On sunny summer days, Abba would hold our fingers and walk
towards the Grand Mosque every Sunday without a fail. While on the way from our
home in Anzimar Khanyar, Abba would ensure to carry corn for pigeons and city
doves, from a shop near Khwaje Bazar. Later in the large span of Jamia Masjid’s
Bunyanesque gardens, that immediately transmute you into some medieval grandeur
of royals, Abba would call the pigeons and feed them. In times, when Father was
posted in Anantnag, Abba would take us for long walks over the bund, which ran
the span of our ancient river Jhelum, while serpentining deviously through the
breezy town. Laden with willow trees that ran thick and dense at some places,
while its branches dropped carrying dry hay from a fresh harvest, Abba would
ask us to sit and listen to the chirping of birds. Listening to the songs, hearts of migratory
birds that carried, from far off lands, some parts of land whose stories Abba
read and lived with him forever. The wind carries music for those who listen,
as goes an Arab saying.
It's been 10 years since he left us on a sombre March day.
Yet his values and principles stay with us like a fresh spring shower: forever
emanating its kindness and love. For a fairly young guy, I used to have long
conversations with Abba. Seeing my interest in cricket he would translate some articles
written in Urdu into English for me; encouraging us always to read. Abba was an
avid reader himself.
He read lot of Russian literature during his formative years
which perhaps explained his bent towards Marxist ideology. Few months back,
piqued by Abba's interesting intellectual life, I got around talking to one of
his old friend- Khwaja Salah-ud-din, who had migrated to Pakistan in '48 and
later worked for Voice of America. He is currently based in Washington, USA.
Their memories relate to an era which in the 21st century
medium could appropriately be described as ancient because they were still
yoked to the colonial rule and their minds were full of romantic dreams, about
a society emancipated and wedded to the ideal of the uplift of the underdog.
These were the dreams that Abbad and his comrades shared with each other when
they would assemble at our house, joined by Khwaja Qalander usually, as well as
during the very long walk that they had to take every day to and from Amar Singh college. That was the time when
subcontinent was going through an uneasy transition, preparing to shed its
colonial shackles and embark on the realisation of the dreams kindled by the
defeat of the monster of Fascism at the hands of the allied forces, says Mr
Salah-ud-din. "We were mightily impressed by the decisive role played in
this Pyrrhic Allied victory in World War II by the Soviet forces, who routed no
less than three hundred Panzer divisions compared to mere eighty that the West
had to tackle. This enormous military feat reinforced our admiration for the
Soviet system and also became an inspiration for the teaming millions of the
newly emerging nations. Socialism thus became a burning topic among the
educated class and our group was no exception. The Progressive Writers movement
was very popular and we savoured the verse and prose that it generated, particularly
favorites like Krishin Chander, Ismat Chughtai, Manto, Faiz and the like.
Mikhail Shelakhov, among the Modern Soviet novelist was a favorite too as were
his predecessors like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky."
In his later years partly disillusioned with what socialism
could never transpire into, through its personality cult figurative ideas, step
by step eliminated almost the entire Bolshevik leadership cultivated by Lenin.
Abba believed in equal rights. His generosity was completely
unbiased. He dotted on domestic helps, always regarding them as part of the
family. Abba would insist them to share their meals on the same dastarkhaan with the rest of the family.
There are countless such small gestures and values that Abba without an effort
instilled in us. For someone of his times, when women liberation was rarely
given a thought in our part of the woods, Abba on his part, always believed
that true development of a society lied in how we treat women.
Religious bigotry and extremism were things Abba always
opposed. Like most of the teenagers
with an impressionable mind, I got buoyed and carried away with September 11
attacks, hailing Osama and his ultras as heroes. The obsession was starting to
take devious turns, when Abba pulled me back. He would jokingly call me a
‘Foolish Fanatic’.
Everything necessary to understand Abba lies between two
stories: the story of a generous man and the story of a man who defied what
death brings. These stories run like parallel rivers, amidst a maze of
everything that life throws at me- the deceit, the ugliness, utter breakdown of
faith in humanity. Of lives we live without love; selfishly. Abba died quietly
on that early spring day, walking gracefully into death, accepting death like
he accepted life and its fallacies with a smile and hope. He lives in us.
Forever.
