Farewell to a distinguished life
VETERAN BBC PRESENTER RAJNI KAUL ENTHRALLED WOMEN AND CHILDREN
RAJNI KAUL was a fierce feminist and anti-racist, who obtained five degrees, despite her family leaving Peshawar with almost nothing during Partition.
She, her four siblings and parents were assisted to escape on a train by their wonderful Muslim neighbours who kept them safe. They witnessed atrocities they could barely speak of, following on from a sad earlier childhood. They then lived, all seven, in a concrete room with a tin roof external kitchen in Hanuman Road, New Delhi. While living there she met her closest friend, Meena Lamba (Mehta) and her brother Sunil Lamba, a friendship that has continued right to the end. She was their ‘Didi’.
She married Mahendra Nath Kaul on May 2, 1955. They had met while working at All India Radio and they moved to Washington DC where they worked for Voice of America in the post ‘McCarthy’ era. They were offered citizenship, but couldn’t settle there and decided to come to the UK where Mahendra had been invited to join the World Service of the BBC. They had a baby girl, Kalyani, in Delhi on their way to the UK.
In the UK, Rajni had two full-time jobs and life was tough. She was a children’s librarian and translated and worked for the BBC World Service, reading the news to India, as well as presenting a women’s and her beloved children’s programme, on the radio. She got so much fan mail from the many children who listened to her in India that she felt more like a mother to them.
She was a devoted wife, supporting Mahendra who produced and presented Naya Zindagi, Naya Jeevan for the BBC, while also entertaining family and friends. She helped her husband when he opened Gaylord Restaurant in London in partnership with others. Rajni was a proud wife when Mahendra received an OBE in 1975 for his services to race relations.
He was a fighter and she supported his courage and determination to make life better for Asians of the younger generation. She loved children and she loved to feed everyone. She had a sharp mind and a brilliant sense of humour.
Rajni read fiction and non-fiction voraciously, her favourites were Sebastian Faulks and William Dalrymple, but she also loved poetry. Her motto was ‘a book a day’.
She had no interest in material goods. Rajni loved to sing, and some of her happiest times were singing at the wonderful Golden Estate Home in Faridabad, India, where she stayed in her final 18 months. Her greatest ‘treasures’ were her grandchildren, Symran and Callum.
She remained a devoted wife caring for her husband until he died peacefully at home at the age of nearly 96 in July 2018. She is survived by her daughter HHJ Kaly Kaul QC and her two grandchildren, Symran (29) and Callum (26).
She is the last of her generation of the Kapur family, and of Mahendra’s generation of the Kaul family.