Over the centuries, from their far flung valleys and mountain abodes, Kashmiris used to came down to the planes of Northern India in search of livelihood. Some families permanently settled in the cities. Sialkot was the most convenient for it was just across the Jammu hills. The second largest community of Kashmiris was in Amritsar. Kashmiris had forgotten snow capped mountains, saffron fields and roaring rivers but they never forgot their way of life. From the most delicious culinary traditions to the most beautiful and delicate handicrafts, Kashmiris had a rich culture, well preserved over centuries.
Around the year 1928, a son was born to a family of Kashmiri pehelwans (wrestlers) in Amritsar. They were passionately dedicated to their profession. Young Abdul Hameed was being brought up in strict discipline. He was instructed to rigorously exercise in the akhara (training field) every morning. His father wanted him to be a celebrity wrestler. On the contrary, the boy was a free soul. He was hopelessly romantic. He was in love with flowers, birds, tress, rains, sunsets, winter afternoons and summer nights. To him, life held endless beauty. From the steam coming out of samovar to the people in streets, all things that made up life were beautiful. Amritsar’s company gardens were his second home. He spent his time either dreaming under the shade of trees on the banks of canal flowing through the garden or in the library, reading stories and poetry in literary magazines. Hameed lived in a world of his dreams.
Having a romantic for a son was naturally a huge disappointment for Hameed’s pehelwan father. His anger often translated into a severe beating. The father had a point after all: who would buy his son’s dreams? To him the boy was good for nothing. To escape the father’s beatings or maddened by his dreams, Hameed ran away from home many times in his childhood and early adolescence. Luckily, a new world of adventure and romance revealed itself to the young boy every time he left home to wander the length and breadth of Indian subcontinent. Around 1941, he watched a motion picture starring the most beautiful face of her time, pari chehra Naseem Banu. Absolutely infatuated by her beauty, he went all the way to Bombay to meet her. The dream couldn’t come true but nevertheless, he had the bitter-sweet experience of living and surviving as a complete stranger in a huge urban city. His wandering soul didn’t let him rest and took him further to explore nature in the forests and hills of South India.
Another time, he was romantically involved with a girl in their neighborhood in Amritsar. There couldn’t be a more innocent love story. He used to bring red roses for her every morning from the Company Gardens and slide them inside a window opening into the street. The girl waited everyday for roses. Then one day, the girl’s mother happened to be in the room at that time. She saw a hand sliding red roses in the window. The girl was immediately married off to Delhi. Heartbroken, Hameed followed her to Delhi where his own sister used to live. She managed to arrange one last meeting between the two lovers. Hameed’s brother-in-law Captain Mumtaz Malik used to work for All India Radio. Literary giants of the age, Noon Meem Rashid, Saadat Hassan Manto, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and Upinder Nath Ashk were not only his colleagues at the radio but they all lived in the same neighborhood. During his long stay with his sister in Delhi, Hameed got a chance to closely observe these great writers and poets. It could only be luck which took the young teenager further to Colombo and Rangoon, the capital cities of Sri Lanka and Burma where his brother in law was posted in early 1940s. Hameed also witnessed the horrors of the mass exodus of Indians from Burma following Japanese occupation in 1942. These extraordinary experiences of childhood and early adolescence had a permanent impression on the young man’s mind. In years to come when he became an established writer, a vast literature inspired from South India, Sri Lanka and particularly Burma came out of his pen in form of short stories, novels, travelogues, memoirs and columns.
Following Partition in 1947, Hameed and his family were uprooted from their hometown like millions of others. They found refuge in Lahore. Hameed wasn’t unfamiliar with the great city. At the time of Partition, he was working in Lahore and travelled everyday on the train between Amritsar and Lahore. He frequently wrote about those tragic days. The family was stranded in Amritsar and he was stuck in Lahore. Every day he went through the agony of waiting for his loved ones to reach Lahore. They were finally reunited but life remained unpredictable for many years to come.
Lahore was the glittering jewel in the crown of Indian subcontinent. The city’s prominence grew after Partition. It became a center of poets, writers, artists, singers and musicians. Literary scene at Lahore was in full bloom. It was home to best publishers and greatest Urdu literary magazines which circulated throughout the Subcontinent. A number of cafés on the Mall became permanent dens for writers, poets, thinkers and intellectuals. All day long, poetry, art, fiction and philosophy were discussed among intellectuals over rounds of cigarettes and tea. Hameed had many friends among literary circles and spent most of his time in tea houses with them. They encouraged him to become a writer himself. A very non literary name Abdul Hameed was shortened to A. Hameed. His first short story Manzil Manzil was published in 1948 and took the literary scene by a storm. In the age of social realism, a young writer had written a beautiful romantic story and carved a niche for himself. Writers belonging to Progressive Writers Movement bitterly opposed his style and themes. They had been struggling against fantasy and romanticism for so many years and ridiculed any writer who tried to write about the lighter side of life. However, there was one exception. The great Saadat Hassan Manto was an admirer of A. Hameed’s. In his opinion, he was the most promising new writer. Out of the world of idealism, A. Hameed had become an extremely popular writer with his very first publication and enjoyed a wide readership.
(To be continued…)