Medford mail tribune., February 08, 1959, Image 47

tr it 5T . i SW- m M c
Student Prince (Continued)
An enthusiastic and better-than-average
player, the
Aga gives soccer most of
his extracurricular time.
f
':
"7 No playboy, Karim denies any romance,
but dates have included French starlet
i Ann-Marie Mersen (above), Mexican
beauty Sylvia Casablancas (far left), and
English heiress Patricia Rawlings (left).
school that prepares young girls for marriage.
One Friday last Fall, Karim flew to London for
a whirlwind week-end date with Sylvia. He drove
her to the historic Woburn Abbey, home of the
Duke of Bedford and Karim's aunt, the Duchess,
where the young couple spent most of the week
end. By the time Karim returned to classes at
Harvard on Monday, rumors were flying that he
had chosen Sylvia to be his Begum. Karim had
said the woman he marries would have to be a
Moslem but Sylvia could be converted to the
faith, if necessary.
The other day, however, Karim insisted: "I do
not have any matrimonial plans. Every time I talk
to a pretty girl, they claim I am engaged."
Still, he confesses that a wife would be nice to
have around to help him carry out his social duties.
One naive lady reporter, trying to delve into
his private life, recently asked him: "Are you
planning to have a harem?"
"Oh, come now!" Karim laughed. The question
had actually startled him.
His taste in girl friends, significantly, reflects the
true cosmopolite he is. Karim is half-English
(through his mother); one-quarter Italian
(through his paternal grandmother) and one
quarter Persian. Born in Paris, he is being edu
cated in America. He speaks Urdu, literary Arabic,
and several Hindu dialects. Basically he remains
an aristocratic Englishman.
Not women but sports appear to be his major
interest, next to his job as the Aga Khan.
"I can't imagine myself without athletics," he
once declared. Referring especially to soccer, he
said: "We push, shove, laugh, cry out for a goal,
and everyone knows a sense of life. After all that,
you think better."
At prep schools in Europe he was an all-around
athlete, at jiockey, tennis, track, crew, and skiing.
Rowing, he won several cups in international races,
but at Harvard in his sophomore year he failed to
make the crew. This Winter he'll probably try out
for indoor crew. He'd like to ski but doubts wheth
er he'll go out on the slopes. "The good skiing in
Vermont," he says, "is too far away. I don't have
the time, and besides, I have no car."
At soccer last Fall, Karim made the varsity first
team after starting the season as a substitute. "He's
been a big help to us," said the captain the day I
watched practice. "For the time he has played, K
has scored more than anyone else in the line-up."
Against M.I.T., for example, Karim made two of
Harvard's four goals, booting the winning goal
with only four minutes to go.
"Karim is a wonderful kid, one of the most en
thusiastic soccer players we've ever had," Coach
J. Bruce Monro told me. "He never misses practice.
I remember the first time he came to the field
his face lit up as if this was the one place where he
could be one of the Boys."
The Aga was sometimes unnecessarily roughed
up, particularly in the Brown game when he was
dumped six times. Karim never complained, either
to his opponents or his coach. For a week, when he
was out with a strained thigh muscle, he was im
patient to get back into the line. "Soccer," he
once said, "is sacred to me."
Outside of soccer, Karim indulges in little or no
other extracurricular activities at Harvard. He is a
member of the famed Hasty Pudding Club, the
Signet (its members chosen for "intelligence and
wit," not for wealth or family background) , and the
Delphic, whose members are known as "gassers."
Karim now considers the "gassing" social clubs a
waste of his valuable time.
' As the Aga Khan (Honorable Chief) and Imam
(Spiritual Leader) of the Ismailis, he spends at
least two hours each day and sometimes 10 hours
a day on week ends working with Mme. Beguel on
problems that arise. He is a king without a tem
poral kingdom, a sovereign without subjects, for
Ismaili communities are spread throughout India,
East Africa, Malaya, Pakistan, Burma, Madagas
car, and other countries, including Red China and
Soviet Russia.
Members, usually well-to-do merchants, con
tribute from 2 to 10 percent of their income to
the Aga Khan, who turns back most of it in the
form of welfare projects, schools, hospitals, and
loans. Thus the Harvard senior is a combination
of father confessor, financial adviser, and social
worker to his followers.
To him come regular firsthand reports frtfrh the
far-flung Ismaili communities, dealing with every
thing from integration of religious education into
secular schools to the planning of maternity homes.
Final decisions are up to the Aga. Letters also pour
in from individual Ismailis. One recent day's batch
included the following typical pleas:
"My father is senile. Shall I still support him?"
"My wife is very sick. What shall I do about it?"
"The house our people gave me in a suburb of
Zanzibar leaks in a heavy rain. To whom shall I
present myself to repair the house?"
Every letter, no matter how trivial, is answered.
Do the heavy responsibilities to his 20,000,000
followers ever frighten him?
"Yes, sometimes," says Karim. "I definitely feel
the seriousness of my job. There's so much to do.
At Harvard, I am getting a very good preparation
in the various fields which are important. There is
especially a need for more education among my
following to gain the levels of Christian learning.
It is my duty to see that schools are built." .
What he is learning at Harvard about the ways
of the Western world particularly about prob
lems of health and social organization he hopes to
translate into good works for his people. Always,
in the back of his mind, Karim recalls a state
ment in his grandfather's will:
. "In view of the fundamentally altered conditions
of the world, I am convinced that I should be
succeeded by a young man who has been brought
up and developed in the midst of the new age."
It has long been the custom, at IsmaUi jubilees
every ten years, for the Aga Khan to be weighed
in public, and for devoted followers to donate
diamonds, platinum, and gold equal to his weight
Through the Aga, the tribute goes back into com
munity work,
"I am determined," says Karim, "eventually to be
worth my weight in diamonds."
Listening to Harvard's dedicated Student Prince,
you know he'll boot his way to that goal
10
Family Weekly. February S, 1959
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