A friend's birthday … and he is not there :(

 Happy Birthday Asif Aslam Farrukhi

(Wish I could say this to you in person)

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Spent quite a day listening to your brilliant and wonderful ta’reefs on everything you did, from a magazine that I loved, to your marvelous short stories, to your being a friend, and to the lovely adviser to T2F that you were. I miss the lovely national/international speeches and moderations that you carried out. I always thought highly of you and loved all your works … but, even more, your enthusiasm and untiring spirit that got you going. 

There were many people, from friends to colleagues to students, who were there to support you and talk about the wonderful times they had with you. Many spoke of the things you did for them all.

Attiya Dawood was there, telling people about what a close friend you were and how he helped her to write her autobiography. How close he was to Abro and the Suhaee. 

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Ghazal talk about you, One could see how difficult it is to talk about a loved father who is not there now. It is so difficult for a daughter to say things that must be in her mind. You were a good father and a great teacher. 

There was Ameena Saiyid there, speaking and ‘talking’ about how she ‘spoke to you about the first KLF’. Of course there were the wonderful things you did with her at KLF and Adab. People always admired what you added there in so far as Urdu was concerned. 

Wonder what would Sabeen would say about Ameena's talk with you and the first KLF! In any case, I won’t delve into that or share our emails for the public to read. Fortunately I never went to that Festival - but that’s a long story. Maybe someone should read Bina Shah on how the first KLF transpired. She has written about it. 

I miss you a lot, Asif: You were wonderful to talk to. You read an awful lot of books and discussed many with me. Your love of Qavvāli was another thing that brought us closer. And Poetry became an even closer bit to discuss.

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There’s no one that I can think of who could really take your place ... for you were even more versatile than people can really imagine. 

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Here are Asif Farrukhi's works

Keeping you updated on your birthday

On one of your previous birthdays many years ago

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Soon after you were assassinated and left us, the Government here named a Road after you … but, as usual, the name started with a 'Seen' (س) instead of a 'Suad' (ص). The Road had been named after you by Nafisa Shah (and Nasreen Jalil helped, too).

I was most upset and wrote to both of them and to Farooq Sattar to please change the name. No response.

I wrote to Awab Alvi, since his father is the President, and Awab was a friend of ours — in fact those two were the first to arrive at JPMC when we took you there — to try and intervene via his Dad. No response. 

Sharif Awan said he'd get it done and tried and tried. Nothing happened.

Isa Daudpota's father's name on the road read Dr Daud Pota. He said he had tried but no one wants to change it. I should give this up.

I tried even going there and painting it but friends told me I could be arrested … so I gave up this idea. After all, who wants to be on the wrong side of the Police, or Rangers, or worse: Bhatta-khors.

This year I started again.

I wrote on FB and Twitter that this had happened and no one has helped.

Kasim K said I should paint it. Two others also said the same thing. I said I'd like this to happen officially. Their responses were really 'snickering' for my waiting for someone to do this.

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Then I saw a message from Sen Murtaza Wahab of PPP asking me to send him the picture of the road. I sent it to him. He said he wanted a family member to write a letter and state the wrong name and say how the person was related. I spoke to Mimi and she spoke to Marvi who wrote a letter. Mimi signed it and added pictures and off it went.

Two days later we received a picture from Sen MW saying this was temporary but it had the name spelt right. The next morning he sent the final picture and the road was now with a 'Suad'. Wow! I have never seen anyone do anything good that fast in our Governments.

Marvi has worked with Sen MW so she set up a group on What's App with Mimi and him and me … and we reached a point where Mimi said she wanted to place a tree there. He agreed. I insisted that it be before your birthday. He agreed. And it was decided by Mimi that it would be today.

We all arrived there and you'll see details through Mimi's and Marvi's pictures. The one below is the tree that I planted just behind the board, with Nuzhat joining in. The others were planted by Mimi & Marvi. Think one was done by Seema, but she was not there when Nuzhat and I arrived. May have left earlier.

Here's the 4 of us 

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Sadly Sen MW could not be there because this morning he got tested and was found to have Covid-19. We all really missed him. But a great deal of thanks, Sen MW for all your help and sending the right people to help us plant the tree. Get well soon.

