In 1980, this author worked as a teller in the bank and was posted
at Lal Chowk, Amira Kadal branch. Those were the days when
customers would be mostly dealt by tellers through personalised
service. They never felt the need to go to supervisors or the manager sitting
behind them. The tellers were the face of the bank in terms of polite and
personalised service
One such customer who would come straight to this author or
to Roshan Lal Haku (another teller) was the well-known Kashmiri
short story writer Akhtar Mohi ud din. He was always in a hurry and would
say something that would make us happy for many days. A dialogue, a brief story,
a Kashmiri proverb or some personal anecdote. We would offer him tea while he
stood talking. He drank it partly, talked, collected his payment and would
leave saying' Lassiv ' (May you live long). No other colleague in the bank
knew who he was. This author always felt that he was a sincere and open-hearted person.
“My real name is Ghulam Mohiuddin Wani. We actually belong to the village Frisal, Pulwama. My father married in the city and shifted to Batmaloo. I spent my childhood and youth in Batmaloo. I studied in Islamia School, Maisuma, National School and S P College. “
“How can I repay the debt to Som Nath Zutshi’s wife, a goddess and for me, a
real sister in need. Do you know she single-handedly did all the
post-delivery care of my wife once? Do you understand the word 'Phott' in Kashmiri?
It means post-delivery care . Where in this life can this debt be repaid?”
“I remain ever grateful to Prof Jay Lal Kaul for encouraging me to write in Kashmiri.
In fact, when I started writing, he arranged a reading session in S P College
for me and treated me like a great writer. From him, I also learnt a lot. A gem
of a person who has a great command of English and Kashmiri. ”
“Amongst friends, Shamim Ahmed Shamim always wanted me to write in Urdu. He was
very happy when my Urdu story was published in English translation in the New York Herald Tribune and also awarded second prize in this short story
competition. Shamim is a reliable friend who thinks much ahead of his
time. He is very sharp. You have just to tell him the contours of any issue, and he
will come back to you with all the details. And amongst politicians, the late Sadiq Sahib
was a real connoisseur of literature.”
“I regard Krishen Chander as a great writer. His stories and style are definitely
a class apart. But when it comes to writing stories based on Kashmir, he has
not done justice. He only talks about the hills, valleys, beautiful women and romance.
He never lived in Kashmiri society. He never wrote on issues connected with
Kashmiri society as such.We have similar issues and social
problems that one comes across in various other
societies in the Northern or the Southern parts of the country.”
“Is Shambu Nath Ji ( Late S N Kaul from Bandipora Kashmir was a saintly officer in the bank ) fine? Convey my Namsakar to him. I am in a hurry this time else would
have gone up to meet him.”
So would Akhtar Mohi ud din say to us.
Even after transfer and promotion
from the Amira Kadal branch, this author met Akhtar Mohi ud din in some functions.
three or four times last being possibly in 1988. Thereafter, the tragic events in the Kashmir
valley made things altogether different. We had to leave Kashmir due
to widespread terrorism. The struggle for survival in the heat and
dust of the plains of the country put art and literature into the non-priority
zone for some time. And then one day in 2001, when I was posted in
Amritsar city, we came to know about his death from a
newspaper. Kashmiri language shall not get another crafty story writer like Akhtar
Mohi ud din.
.I had been reading his short stories since my college days. I always liked
his narration and realistic representation of situations and characters.His
stories probably evolved from his own surroundings. These stories carry the feel and throb of the living style of ordinary people in the Kashmiri society. Read him in
original Kashmiri or translation, he leaves an impression. My friend Jaswant
Singh Saggu from Jalandhar is a great admirer of Akhtar Mohi ud din’s short stories.
Once he discussed “THE MAD WORLD ” a superb story by Akhtar Mohi ud din
which he had read in English translation.I suggested him to read stories like
'Daryaayi Hund Yezaar ( Red Silk Salwar ) and ' Dand Vazun '
available in English translation. SathhSangar (Seven Mountain Peaks) and Sonzal (Rainbow) are two books that contain most of his well-known short stories published in 1955 and 1958 respectively. Sath Sangar
won him the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958. He was amongst
the founders of the Progressive Writers Association in Kashmir. His experimentation
with new style and form is visible in some stories like 'Lassu Valdi
Mahmood '( Lassu son of Mahmood ), 'Aadam Chhu Ajeeb Zaat' ( Man is a
strange creature ) and 'Gaahe Taaf ta Gaahe shuhul' ( Sometimes sunshine
and sometimes Shade ). Aadam Chhu Ajeeb Zaat was also rewritten as a play for
Radio Kashmir. ‘Doad Dhag '(Sorrow and Pain) written in 1957, was his first
attempt to write a Kashmiri Novel. Many critics call it a love and lust story
woven essentially around three characters Fatima, Raja and
Abdul Gani, a Munshi with Shamas ud din A Namda trader. But Prof
. Jay Lal Kaul clarifies:-
“This novel is a painful reflection of the society that we live in.
Reading it makes you together sad and happy apart from sharpening your
social consciousness.”
Akhtar Mohi ud din wrote another
Kashmiri novel 'Zuvv Ta Zolaan ' which was also well received in Kashmir’s
literary circles Some time back, MIRAAS, a literary magazine published
in English from New Delhi, carried Akhtar Mohi ud din’s
short story “THE HOURI OF PARADISE ” ably translated into
English by Prof Neerja Mattoo. Like Prof Jay Lal Kaul, her translations are also simple and
appropriate. Akhtar Mohiuddin figures as a prominent story writer of India in the following books:-
(1) (1) ‘Encyclopaedic Dictionary on Asian
Novels and Novelists ‘ by R P Malhotra
(2) (2) ‘Our
Favourite Indian Stories’ by Neelam Kumar and Khushwant Singh
(Avtar Mota)
This write-up is based on Akhtar Mohiuddin’s work and creative output till 1990.
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
