Azhar Kidvai (3)

While my father was in the UK he became an Atheist. This remained for a long time and I really can't remember seeing him offering prayers (other than Eed Prayers) for many years. However, rather early, he had a heart attack. Friends and relatives, plus the environment he lived in, told him that it was his lack of belief in Allah that had led to this health problem. Slowly he became a stronger and stronger Muslim. His Library had more Religious Books, Hadeeses, and biographies of famous Muslims. However, he also continued to buy Western Books and they included numerous subjects. More on that in my next blogpost.

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Abi was strongly opposed to the Brits ruling India and wanted them to leave. He spoke about it to his friends and even wrote Qit'as about their bringing of famine to Bengal. Here is one that I remember:

  

تن پر نہیں ہے چتھڑا، چولھے ہیں گھر میں ٹھنڈے

رکھتے ہیں پھر بھی اونچے ہم دوسروں کے جھنڈے

مرغی کی خاصیت ہے ہندوستانیوں میں

 خود کھا رہے ہیں کوڑا اور دے رہے ہیں انڈے

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While being anti-Brits ruling India, he was a well-known honest Doctor. So it was during WW2 that Abi was called by the British Army to be among the Doctors who were sent everywhere to look after injured soldiers. This was in late 1943. My father said he'd like to take my mother and me along wherever he was posted … and the Army accepted that.

Jhansi - October 1944

 We moved everywhere, some for a short period and a few places for a longer time. I remember many of Abi's friends whom we encountered during those days. Some from old times in a place where they lived; some from the Army that became close friends. Zakkan (Zakaullah Khan) Chacha, Gazdar Chacha, Khan Chacha, Badshah Chacha (who died in Karachi very early. He had lived with us, after coming from India, and stayed with us almost a whole year); Sari Bhai (a nephew of Khan Chacha) used to bring Bananas for me often.

Shafiq-ur-Rahman - everyone's favorite humorous writer - was an Assistant to Abi. In his book (لہریں) you can see a bit of Abi … 

Uncle Shafiq, as I understood from my mother (Ummi is what I called her) when I started reading his books, fell in love with various nurses. He gave a nurse an engagement ring and when the affair didn't last long, he'd take the ring back and give it to Ummi to keep until his next affair which -he said- would be final. But that never happened :)

Of course there was also my absolute favorite: Gupta Cha whom you can read about in my older blogposts*. In  one of mymeetings with him (I was 4 at that time), Abi had not returned from work. I thought I should entertain Gupta Chacha while he waited. So I opened the Gramophone and asked him if he wanted to hear Bachoñ kay Gānay or Ba∂oñ kay Gānay. He asked me what they were and I said the Bacha vala was Talat Mahmood and the Ba∂ā vala were Umkarnath Thakur This is what happens when you hear nothing but music when Abi is home. (By the way TM was my father's first cousin and grew up in my Dadi's house.)

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The thing that I remember most about WW2 was that often the Abi went to treat an injured person, he'd take me along. I was always dressed in the Army Suit you see above on those trips. I saw some really badly injured persons and lots of blood. Occasionally Abi would take a blood sample and go the clinic room and put it in a container and make it go around. Once in a while he'd let me make the gadget around too. So my interest in Medicine probably grew out of this 'toyishness'. Sadly, that never really happened for a reason … 

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*Gupta Cha + our move from India

Bloggerhttp://kidvai.blogspot.com › 2008/10India 3: An uncanny tale ... (Part 1 — The Rather Long Preamble)

http://kidvai.blogspot.com › 2008/10India 4: An uncanny tale ... (Part 2 — The Conclusion)

http://kidvai.blogspot.com/2008/12/india-5-uncanny-tale-prologue.html

Azhar Kidvai (2)

Abi & Ummi: 1956

Abi's fondness for Literature in English and Urdu was something I inherited from him, as I did with his love for all kinds of Music: Western Classical, Opera, Jazz, Indian Classical and Qavvālis. I am so glad that I got all these from him for they have altered my life. I suppose a lot of the Eastern Classical music loving came from his mother who was very interested in it and had major musicians come to her house and perform.

Abi's mother did write a remarkable Foreword for my father's uncle.s book (Alame-Khayal by Shaoq Qidwai).The book was banned at that time in India but is now available in a collection of Shauq Sahab's work by his great grandson). She was a close friend of Atiya Fyzee. - an extremely well-known writer, traveller, and thinker - who was invited to major music concerts in India and the West. 

One of the things I remember most is when I sat for a Test (more about that in another blogpost) for the Merchant Navy, I had to write an essay on why I wanted to join it. I quoted a piece from a book; Sailing Alone Around The World (by Joshua Slocum) … and the examining Captain asked me where I had found this book. I said it was a present from my father. He said, Oh. Is he a Sailor?" and I said, "No, he is a Doctor." That may have helped me get in to a job that I was in for 25 years.

