A famous dialogue of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan from the film Om Shanti Om goes: “Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dilse chaho toh puri kainaat usse tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.”
I remembered this dialogue as I stood to speak at an interactive session titled “Relevance of Aligarh Movement today in promotion of peace, progress and harmony” at the banquet hall of a restaurant in Doha on Friday. Taking advantage of my presence in Doha, AMU Alumni Association Qatar (AMUAQ), held this event where, apart from over two dozen Aligs, Sachin D Shankpal (IFS), first secretary from Indian Embassy in Doha, too came in.
So why is Shah Rukh’s dialogue relevant here? A couple of years ago, at a Sir Syed Day function AMUAQ invited me too. I joined online and in that brief speech I had wished to be there one day physically and eat dinner with AMUAQ members. Providence knows how to fulfill your wishes. In preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar Museum (QM) invited over 30 journalists from across the world to see their museums (modern art, Islamic art and sports museum), fashion studio, national library and public art installations, including some massive ones in the middle of a desert. I will write about my visits to these places in a couple of days.
Since I was in Doha and the last day of my stay (Friday) was free before I took flight back to Mumbai, AMUAQ’s dynamic president and my batch mate at 10+2 at AMU Dr Nadeem Zafar Jilani, in consultation with other office bearers of the Association, planned the interaction.
Let us stay with Nadeem for a few minutes. A topper throughout his academic career, Nadeem is a senior pediatrician, has bagged several degrees, citations from India and abroad. When he is not treating children and doing child rights’ advocacy, he pens beautiful Urdu poems depicting what is happening around us. Poetry is not his source to earn bread. That comes from the noble and prestigious job he has.
There are many parameters to fathom the success of a man. If you judge by where that man lives, he has a villa to himself in an up market neighbourhood in Doha. I remember in Aligarh he had a rickety bicycle. What did you do to that khatara bicycle, Nadeem?
I felt proud and thanked God for showing his boundless kindness to my dear friend Nadeem. He drove me around in his SUV. His one daughter is studying medicine at Oxford while another will soon be joining another prestigious university in England to study English literature.
Though an extremely busy man, Nadeem came to my hotel thrice during my stay. On the first day he took me to a restaurant for a traditional Indian-Pakistani meal where AMUAQ’s former President Jawed Ahmad too joined us. Jawed is a civil engineer from AMU and holds an important job in a company. His prosperity shows, both in his bulging girth and the high-end, huge car he drives. The second time Nadeem came to see me was when I fell a little ill. Due to consumption of cold beverages, I developed a throat infection and mild fever. Normally I keep some antibiotics and paracetamol tablets during my trips abroad. This time I forgot to carry them. There you cannot buy medicine on the counter without a prescription from a doctor. Nadeem was kind enough to bring those medicines for me. By the next morning, I was fit and fine.
The third time Nadeem came to pick me up as I checked out of the hotel. He took me to the Lulu Mall where I shopped for a few things for my kids, then to his house from where we went to offer Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. I have been to many mosques across the world. I am yet to see a mosque matching the design of this Doha Mosque. It looks like a fish or an airplane. I was pleasantly surprised to see at this air conditioned mosque that those devotees who don’t understand Arabic are given earphones to follow the Imam’s sermon in English translation. A man explains the sermon in sign language for the hearing-impaired too. Qatar knows how to blend tradition with modernity.
Nadeem took me and his son Ahmed to the venue for the interactive programme. Initially I was made to sit at a table where a dozen Aligs joined for an informal chat. Once the first secretary came, we moved to the small stage. A good poet and an experienced anchor that he is, Nadeem anchored this function too. After welcoming me with a shawl and bouquet, he introduced me. In my introduction he recalled how his father and my father wanted us to become doctors. “His heart was somewhere else. The film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak had just been released and its song Papa kehte hain bada kaam karega…was a rage among us. We were leaving the threshold of adolescence and identified a lot with Aamir Khan who in this song crooned…magar yeh toh koi na jane ke meri manzil hai kahan,” recalled Nadeem. “Wajih took this song to heart. He set his own manzil and spent countless hours first at Maulana Azad Library in Aligarh and then at Khuda Bakhsh Library in Patna. From studying in Hindi medium at a village school to working with TOI, India’s largest English daily, he has come a long way.”
I was overwhelmed. Memories rushed back. I dwelt on reasons for Sir Syed undertaking the herculean task of reforming Indian Muslim society. “Sir Syed didn’t want to just establish a college or a university. He wanted to infuse modern and scientific thoughts in the minds of Muslims in the subcontinent.” I said.
Aligarh Movement is important because it stirred a community which had been rendered backward, hopeless, orthodox in the aftermath of the holocaust of 1857. Describing the role of AMU’s products in our freedom struggle, I recalled how poet and freedom fighter Hasrat Mohani coined the revolutionary slogan “Inquilab Zindabad” and poet-journalist and freedom fighter Mohammed Ali Jauhar declared during the Roundtable Conference in England that he would not return to his country till it is a slave country and the British will have to give freedom or a place for his burial. Mohammed Ali died in England and was buried in the premises of Baitul Muqaddas at Jerusalem. I also mentioned Ross Masood, Sir Syed’s grandson who studied at Cambridge and went on to become a leading educationist in India of his time. As VC of AMU, Masood injected a culture of excellence on the campus. I also quoted a paragraph from my book where Masood, soon after taking over the VC’s charge, addressed the AMU community at the Strachey Hall and declared: “I don’t want anything second class here. I want everything first class.” Where has such a visionary VC gone, my Lord? Among the remarkable things Masood did was the letter he wrote to Einstein, requesting him to send a Physics teacher. Einstein sent one of his students to teach Physics at AMU. It gives me goose bumps to recall the emphasis on excellence some of the VCs gave. Here once giants led from the front. Now pygmies, selfish, narrow-minded individuals rule the roost. The consequences have been disastrous. Both for AMU and the community at large.
Gawan di humne jo aslaf se meeras payi thi
Suraiyya se zameen par aasman ne humko de mara
There was a brief question-answer session too. They asked questions about growing deterioration at AMU, the future of print media and poor performance of residential coaching institute at AMU. The first secretary Shankpal admitted he was more a listener than a speaker and said that institutions do face ups and downs and hoped things would improve soon. He said my book and the talk had created huge curiosity about AMU in him and he would try his best to visit the AMU campus during his next visit to India.
Now it was time for the lavish lunch. The spread at the buffet was multi-cuisine and mouth-watering. Soup, kebabs, korma, naan, and several kinds of deserts tempted us at the table. Prof Javaid Zaidi joined me at the table and blamed nepotism and inbreeding, corruption in selection of teachers as the main causes of fall in academic standards at the campus. Like a true Aligarian, he wants things improved. He wants teachers to get exposed to the world and see how teachers in leading universities of the West learn new things. It made much more sense what he said.
Since I had to catch the evening flight, we broke out on a happy note after clicking group photographs and selfies. Nadeem dropped me to the airport and by next morning I was back home. I will cherish the memories.
Mohammed Wajihuddin is a senior journalist working with the Times of India, Mumbai.
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