My late father was in the field of Accounts and Finance, but beside attaining educational degrees in differing field, he had done his masters in journalism way back in late 1950s (or may be early 1960s). Although he remained in the same profession till he retired, yet journalism remained one of his most favourite fields, throughout his life. He continued attached to this field in form or the another.
My entry in the field of journalism started in the year (?) 1968 or 1969. I was in class 9th then. My father used to write a ten minutes script for Radio Pakistan. The title of the program used to be KHABRON PER TABSIRA (news comments). It used to broadcast every wednesday at (?) 11.30am, in the Students' program. Obviously the topics used to be of interest of the school going young generation.
One day my father gave me the handwritten script, and told me to rewrite it neatly. The words should be written clearly separate from each other with two lines gap between every line. I wrote that. That must be 6 or 8 pages. It was my first induction into the world of journalism.
Later on, he started telling me more about it. Over a passage of time, he taught me how to find the material from Encyclopedia , newspapers , magazines and other relevant sources. (Unfortunately, there was no google those days). My father was a collector of books and magazines, so i always found it interesting to note down the required information from various sources. Usually my father used to give me one day time to collect the information. So, after returning from his office the other day, he used to call me to sit with him, while writing the script.
The same practice continued for a couple of years, in which i was promoted by him. Later on he used to phone me from his office to give me the topics, and i used to write the script till his arrival the same evening. He used to change a few words or sentences here or there, and as always the final script was to be written by me in good handwriting.
During my summer vacation, my father used to take me along to his office (at Burns Road) on Wednesday, and i had been going to the Radio Pakistan at around 8.30am to hand over the script. That led me to meet me some producers of Radio Pakistan. I can recall meeting the producers Yawar Abbas, Sabi Ahmed, Tabish Dehlevi, etc.and among the radio artists, Safia Moeni, Talat Hussaim, S.M.Saleem, Zafar Ahmed (bhai jan), Munni begum etc etc. That gave me chance of roaming around in corridors of Radio Pakistan, and to peep inside so many studios. (Unfortunately, the present generation cannot understand the environment of those days, those were the days of mutual trust. There used to be one normal policeman on the main gate of Radio Pakistan, who never asked me anything. People entering and coming out of the building were usually all persons known to the policeman, and as a way of common understanding unrelated person was never thought of entering the building...........the culture of klashinkof and bombs were not even heard of till then)
During the daytime my father used to be an Accountant in KDA, but after the expiry of his office time, he used to enter the field of journalism. A couple of times a week her used to work at night, as part time Proof reader in APP (news agency) and at times in the Morning News newspaper on the I.I.Chundrigar Road. Quite a many a time, he took me to those offices. That was my first experience with the printing media. For the first time i witnessed how news have been written, edited, re-written, composed and printed. I was always too amused by the speed with which that work had been done, due to sharp timing schedule.
I really loved that. There for the first time, i met the famous AZIZ cartoonist of Morning News, The years were 1965 - 1970.
But that was not all. My father used to be a very energetic person. Ofcourse he needed some money too. There was a new magazine in the market. It was SCREENWORLD. My father became its reporter. In those days he interviewed the leading figures of Pakistan cinema industry too. The office and Printing press of the magazine was at a walking distance (about 15 minuıtes) from our house. Usually on sundays my father used to take me along there, while finalising the articles of the magazine. The printing press too was there. It was SHAHZAD PRINTING PRESS. Usually my father spent an hour or two in the magazine office, but that used to be sufficient time for me to go through the printing press and see how the types had been handset (there were no computers those days), proofreading done and printed. The printing press was just installing the offset machines. But i could not see them. My father had left the magazine. I was still in my school, and my practical knowledge of the field of journalism was improving.
I was a journalist in the making. I was still a class Tenth student in Government School, Nazimabad.
I forgot to mention, that my father was also attached to an another monthly magazine (perhaps as Proof Reader/Editor). The name of the magazine was Pakistan Textile Journal. He never took me there.
It was my initial entry in the field of journalism, which had made me deeply interested in the field. Perhaps this was what my father too was interested in.
We used to get DAWN newspaper daily, but MORNING NEWS and later on THE SUN(mostly on Sundays) were also started showing face in our house. Rarely i found PAKISTAN TIMES and OBSERVOR (Dacca) in our house. He was subscribed to TIMES, NEWSWEEK , READING DIGEST and LIFE magazines. (That is where a big part of his salary used to go)However over a period of time, Times, Newsweek, Rading Digest and Life magazines bowed out of our house to pave way for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.
