Side-effect

Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most astonishing poets to walk the earth, said, "I would like to step out of my heart and go walking beneath the enormous sky." Dr Anwar (pronounced Anvaar) Ahmed has done the same when doing pen portraits of his family, teachers, friends, colleagues and those who inspired him over the years in his collection "Yaadgaar-i-Zamana Hain Jo Logg". However, while he walked out of his heart to take a long stroll and reflect, he did keep a piece of it in his pocket. That piece of heart peeps through the chiselled lines of his prose and hence rounds off the edges for the reader. His collection is not just a usual nostalgic trip down the memory lane but revives one's belief in humanity.

Beginning from a vivid description of his grandparents and the family in which he grew up, its tensions, complexities and simplicities, to at times witty and at times sad portrayals of his contemporaries bring that Multan to life which has sheltered and produced a galaxy of incredible people in all walks of life. Being overshadowed by the grandeur of Lahore did nothing to stop these people from Multan making significant contributions to the world of art, literature and academic excellence.

The book is published from Lyallpur (I prefer to call it Lyallpur rather than Faisalabad for a whim of mine to be discussed sometime later), where Dr Anwar Ahmed is now a dean and professor of literature at the Government College University after retiring from long years of service at the Urdu department of Bahauddin Zakariya University in his native Multan. Setting up of Seraiki Language Centre which later became a full-fledged department goes to his credit too. Dr Ahmed has published short stories before and edited and compiled a number of literary anthologies. "Yaadgaar-i-Zamana Hain Jo Logg" is written with both compassion and objectivity. It also took me to the Multan I know where there is always some work to do and many friends to meet.

Multan

has a peculiar charm. More than the imposing shrines of Sufi saints for which Multan is considered to be sacred, whenever I enter the city I am reminded of the struggle for Multan's sovereignty in the nineteenth century waged by Nawab Muzaffar Hussain Khan in the face of the atrocious army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Nawab gave his life but did not surrender to Maharaja's army. The event that made him into a hero was his decision to finally let the army enter the city after realising that now resistance would cause a lot of bloodshed and the common people would suffer hugely. When he was convinced that there is little Multanis could do to stop the all powerful invaders, he went into his palace and when Maharaja's army entered the palace he fought them to death. Some time after the fall of Multan, Maharaja Ranjit Singh came to visit his new territory and the first thing he did was to pay his respects to the valour of his adversary by visiting the Nawab's grave. According to Khushwant Singh's account of the Maharaja, he took the two surviving princes of the Nawab to Lahore as his courtiers. That may have been his way of eliminating any possibility of an uprising in future.

The politician Dr Anwar Ahmed remembers at the end of his book is not from Multan but someone he considers a people's leader. His piece on Benazir Bhutto reflects the trauma the nation went through after her assassination. But even after having a prime minister from the place, nothing can change for real if a new pro-people political and economic order is not established in the country. We see the two princes of Multan ending up in the Maharaja's court. It is now for the common people of Multan to rise and join hands with their underprivileged, downtrodden and marginalised fellow citizens from all parts of Pakistan to change their destiny and help create a just and prosperous country.



The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org