Abi had a large library of books and when he died … and while I was away on a trip … it was all sold to a man who bought rubbish. This was done by my khāla (maternal aunt) for a tiny amount. The money was given to my mother and it must have lasted for a couple of weeks. I spent days going to second-hand shops to see if I could find any and found 2 that are now in my possession. Wherever the remaining books are, I hope the new owners have improved their lives by reading them.

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Here is a piece from Naee Paod. 

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Abi's decision, even as a younger person was that people from all religions (and even non-religion persons) should live to gather. It wasn't that they just tolerate each other; they ought to live happily together and celebrate their own happy and sad events together. Another fact was that he knew that Women and Men were absolutely similar in their minds and strongly opposed the patriarchy in his conversations and writings. This can easily be seen in some of his prose and poetry pieces.

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Azhar Kidvai (1)

I called my father Abi.

It means 'My Father' in Arabic and even in Hebrew.

Ever since I posted one of Abi's Ghazals on Facebook, I have had two members of my extended family (and a couple of friends) tell me to do a blogpost about him. One blogpost wouldn't do, I thought when I started this one ... so this is Part 1 of the blogposts I will do about him.

This was his Ghazal that I posted

It's in his own handwriting.

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Abi was born in Rampur on April 11th, 1900, to Safdar Ali and Mahlaqa Begum and was given two names (a feature that was common on those days): Khāqān Alam (a name that he never used) and Azhar Ali (from which he dropped the Ali).

His Urdu name was ازہر قدوائ … although many people wrote it as اظہر (a much more common name in Urdu). But surely you do remember Al-Azhar? That's الازہر. The two words have different meanings. The ظ one brings ظاہر o your mind. The ز one comes from the meaning of light: Think of the planet زہرا … (Btw, my name is زہیر عاؔلم قدوائ ).

Our last names are Kidvai (and is obviously part of the Qidwai, Quidwai, Kidwai, etc.). The reason why my father used the K/V is because we are descended from Kazi Kidva, a Turkish Judge who came to India with Mughal Emperor, Babar. In the Turkish alphabet there is no Q or W. You can see this here …

And surely you have seen Qur'an written as Koran

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He went to Aligarh for his studies (as did his father and a couple of chachas). He graduated as a B.A. in English Literature. Was a strong member of the Congress Party and also strongly supported the Khilafat Movement. He spent a brief time in Jail, condemned by the British Rulers.

On his return from Jail he decided to put together an Urdu Collection of Essays and Short Stories. It was called Naee Paod. Here is the cover:

I have a copy (the book is no longer in print now) and will add a story in my second blogpost about him.

He also (occasionally) translated some verses from English into Rübāis and Qit'as. Here is one that you might like.

A little later he decided to go to Scotland for a Degree in Medicine. His father agreed and sent him there … but hardly sent any money later (although my grandfather had plenty, but that is another story).

He had a pretty bad time in Scotland where he was doing his Degrees and would never go out with his friends, saying he had a 'secret date'. Actually he went to a small restaurant and ordered hot water and poured it into a glass, adding the Tomato Sauce to make it like a soup. That was most of the time. His friends thought he was dating a famous person and were eventually eventually told that he was in hospital. His left kidney had failed. He had had an operation and was now living with just one kidney.

I heard about all the above from his close friend, Rashid Chacha, in Karachi. I was amazed that my father had never ever mentioned this to me. When I asked him why he had never said this to me, he said it was about him and his father and I had no business to interfere in this.

He had no money to pay for his exam and his very close friend (?), Auntie Dorothy, decided to loan him the money to appear for the exam. Two years later he came to India as his mother was dying with Cancer. After her death he married my mother and told her on the second day that he would not be able to run the house with what he used to get as he had to return the money to Auntie Dorothy. My mother gave him the jewellery that she had been given in her jahez and it was sold so the he could send the full money to Auntie Dorothy. (My parents lived in Aligarh and that's where I was born.)

When Abi was in Scotland, he practiced his Medicine in a small town called Monifieth. When I was in the Merchant Navy as a Second Officer, my First Officer - John W. Cowper (JWC) - gave me a letter to post to his father. I saw Monifieth on the address and mentioned it to Abi. He said he knew who this person was the son of and I mentioned tis to JWC. On the next trip to UK, JWC took me to Monifieth and I met many of Abi's old friends, including Auntie Dorothy and JWC's father. They all remembered him and said he was very funny and he cracked lots of jokes and puns. 

JWC died a year later soon after his father passed away and he was informed that 'as an adopted son' he had been given his father's money according to the will. He never knew that he was adopted. Came home. Drank for days. And was found dead. I told my father this and he said he knew that JWC was adopted but his father had said to all his friends never to say this to JWC.

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More in my next blog.