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