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Yeh Kyā Hüā

When I was in the Merchant Navy one of the things that I did on Pakistani ships was to start a library in our Smoke Room. There were books in English and Urdu that I purchased or was given by friends who waned people at sea to read. There were a couple of ships where I had Bengali officers, so they added Bengali books. 

One day, 40 years ago, a friend sent me some books for the ship and one of the books was of short stories from an author I had never heard of. I opened it at a random page … and was absolutely thrilled. I read other short stories in it and each one was brilliant. 

Since my ship was in Karachi I asked a young cousin of mine, Zulqarnain Shahid, to find out who this guy was ... and was told that he was a personal friend. So off we went that week to meet him. 

The book was ‘Atasfishañ Mayñ Khilay Gulāb’ ... The author was 21 year old Asif Aslam Farrukhi. He was the son of Dr. Aslam Farrukhi, one of our greatest critics, a writer who also wrote children's books, and a fabulous story-teller who had a remarkable memory. 

There were several stories that I asked Asif about, including a tremendous small SF piece. But the one that fascinated me most was about him and his brother traveling to India with their father. It seemed so real and it brought back my own memories of a similar trip. 

“But I have never travelled to India. Nor has my brother. The story is fictitious and it was written about things that my father and other family members said”, said Asif. 

Those who have read the book will understand the surprise I felt. It has remained a favourite take of mine ... and the book has many other pieces I adore. I had asked to read this at T2F, but Asif said it's an old tale, let me read something new instead. I insisted … and it would be done soon online. But ohhhh …

For many years we remained in contact, specially when he had a little mahfil where many young poets were invited, since he knew of my love of poetry. People like Fahmida Riaz, Attiya Dawood, Azra Abbas, and Zeeshan Sahil were at these sessions. 

(Some of you may know that Asif wrote poetry and had a collection published. But he said it wasn’t something he was proud of ... so he continued his prose writings.) 

When T2F opened we had  Zeeshan Sahil as our first poet. Asif was thrilled at my calling ZS and said it was a great move to call him in an area where people thought Urdu was hardly ever spoken. (T2F was packed!) Later on Sabeen invited him to be a T2F advisor ... and his love of Urdu plus his moderating skills made him a favourite person to anyone who saw him at a session. 

A Medical Doctor who didn’t practice at all, he worked with UNICEF. Asif had also worked at Aga Khan Foundation. And he was now teaching at Habib University.

His love of all forms of literature was astounding ... and he read everything he could read. And he certainly directed many others to read something he found interesting. I loved that.

Asif was a genius at everything he did and his magazine (Dunyazad), his marvellous and friendly teaching at HU where students felt so comfortable with him, his sessions at T2F, his festival organization, and his channel at YouTube are ample proofs of what he could do. 

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Two days before his death a well-known poet (a bit of a crook, as well) phoned me. I was surprised. I have known him for years. But in the last two years he has refused to answer my calls. I wanted him to come for a session about him and his book at T2F. A few friends told me that he won’t come because he thinks he ought to be paid. 

He started of by saying to me: Your friend Asif is at HU and he has no business to be there. He is a Doctor and knows nothing about literature. He hardly writes well. Most of the things he says are things that he picks up from literature abroad and translates them into Urdu as if he has written it. He takes illegal money from people to invite them to the various festivals he is involved with and has a battle with his colleague who had found this out.

My feeling is that this poet applied for a job at HU and was rejected. Possibly Asif may have known of his crookedness and didn't want him linking with the students there. I have not named the poet because I don’t want his fans and supporters starting a war of words.

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Two days later Asif left us.

We have lost a great person. Urdu lovers feel terribly at his leaving them at such a young age. 61 is no time to die. Students at HU are completely shaken. Friends in Pakistan, India, and in many countries abroad have mourned his death in articles and posts. 

The best thing we must do is to publish all his writings into a series of books. Can Scherezade - a publishing house that Asif set up - do this if someone is now handling it after him. And can HU help with the expense?