But that was not all. Although he was not getting urdu newspapers, yet he was buying urdu magazines of high standards. Among these , i can remember LAIL O NAHAR, NAYA DAUR, TALEEM O TARBIYAT, ZEYB UN NISA , etc. He was never interested in reading fiction .
Interestingly urdu newspapers were never got. The idea behind not inducting urdu newspapers in the house were perhaps two fold. One, just because my father was more involved in english journalism, so he was more interested in english newspapers and magazines. Secondly, perhaps he wanted to improve our english. Particularly, i was very weak in english. So my father, instead of teaching me english, used to discuss news as published in the newspaper with me. He usually asked me to read some news (of my own choice and interest) and then to explain that to my father in urdu.
He had realised that i was very weak in english, so instead of teaching me english grammer, he taught me practical english. He used to let me read any news item, and then to re-write that with differing sentences. I always liked inventing a new Headline in place of the published one.
Perhaps it was due to such interesting way of learning english, i learnt the journalistic english, without learning the grammer.
The first phase of my journalistic adventures end here. The year was perhaps 1969.
When i look back to the chronology of my life, i found the period from 1969 to 1979, as almost non-adventurious period. Although during these years i had made my entry in the field of drumming, yet i remained away from journalism, painting etc. My connection with the music remained on some light note, yet i had formed a very amateur sort of musical group named THE GRADUATES, with my friends Iftikhar and Waqar. Pervaiz had joined us after 1979. However, during all this period of ten years, from 1969 to 1979, i concentrated most of my energies towards my studies.
I remember once my father had said, that i must have worked hard on my studies, and to leave my other interests aside, till i complete my studies. He had told me that i would have quite much time at my disposal , to take care of my other fields of interest, once i get through my educational phase. He was right. I did do exactly as he had told me. I remained away from painting, journalism, hockey,etc, till i passed my Chartered Accountancy in the year 1979. In the words of my father, the whole world was open in front of me after that. Yes, i found it just like that. I started off re-entering the fields of paintings, music, sports and of course journalism, all at the same time, from 1980 onwards.
Honestly speaking, i was never having sufficient time to concentrate and excel in my professional field. Yet as the saying goes, to survive one has to earn his living by working . I had had to work in the field of Audit and accounts. But in no way i was going to sacrifice my interests in other fields, just because i was a chartered accountant. Till now, i am sticking to my same philosophy. Whole my working life, i simply could not earn a lot as a chartered accountant, just because i never wanted to give all of my time just to my job. No and never. My profession remained just one of fields of my interest. I admit that i could not excell as a chartered accountant due to these, and equally could not excell as an artist or writer or long distance runner, since i had had to give my first attention to my job as a chartered accountant.
However, still i believe that i managed to do a lot in my life. The moral of all this is that MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE. So i never ran after money, at the expense of my other fields of interest. I tried to divide my attention and time among all these fields.
Well, now coming back to the second phase of my journalistic life.
As i mentioned earlier, the period of 1969-1979 appear to be somewhat non-active period of my sports, painting and writing fields, yet it had never remained so totally. In fact, where most of my time was being spent on my studies, my activites in other fields remained in the background, just for the sake of keeping them along.
It was the year 1969. I was a student of class Tenth in the School. One day my father told me that one of his friends, wanted me to write his accounts. I was studying accounting in the school. I liked the idea. The next day my father took me to his friend. His friend was none else but Mr.SAFDAR BARLAS, the well known journalist. He was the Assistant Editor of DAWN newspaper. He was also the Honorary Secretary of the PAKISTAN UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION. I met him. I found myself in a totally different world. The Accounting work was not too much. Just to issue receipts for the membership fees received, and writing them in the books of the accounts. A few payments, and some miscellaneous works. That was all. In total, it was not more than a week work in a year.
However, i was too delighted to have a free entry in the office of DAWN newspaper. I started visiting there off and on, whether i had to meet Mr. Barlas or not. He used to come to his office at around 11 am. I had been going there, whenever i could, to read different newspapers and magazines. I had been observing the staff of the library to cut news and to paste them in huge registers, on topic basis. I did like that. Due to my personal style, however, i could never become friendly with anybody there, yet atleast the staff of the newspaper had been recognising me. I used all those periods to read newspapers and other journalistic materials. It was going to improve my english on one side, my knowledge about news coverage, news reporting, etc on the other. Although i never went there for than more than a week to the maximum, but for over ten years, it did contribute a lot in improving my journalistic vision.
