by Tikli Basu
The Asian Age, London
26 August 1996

The trail of the pink panther has not gone cold. It leads to a building adjucent to the curry restaurant Gitanjali in Ealing Broadway, where a Sikh is paying tribute to his friend and modern cinema’s most famous comedian: Peter Sellers.

Billed the Peter Sellers corner by its owner Jetty Singh and his wife Dr Jaslien Singh, the corner, which will function as a banquet hall for food and few laughs, is due to open next week.

The friendship between Peter Sellers and the Singhs was forged under hilarious circumstance. “Peter and I met at a party in 1969,” Mr Singh recalled. “He came up to me and said, “Oh, you are a Punjabi? I love swearing in your language.” The friendship grew, fuelled by a love for the language of Punjab, till the comedian’s death in 1980.

Mr Jetty Singh plans to put up copies in Peter Sellers Corner of an old advertisement for his restaurant put into the Evening Standard in 1974 and paid for by Peter Sellers. It reads in the same vein as Peter Sellers spoke while playing an Indian doctor opposite Sophia Loren in the film The Millionairess: Goodness gracious me… for what I am going to tell you I am not being paid one rupee, nor am I getting one single mouthful of free eating food. But last week I am discovering one of the finest Indian restaurant in all of London Cantonment totally. It is called Gitanjali of Mayfair, 23 Brooke Street, London, WI, and it is connected to the telephone by the following numbers: 493 1779. If you are enjoying birdie num-num you must go to this place.

It is signed Peter Sellers with a flourish with an Aum written below in the Devanagiri and the word Sahib in English within brackets below the signature. The ad is accompanied by a photograph of Peter Sellers in Indian dress and headgear from The Millionairess.

Sellers also did a busking act in the streets of Mayfair, where Gitanjali was originally located, to drum up business for Jetty’s restaurant. “What’s the good of you being best absolutely, if everybody doesn’t know about it?” was what he would always tell Mr Singh, mimicking the Indian doctor he played in The Millionairess.

“I have used the advertisement in all hoardings and advertisements for the restaurant. It is a small token of appreciation of my friendship,” Mr Singh said. The original draft of the advertisement, made by the actor himself, is now set up in a silver plaque in the banquet hall; a poignant reminder of shared laughs that mingled with the armoa of balti dishes Peter Sellers savoured. “He was a rascal, you know,” Mr Singh said.