looks, reminiscent of English aristocrats of days of yore, and effervescent smile.

He was always dressed immaculately, complete with bespoke tailored coats, blazers and suits, Tam O'Shanter berets, and well-clipped suspenders! Very much like my old departed friend and well-wisher, Lord Alfred Denning, who lived a full and meaningful life of more than a century, Uncle combined “a love of liberty with a passion for justice.” And above all, his stellar contribution to the development of the law in all its diversity was absolutely phenomenal.

Uncle scrupulously considered me as his own son and was never tired of lauding what he more often than not described as my “encyclopaedic memory”, my passionate mimicry of Jawaharlal Nehru’s speeches and my effortless command over the English language and my easy familiarity with the nuances of western classical music. I will never ever forget the long, relaxing, leisurely walks Uncle and I used to often take in the idyllic Lodhi Gardens in Delhi with his beloved wife Bapsi (“Aunt Bapsi”!) and his ill-tempered, fearsome dog “Bobo-The Biter” in tow.

In a moment of helpless nostalgia, I am highly emboldened to turn to some of the unforgettable reminiscences, anecdotes and incidents connected with Uncle in my mind before my own fallible memory fades:

1. After I joined the profession, I used to often accompany my redoubtable Guru and Senior Asoke Kumar Sen(whom I affectionately called ‘Asoke Mamu’!),to Uncle’s immaculately groomed Chambers in the Bombay High Court during the lunch recess to savour the tongue-tickling home-cooked Parsi delicacies that Aunt used to not only personally prepare and bring over to the Chambers in wicker baskets but serve all of us in style with her own graceful hands like the proverbial cheerful ministering angel. Even though I used to invariably stay in a nondescript room adjacent to Asoke Mamu’s “maritime dream” Dolphin Suite within the majestic confines of the Taj Mahal Hotel on Apollo Bunder, a stone throw’s distance from the High Court, Uncle’s lunchtime fare prepared by Aunt had an irresistible centripetal appeal and was to us ambrosial.

2. Whenever I used to attend conferences at his residence, Uncle used to unfailingly make it a point to do two things - firstly keep me at a safe distance away from Bobo who used to normally sit under his study table next to his feet and more often than not snap at the feet of any unwary visitor, lawyer or client with his sharp rodent teeth without any prior warning whatsoever; and secondly whisper into my ears, even in the midst of an intense conference, “go inside for a while.. Bapsi has made something very special for you”. And I used to disappear from the scene momentarily to gorge on the cakes, puddings and other savouries Aunt used to serve me lovingly, along with hot sizzling tea in exquisite Wedgewood Stonehenge Midwinter crockery!

3. When I attended Uncle’s daughter Anaheeta’s post-wedding reception in the well-manicured lawns of the Ambassador Hotel, I presented Anaheeta a dazzling piece of Dresden China porcelain featuring a Baroque couple playing chess on a table. A few days thereafter, I noticed the very same piece resting atop Aunt’s upright piano in the drawing room, whereupon Uncle told me nonchalantly, “Bapsi liked the present you gave Anaheeta so much that she decided to keep it for myself and place it upon her piano.” The upright piano has since gone but the porcelain figures continue to play chess atop a chest of wooden drawers!

Going back to the reception, Uncle gave me a terse order — “Ask Rajindera to stuff all the Bengali judges and lawyers with Rasgullas!” And Rajindera Kumar, the charismatic owner of the hotel, churned out delectable spongy Rasgullas literally like rabbits out of an adroit magician’s hat… the likes of which put Kolkata Rasgullas to fawning shame!  On the occasion of Uncle’s 90th birthday, I wrote a long letter to him and wished him in the following words from the very depths of my heart — “It’s indeed a long stretch between your first birthday in 1930 which you celebrated in the double storied bungalow called “Kennedy House” which your beloved father Sam had rented near the idyllic Royal Lakes in Rangoon and the 90th one, but you will realise that you have seen all the ups and downs of fate and fortune and have indeed come a long way since that first birthday! In this context, I am fully aware of the arduous overland journey you undertook to India from Mandalay at an early age to escape war-ravaged Burma, munching biscuits and sweets thoughtfully carried by your mother and were even chased by trampling “shambas” or elephants en route to India.

However that may be and whatever may befall, I am sure you will never forget the emotions of this day or be able to express your gratitude to the wonderful members of your truly fascinating family and your friends and comrades (both from the legal profession and beyond!), with whom and for whom you have lived your life wholly and in full measure for this superb day… May you always have enough happiness in your life to keep you sweet, enough trials and errors to keep you strong, enough success to keep you trying, enough faith to give you courage and enough determination to make each day a good day to remember. And above all, may your tireless striving continue to stretch its arms unflinchingly, unswervingly and indomitably towards perfection!”

My childhood hero and role model, Abraham Lincoln, the towering sixteenth President of the United States, who is universally hailed as the father of modern democracy, once astutely confessed, “No client ever had money enough to bribe my conscience or to stop its utterance against wrong and oppression. My conscience is my own — my creator’s — not man’s. I shall never sink the rights of mankind to the malice, wrong, or avarice of another’s wishes, though those wishes come to me in the relation of client and attorney.” Today, the rarest of the rare likes of Uncle and his mesmerising colleague from his towering 6 feet 4 inches tall senior Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga’s historic chambers Nanabhoy “Nani” Ardeshir Palkhivala and Asoke Mamu no longer lend infinite grace and dignity to our Bar or majestically stride the corridors of the apex court of the land, aptly described by our first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad asthe “noble edifice” of the “Temple of Justice”.

The self-proclaimed leaders of the Supreme Court Bar in this day and age can barely hold up a candle to these monumental legal luminaries. Their insatiable lust for lucre, publicity and media coverage far outweighs their avowed dedication to law and legal practice and the very hallowed institution to which they superciliously belong. And lamentably, they have the scantest regard for the highest judiciary! They are, to say the least, paper tigers full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

And what is most disconcerting is their abject failure to uphold the highest exalted standards of honesty, integrity, credibility, transparency and rectitude expected of them (not to mention their superb “management” skills!).

The only notable exception as a leading practising Senior Counsel of the Supreme Court was perhaps Uncle’s not lesser than son and my very dearest friend Rohinton Sam Nariman, through whose Harvard nourished, nay honed, veins Uncle’s Gangetic pure blood flows in an indefinable torrent!

Uncle will live long, mellow and gracious in the hearts and minds of all those like myself who knew him, loved him and revered him in this world and in the annals of the tumultuous times in which we live, like those long-extinguished stars whose fires still give us light! Here was a Fali; when comes such another?

The author is an internationally reputed senior lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of India; views are personal