My urge to write had awaken. But i had had to concentrate more on my studies. I was doing my B.Com ( I stood First Class Third in the Karachi University), and then i qualified as one of the youngest Chartered Accountants (in the year 1979). It was a decade of real hard labour for me.
During those days, once i remember telling my father my desire to write something, to be published in the newspaper. He asked me the topic on which i wanted to write. This was the toughest question. I never knew what did i want to write, i just wanted to write to publish. He suggested me to go and discuss this with Mr. Barlas.
The next day i went to the office of Mr. Safdar Barlas, and told him my desire to write to publish. He told me that since i was studying commerce, i should write something about economics or trade. I did not like his ides. I kept quite. In fact, all through my life, i never wrote about such topics. I simply did not, perhaps because i could not.
However, interestingly, my first published write up in a newspaper was about Accoun ting. Hahahahahahaha.
It so happened, that one day my father showed me a letter written by Mr. Salim Essa Habib (I do still remember his name). The letter was published in the Letters to the Editors section of DAWN newspaper. He had discussed the idea of Inflation Accounting. It was rather a new idea in those days. (the year was 1976 then). I read the letter, and instantly decided to respond. I wrote a short letter, in which i had questioned some of his views, and gave my own suggestions about introduction of Inflation Accounting in Pakistan. I showed my letter to my father. I wanted him to correct that. But he did not. Perhaps he did not want to undermine my courage. He told me to go to Dawn and deliver it there. In fact my parents, never discouraged me while taking first or next steps. This is why i always say that what i am is due to my parents. They never discouraged me. I still remember the first page of my 9th class (first) book of Accounting by Rup ram Gupta. He had honoured his book to his parents by writing.........TO MY PARENTS TO WHOM I OWE MY EVERYTHING.
Throughout my life i could never forget this sentence, and realize that i too my everything to my parents.
Well, to continue.
I delivered my letter to the office of the Dawn. I was never too hopeful, particularly i was never confident about the quality of my english, and also because of the fact that my letter was challenging the views of Mr. Salim Essa Habib, who was the vice president of the Karachi Stock Exchange. I was honestly no match to him.
I was more than excited to see my letter published in the newspaper, after perhaps two days. For me it was the opening of a totally new world. My father congratulated me. He was happy for obvious reason. I took the newspaper to my office. I was working at the audit of PIDC then, and showed the newspaper to my colleagues. It was a landmark for me.
Just two days after , i saw the letter of Mr. Salim Essa Habib , appearing in the same column in DAWN, where he had responded to my queries, and countered my views. It gave me an another chance to write an another letter on the same topic. This time i was confident of it being published. It published too. Hahahahahahahaha. I had entered the world of published journalism.
That was one stage that added a lot to my self confidence. I had realised how much correct my father was when he had not corrected my first letter. Although some corrections were done by the Dawn Editor, but that was normal . I would have never got the needed self confidence had my father corrected my first letter . He had let me write the letter of my own, and had let it go to the newspaper same. Thus the ultimate published piece of the letter made me assess my capability of a successful writer, capable of writing by myself on some topic. It was a wonderful achievement and a turning point of my life. (Interestingly my life does not lack turning points, they are too many)
However, i could not do anymore in this field, for sometime, just because again i was never confident of selecting a topic that MUST be published. But in which newspaper or magazine. However, one more important breakthrough came a couple of years later. Again through my father.
One day he brought home a magazine. It was TEENAGER. He told me that the magazine had mentioned that it encourages voluntary writers. He told me to write something for that magazine. But again i was stuck at the same point. What to write and about what. The topic? It was the biggest hindrance. I consulted my father. He gave me a wonderful idea. He asked me to send a letter to the editor of the magazine, and ask her about the topic and subject on which she might be interested to have me write something. Not much hopeful, yet i wrote a letter and posted.
I had had to go to my outstation audit assignment (perhaps Khairpur) . I stayed for over two weeks. On return my father told me that the editor of the newspaper had phoned, and expressed her desire to meet me. I felt honoured. However, i was always a shy sort of person, lacking the ability of marketing myself. However, i did go there.