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Asif really loved  Karachi

 and now Karachi seems empty without him. 

What's in a name? Plenty, I think.

Let's start with Urdu and my First Name

The number of times my first name, Zaheer, has been written as ظہیر instead of زہیر - which is my actual name - is not so strange. Zoé is pronounced the same as Zay in Urdu. Of course, in Arabic Zay is Zay, but Zoé is Doé … Think of Eed-ul-Ad'ha, folks.

When I was at sea and ever travelled to an Arab speaking country and was asked for my name at the gate for a Pass, I said Zaheer and they always wrote زہیر ...

My father's name was Azhar (ازہر) and was written by many as اظہر for the same reason as mine was. Haven't you heard of Jaméul Azhar (جامع الازہر)?

Azhar and Zaheer with a Zoé comes from Zāhir (= obvious or seen) ... Remember اظہر من ال شمس?

Azhar and Zaheer with a Zay comes from a word meaning Light (روشنی)! Zahrā, the planet (زہرا) means the lighted one.

Azhar means the one receiving the light.

Zaheer means the one giving the light.

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Now to the English version of my Surname

Kidvai comes from a Turkish word and is derived as being the progeny of Kazi Kidva, a scholar and a judge who came to India with the Mughal king Babar.

Originally, of course, the names were written in the Arabic/Persian script, but Mustafa Kemal changed that and wanted the language to be written in the Latin Script (perhaps partly because it was easier to 'type' and partly because of his love for the West. I am not sure). 

This has led to many problems for a language that has to be written differently: many written pieces, prose and poems, will never get translated. Who has the time to do all this, after all. Imagine if we had to change Urdu into an English Script: Mir, Ghalib, Faiz and others of that ilk would get translated. Even many religious works would get translated. But what about the lesser writers and poets, who may have occasionally written a lovely piece? Will those ever be translated? Not at all.

As you notice, there's no Q (ق) but a K (Koran for قران is something many of you must have seen). Of course we even have Kasuri for قصوری but I don't know whether there's a Turkish connection or not.

Also the word W (و) has no mention. There is only a V. This is why we write Kidvai,

Many others write Qidwai, Quidwai, Kidwai, and even a Bengali friend who wrote Kidbhaee because he followed Pir whose surname was قدوایٗ. He translated that into Bengali and was then told by a Calcuttay-vāla that bh was not correct and he should use a w. 

Those who saw an Arabic version of the letters saw ق & و and used that. Those who felt that a Q cannot be by itself and must have a U after it, used that. And many Indians remember their Minster Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and automatically use that when writing my name and emailing me (when my email spells KIDVAI with a V). Some emails, I am sure, get lost in this process. Others have my email right and get to me :)

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Two funny tales:

1. When I was at sea and went to East Africa, I visited a Sindhi Doctor to check my health and gave him my name and home address. He wrote it down as Kidvani and thought I was a Sindhi, too. For years I kept getting letters from him about how Sindhis in Pakistan and India ought to get together and form a separate Sindhu Desh. After several letters I did write back and tell him I was a New Sindhi … and never got any mail after that. One of the top members from that group was Mumtaz Bhutto, a cousin of ZAB, who was also our Shipping Minister.

2. I once went to get a Notary Public Paper for myself and for my wife, Nuzhat. When the old Lucknowi man, with a tirchhi topi and a white kürta pyjāma asked me for my name I said Zaheer … with a Zay, please. He looked at me and then smiled and wrote it right. When he asked for my father's name I said Azhar … with a Zay, please. He smiled again and wrote that down right. Then he asked me my wife's name and I said Nuzhat. He looked up and said Shall I write this with a Zoād? 

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While I was in UK during my seafaring days I discovered this on a catalogue I was looking at and ordered it. It arrived and now hangs in my house. 

The Latin Script reads

Non Omnis Moriar

which means

I shall not altogether die

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I was told that it was placed in the catalogue by

Mubashir Husain Kidwai
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I am surprised that it reads Kidvai at the top

but he continued to write Kidwai with a w.

But that's up to him, I guess.

