Saturday 22 December 2012

JAMAL DIN WALI

Just today i came across the news that Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood is going to be appointed as the Governor of Punjab. This name brought my mind 39 years back, and the pages of my memory book started unfolding itself. So here i am, trying to bring out my old untold story.

The year was 1973. My father had sent me the very next after i came out of my last paper of the B.Com final exam, to Pir Mohammad Kaliya & Co. Chartered Accountants, at Shams Chambers, Karachi. Obviously my father did not want me to remain roaming aimlessly with friends. I had already told him that i would like to be a Chartered Accountant, so his step was just in line of my desire.

Mr. Pir Muhammad Aba Umar Kaliya, was a young very talented Chartered Accountant, with 7 professional and educational qualifications attached to his name. Beside that he was excessively active in social and political fields.

I was just a novice, as i joined that office. Mr. Zakaria Karim (FCA) was his partner. He taught me the very basics of audits.

It was my perhaps third day on the job, when i was told that i would have to go out of karachi for an outstation audit assignment. I was supposed to be taken by Mr. Zakaria Kareem to Jamal Din Wali Estate (near Sadiqabad).I was happy, because i would be getting a chance to experience another thrill. However, frankly i did not have a very clear idea about an outstation audit assignment.

For my parents, it was a moment to think seriously. To allow me to go or not. I was just 18. and would be going out like that for the first time in my life. Alone. with unknown persons. to an unknown place. for an unknown work. Indeed it was a difficult decision for my parents to take. However, it was positive thinking of my parents that they opted not to come in way. However they did take all sort of necessary measures. to console themselves. They did visit the family of Mr. Zakaria Kareem. . to develop close understanding and contact with him and his family.

Well to cut the story short. i boarded the Khyber Mail. with Mr. Zakaria Kareem. We reached Sadiqabad, the next morning. From there we reached Jamal Din Wali Estate. bu public transport.

As we entered the Estate, we were taken to the office of the General Manager, a retired military official, who arranged for our accomodation in the annexe of the main HAWELEE. Everything was really wonderful. The scenery. the food. the room. the furniture. etc etc.

In the evening, we were invited by Makhdoomzade Syed Iqbal Mahmood, the youngest son of Makhdoom Ghulam Miran Shah, the actual owner of the Estate. We were received into the outer verandah. For the first time in my life i was entering into such a huge , impressive and well furnished building. I was keeping quite (there was nothing for me to talk about, since i did not know anything), and looking at the building. I was really bemused by the attention that we were getting.

The next day we started the real audit assignment. The office was a small one. The accounting staff was co-operative and polite. However, it was going to be a very tough job for me. First, because i was just a novice, fresh from the College, without any practical experience, secondly the accounts were in pure urdu and thirdly it was all related to agricultural lands and agricultural produce. However, as the time proved later on, i learnt a lot on this particular assignment, and in fact it was this foundation on which the whole building of my future audit profession and qualification was constructed.

In the beginning it was terribly hard for me to understand the various names of the products, agricultural tools, and other relevent terms.

Mr. Zakaria Kareem left me after a week, as a Senior boy was sent from Karachi to carry on the assignment with me. The name of the new Senior boy was Ayub. He was a period completed boy from Ahmed B. Khan & Co. Chartered Accoutnants. (?).

I stayed in Jamal Din Wali for a total period of three months, with Ayub. He was a wonderful person. friend, who taught me the golden rules of the audit life.

Ayub was very careful about his health. He used to wake me up early in the morning, to go with him out for a walk. We used to walk without shoes or socks on green grass, softly wet due to the night due. We used to do quite a few basic exercises, every morning. It was quite too cold, yet the surroundings were  pure and natural and beautiful.

In the evening he daily made me walk briskly with him, after dinner. Our walking place was the open place just in front of the annexe building. There had not been any other guest in the building, except we two persons.

One Sunday evening he took me for a long long walk. on the 20km long main road going to Sadiqabad from Rahim Jan Wali. I did not have any idea whatever, i just started off with him. We must have gone around 10 km (?) perhaps, that it started getting dark. A bus driver picked us up from the road and brought back to our annexe.

It was at Jamal Din Wali Estate, where i found out tea selling by weight. It was a famous Doodh Patti chay. So it was sold by the weight of the milk. Since we were the guests of the Makhdoom Saheb, so we were free to drink as much tea in the office as we wanted. All foods were free too. I was too amused by this VIP treatment, that i was getting.

Once we were invited to watch a fight between a bear and the dogs. It my first experience to watch huge bull terriors etc trying to cut the bear from different places. In response the bear was also injuring the dogs by his paws. It was a real bloody encounter.

During the period of over 3 months that i spent at Jamal Din Wali Estate, i visited my family in Karachi twice. Ayub . my Senior, accompanied me on both the occassions. On these tours, he taught me the very unknown puff points of travelling in the trains. He taught me how to enter a fully filled compartment from the window. He taught me  how to secure a ticket when all of the train tickets have already been solved. He taught me how to manage a sufficient place to sit and at sometimes to lay down and sleep on floor of the train compartment, when there is no place left on the floor even to stand. He was a man who taught me how to find a way out when there is no evident way out.

I owe a lot to Ayub.
I do not know where he is now, yet he is always with me in all my thrilling adventures, because he had showed me the way.

I returned back from Jamal Din wali in April 1974. and joined Rahim Jan & Co. Chartered Accountants as Articled Clerk.

http://cities.wikia.com/wiki/Sadiq_Abad:Jamal_Din_Wali

http://wikimapia.org/4909200/Jamal-Din-Wali-city


Famous mosque of Jamal Din Wali


JAMAL DIN WALI SUGAR MILLS


1 comment:

  1. Thank you For posting such a great article. Really appreciate your visit and hope there will be many more in future. :)
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