It was a house in PECHSociety. I went there, and met the lady. She spoke to me, and encouraged me to write. I mentioned her the point where i had stuck. She tried to learn more about myself. When i told her that I play drums in an amateur band, she told me that i should build up a few simple questions about my group, and interview the members of the group. She promised that she would publish that interview.
In fact , that was the point due to which i had not been able to write. I wanted a guarantee that my article would not go to the dust bin. Because i was always afraid that i might not be able to bear the shock of being rejected. TEENAGERS gave me the guarantee that my write up would be published. I was too happy.
In a couple of days, i wrote a small interview about our musical group, and handed it over to the editor with our photos. Wow, my article and the photographs were published in the next issue of the magazine. Aha, that was it. I became too confident, and became more serious about writing articles.
However, i could not do much due to my studies. However, once i finished my CA, i jumped into the field of journalism, with great enthusiasm.
I wrote a couple of simple articles for Teenagers. There i got the chance of taking part in the formation of GALAXY OF YOUTH. An association for the young ones. It gave me an another chance to write the theme song of this association. I wrote it by myself, without consulting anybody. Interestingly , i had written it spontaneously in a matter of few minutes, during the meeting of the association, where the arrangement for the intitial introductory function of the society were being finalised. Interestingly, although our musical group was not upto the standard to play in that introductory function at the Alibhoy Auditorium , however i was lucky enough that my theme song was sung by Iftikhar, one of the members of our group, at the very start of the function. The song was sung by Iftikhar, as the curtains started rolling up. Iftikhar was standing in the middle of the stage, singing the song written by me. I was watching him singing, sitting somewhere in the hall. I congratulated myself for this great success. Interestingly, someone else in my place, would have been utilisied this achievement for coming in the limelight, but unfortunately i never knew the art of cashing my talent.
I can still remember the first two lines of that theme song
TODAY MY HEART IS FILLED WITH JOY
HERE IS GEE O WAAY G.O.Y.
THE GALAXY OF YOUTH
I remember this song writing led me to write an another song about THE BEATLES. I have forgotten almost all of the verses, except the initial line, which was just like this.........
GEORGE JOHN PAUL RINGO,
CHASE THEM WHERE THEY GO
HERE THEY COME AND THERE THEY GO
OH YES I KNOW THEM ALL
THEY R THE BEST
THE BEATLES
THE BEATLES
My friends and colleagues do remember my those days. I had been going to my audit assignments with a canvas brown bag. In that bag i used to carry my running short and track suite, my running shoes and my camera. I had been coming out of my official job at around 5 pm usually, from where i had been going to the YNCA ground, which was not too far from there, where i had been running . I had been using the same place to locate young sportsman and woman. I had been interviewing them there, and taking their photos. From there i had been visiting the Goethe Institute or Arts Council of Pakistan, or some other nearby places, to hunt for the young upcoming artists, etc to interview them and to take their photos. It had been my routine for around a decade.
While i was writing for TEENAGERS. i met Mr. Rashid Ahmed Durrani, who also lived in PECHS area. He was going to launch an another magazine for the young. He invited to write to his magazine. Like TEENAGERS, he too was taking me as a volunteer honorary writer. However, for me money was not the issue, i wanted to write . so i started writing for his magazine. It was very amateurely published. At times i wrote to fill the pages, on quite a many differing topics, in one single issue. That magazine gave me a chance to write on diversified topics.
In the meantime i started writing occassionally for the Youth Page of DAWN, MAG, READERS, and some other magazines. I had been hunting for people to be interviewed, and getting that published in some newspaper or magazine. Only DAWN was making me a payment for published article. MAG started paying a small amount later on.
I remember my first article, published in DAWN, was the interview of a young energetic blind boy. He was a master in english. He was very active person, who was also involved in many social works. I remember putting SO WHAT IF I AM BLIND, as heading of that article.
In the meantime , i developed a liking for writing on sports. I started writing weekly on sports page of DAILY NEWS. I continued writing them for a period of almost 11 years (1980-1991). They used to pay me a meagre amount of 100 Rupees per article.
I remember writing a lot , and with great enthusiasm , during that period. I wanted to write daily, but it was difficult to find it published daily.
I continued writing about sports on weekly basis. But i was looking for the diversity. So i started writing a column of satirical humor in DAILY NEWS. It was also a weekly column. Its title was I AND WHY. It was basically made up of dialogues between two persons, whose names were I and WHY. They usually discussed social problems and cultural issues. I remember once i had put the heading WHY DO YOU SMOKE IN MY NOSE, for an article about smoking in buses.