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Beans Meanderings 2007 (Jan)

Sab's Contagious Laughter

I decided to post the January month separately. It was an important month for Sab who was visiting Apple to join in the First iPhone Launch session at Moscone Center in SF.

NR-NP

The Bull Shit T-Shirt

Often seen, whether in petty cafés or expensive T-Shirts, this is a sign that I really hate. Had there been a sign that said No Murders, people would have said "Why not? After all they do happen. We'd like to discuss them, too." People are still discussing PM Liaquat Ali Khan's murder and new evidence keeps coming out.

I agree. In fact even a "No Shit Talk, Please" would also be stupid. Shit (Talks or real Shit) happens all the time. So we should be able to talk about it.

Religion and Politics? YES. They happen. Most times much more than the above examples.

Except that in the second part I do have to make a comment on real shit. It does happen more often if there is a Dastāngoi (not Dāstāngoi, Fawad!) going on … but that is rare.

So why should we not talk about these two things that people have different views about. Or share similar views. Or want to understand the opposite ideas and discuss them?

Some people say that it could lead to Violence.

Hmmm. Really?

Think of Sports. Football, for example. Happy crowds, shouting and jumping at every goal and the goalkeepers triumphs. Then read this.

May 24, 1964 - Estadio Nacional disaster - 328 died and 500 injured during match between Argentina and Peru when referee disallowed a goal scored at last minute which ignited crowd protest. Police fired tear gas into the crowd, causing a panic and a rush for the exits at National Stadium. 

The other day I saw in the paper that two friends finished their friendly tea at a chai-khāna. The waiter arrived and each of them wanted to pay. One got really upset in the argument and finally killed the other with a knife. No Chai at Chai Khānas, then …

And it's just not us this side of the world that's plain crazy. As I said, it happens everywhere. Even in USA (where things can get worse, really).

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My own interest in Politics (apart from some family connections) is very little. I am more interested in what probably affects humanity at large, whether it's Sapiens or Covid-19 (Please check these links). There is an occasional look at local news every few days. They all seem the same these days, anyway.

However, Religion plays an important part for me. I read a lot about it as all religions seem equally important. After all to understand what happened we need to know who the gods were at different periods of history. What were Myths? Was there any truth? What about monotheistic religions (including Zoroaster's ideas)? What about the differences between them? What about the old and some still existing religious beliefs in parts of Africa or among the American Indians? What about Bishop Spong's views. What about our own sectarian differences? And can Science and Religion work together? This is all so fascinating. 

I also need to understand when reading Literature what certain names mean. It is important to know that who was Achilles, Samson, Zeus, Hercules, Rama and Ganesh. Was Mary Magdalene the person that the Church told us about (or was she married to Jesus Christ). Who was Lilith, considered by a small few to be Adam's first wife. This is supported indirectly by Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:15-25. These people believe that it says Adam had two wives.

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Why did I write this piece at all?

Well a friend's group on What's App (which I had started) became insistent that there'd be 'No Religion' on our links coz some get offended by it as there are people of all sects. Obviously there was no such law, but many started supporting it. The fact that on every few days (and increasing in intensity) they'd  have religious posts that they loved. This did not say 'No Religion' to them.

On one day a dear friend of mine said something and another dear friend got offended. I thought this was shitty beyond belief. They have both been close friends since 1957, and there wasn't even enough 'tolerance' (to say the least) for it to be forgotten … so I left the group and am happy that I can correspond with each of them separately.

Cheers!

BeanZ Meanderings 2006

Sab playing Tabla at T2F

This post took me longer than I thought. Looking for 2 pictures took very long but we found them. Looking for a comment that I had copied somewhere, but forgotten where, took even longer. Got that too … eventually. 

What also took long was my reading the blog again and again … and specially the movie piece which brought back memories when Sabeen (occasionally with Mimi) would come to our house to watch films that I had kept aside to watch often (yes, I do watch some movies many times). And the Hair piece: a film that Sabeen and I had watched many times together. I had always told her to watch it live (I had done that when it first came out on stage in London) … and was so thrilled when she could see it.

Ok, so here is her 2006 post

Enjoy!