Saba Ali Khan's bond with Kareena

In its latest issue, People magazine carries an interesting piece about Saba Ali Khan designing jewellery for her brother Saif's girlfriend, Kareena Kapoor.

And this is not the only work that will keep Saba busy. Not it's not Bollywood, but dad Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi has quite a few plans in mind for her. Here's an excerpt:

Between grooming herself as the probable trustee of her royal family's vast properties and honing her talent as a jewellery designer, Saba Ali Khan is a busy woman. But when her famous elder brother and Bollywood superstar Saif Ali Khan came to her with a request -- to design a sparkling, new piece for his ladylove Kareena Kapoor on her birthday -- Saba readily agreed to make time.

And because it is for a 'special someone' in her brother's life, Saba's putting a lot of thought into it. "I would love to make her something. But the deadline is too soon. I will need time as it has to be a gorgeous piece," she confesses. That may mean that Kareena will not receive Saba's creation on September 21, when she celebrates her birthday. Instead, Saba hopes it will be ready by New Year.

This is a decisive month for the 32-year-old second born of Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore. In an announcement at the family's Ahmedabad Palace in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Pataudi recently proposed Saba's name for the post of naib mutawalli or deputy chief trustee to the family's properties. (Pataudi is the current mutawalli or caretaker of the Auqaf-e-Shahi of Bhopal. Auqaf-e-Shahi refers to all those princely endowments or properties that are of religious or charitable significance. The mutawalli is responsible for the upkeep of mosques, dargahs and Islamic shrines belonging to the erstwhile Bhopal princedom.)

The matter of Saba's appointment will come up for acceptance before the Waqf board in mid-September. If she does become naib mutawalli, she will be in line to succeed her father. If and when that happens, she could be the first woman in the country to assume the head of an Auqaf-e-Shahi since the end of the princely era.

While Saba is not thinking too far ahead, she takes the faith reposed in her by her father seriously. She says, "I am already reading up a lot and trying my best to understand our ancestral role and the history of our family. My father is still the mutawalli and I have been observing him and trying to learn from him. If it [the responsibility] does come to me I will do my best to carry out my duties in a fitting manner."

Text: People magazine | Photograph: Rajwant Rawat/ People