After sometime i changed the pattern of this to a plain sort of satirical article.
I had been making sketches for the same article.
It was a short period when i had started making cartoons too. I never did that again.
I remember that way back in early 1980s i had suggested of introducing an additional umpire to monitor the close cases of stumping and LBW, by replaying them , and declare the ultimate decision from there. I do not know, if i am the first person to suggest this then. This process is now a compulsory practice in todays cricket.
There were so many differing topics , on which i wrote articles. I interviewd quite too many people from all walks of life.
During mid 1980s i came across through an another aspect of journalistic life. After i joined the studio of EQBAL MEHDI (artist) as an observor, he had asked me to help his maternal uncle Mr. ZAMMARRUD HUSSAIN, who was publishing THE VOICE OF PALMISTRY , monthly magazine. So i started visiting his office, a couple of times a week, in the evening. I used to do translation work, making sketches, proofreading, etc, etc. I had been through all the processes of writing and publishing a magazine. I learned a lot there. The journalist inside me, earned a lot of self recognition and respect. I was too happy.
I was a freelance journalist, who used to work free generally, just for the love of writing.
During 1990 i shifted my attention from writing for newspapers/magazines etc, towards writing books. I wrote and got published my first book THE CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE, in 1991. I not over learnt the technique of writing a book, but also learnt publication too. Interestingly, i sold just one copy of the book, perhaps also because of the fact that i was never interested in selling. I was more interested in achieving a landmark for myself. So once i got it published , i lost all my interest in that.
I published a very small booklet TURKISH FOR BEGINNERS, the same year. I had formed the Turkish friends Society, and was more involved in my never ending love for Turkey.
After i returned after a (failed) week long visit of Northern Cyprus, in 1989. I started working for an another book titled THE BACKGROUND OF VIOLENCE IN CYPRUS. I finished the book, before going again to Northern Cyprus in 1991. I ameneded some parts of it, after settling there. The then President of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Raif Denktas was kind enough to write its preface. However, due to financial restraints i could never get the book published. Honestly i had lost my whole interest in it.
My whole life went through a severe jolt, once i uprooted myself from Pakistan and settled in Northern Cyprus in 1991. Starting everything from a scratch (without a job and sufficient funds) was never so easy, particularly in a country where i was excessively over-educated. I had had to fight for a living for myself and for my family. My activities in all other fields (music, painting, writing, sports, etc) had come to an abrupt standstill, and they remained so for quite a few next years.
It took me a couple of years to shed over the impressions of the initial jolts. In 1995, i hit upon the idea of becoming a song writer. I started writing songs. I wrote over a dozen songs, and sent them to various internationally recognised music promoters. Interestingly i never got any reply from anywhere. I wrote some songs in Turkish too. But that was all.
The year was 1996 when once i wrote a book where someone had mentioned a long sentence of over a thousand words. It attracted me.
The next morning i started writing a long sentence. It took me a short time to set up the pattern. Once set, i kept on writing and writing, non-stop, and the words continued lengthening the sentence. I was too involved in writing the sentence, although i had been giving my foremost attention to my job. It took me a couple of days to cross the figure of 3000 words in the sentence. Although the sentence was not yet complete, however i decided not to prolong it any further.
I mentioned it to a friend of mine, who suggested to go to the newspaper office. I went to KIBRIS newspaper the next morning. They found the issue worth publishing. They published my half page interview on the centre page, the next day. The daily HURRIYET newspaper too, published my interview the next day. Two local radio stations broadcasted my interviews. I was too happy. The writer inside me had awaken.
I did not take much time to write an another sentence, to break my own previous records. Once again i was in the newspapers.
But what next?
I decided to try my luck in turkish journalism. I started writing for a local newspaper in 1996. Again i was writing satire. Although my turkish was not upto the mark, yet they were publishing my column by correcting it. However, i stopped writing due to some ideological differences with the management of the newspaper.
Again, i remained untouched with the field for quite a long period, till the year 2010. I wrote an over 200 pages novel. Ofcourse i did not have the financial strength to publish it. So i decided to put it on line, in the form of a blog. It can be read at the undergiven link
THE TWO TULIPS
Since then i am writing in blogs, not too frequently. I plan to write an another novel about turkish history, but frankly speaking i am more involved in running/walking now a days.
The journalist inside me is still awake, and very young. I have have to write quite too many things. I will.
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