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A Writer of Romance
A Writer of Romance
- by Shehla Fatah
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Abdul Hameed is a busy writer. I met him at his Samanabad residence in Lahore, where I
was heartily welcomed in a mixture of Punjabi, Urdu and English with a cup of hot tea. I
discovered that Hameed does not have time for his friends, for he considers that in the
half-hour spent with them, he could have conceived a novel. No wonder he has written
more than two thousand and five hundred Urdu books in just forty-nine years, which
include romantic novels, manuscripts on realism, travelogues, personal accounts,
recollections and children's stories. He probably qualifies for the Guinness Book of
World Records. I felt elated that he had given me enough time in which he could have
envisioned at least two novels.
His life is like a novel itself, each year unraveling an unimaginable adventure that one
would simply fantasize about but never conceive as reality. He was born in
Amritsar in a middle-class Kashmiri family. His father was a wrestler and he wanted his
son to follow the same profession. But Hameed who was studying at the MAO school
had other interesting ideas up his sleeves. He did not want to become a wrestler though
he savored the heavy concoction of milk, honey, nuts, cardamoms and a blend of herbs
his father made him drink. Also he enjoyed the daily routine of the massage and exercise.
"I was just eleven years old when I saw a movie that starred Saira Bano's mother, Naseem
Bano, and I fell in love with her. I was so crazy about her that when I read in a digest that
she lived in Bombay, I ran away from home, caught a train and reached Bombay. The
city was a labyrinth of commotion and obviously I could not find Naseem Bano and was
totally distressed. But during the return journey, I was completely flabbergasted by the
jungles and mountains that we passed and the landscape left a profound impact on me. I
did not like school and the only subjects I enjoyed were Urdu and English and by the
time I was in the eighth grade, I derived pleasure from reading Krishan Chander and
Rajinder Singh Bedi."
When Hameed was still in school, his sister got married. Her husband who was in the
army was posted in Rangoon and on her insistence; Hameed accompanied her for a few
months. Any excuse for staying away from school was always welcome and in no time he
was all packed up on his way to Rangoon. His brother-in-law was a literary person and
enjoyed the company of intellectuals like Baqar Mehdi, Ishtiaq Hassan Hasrat and Faiz
Ahmed Faiz. Enroute to Rangoon they stopped at Delhi and stayed at the residence of
Noon Meem Rashid who was then the director of programs at the All India Radio. It was
here that Hameed interacted with belletristic people including the great dramatist Saadat
Hassan Manto. The scenic landscape from Amritsar to Delhi and onward to Nagpur and
Deccan and then finally Rangoon remained imprinted on his impressionable mind.
The escapades from home became a regular feature in his life. "I was young and very
adventurous, and during the British rule there was a period of complete safety and
security. No one feared getting lost or kidnapped. I was crazy about jungles, music, the
sea, rivers, rain and of course, beautiful female faces. I wanted to see Bengal, hear the
music, the songs, and the shimmering of the coconut trees. Their women, who were
known to be delicate, patient and enduring, were also chaste and faithful. I reached
Calcutta and met someone who told me that the Bengal ka jadoo was such that it could
caste a spell on anyone. Unfortunately, I had relatives in Calcutta who found me, locked
me up and informed my father to come and collect me, so the bewitching spell was
rudely cast off. Skipping school in this way resulted in a lack of regular attendance. I read
my tenth grade results at the Lucknow railway station. It was during one of these trips to
Sri Lanka in 1947 that I learnt of the increasing communal riots in Punjab and I returned
to Amritsar in July of the same year. It was then an onward journey to Pakistan, with not
a penny to our name, not even a tawa in the dilapidated house in the Gawalmandi area of
Lahore where we initially settled down. Suddenly life had taken an unexpected, serious
turn."
But life actually had taken the best turn of his life. Lahore became the hub of literary
activity. He hobnobbed with literary associates such as Ahmed Rahi, Ibrahim Jalees, Ibn-
i-Insha, Kaifi Azmi, Hanif Ramay and Ashfaque Ahmed who all hang around at the
famous Teahouse of Lahore. Hameed was asked to write in the prestigious literary
magazine Adb-i-Latif. The writing that was to his credit included his diary and a never-
ending stream of love letters to women usually older than himself who either returned
these or reprimanded him with a tight slap for his boldness. He was a romantic at heart,
from his adolescent days when he claims he had a torrid affair in Lahore. On the
insistence of his friends, he wrote a true love story entitled Manzil Manzil which not only
fetched him twenty-five rupees a fairly handsome amount in those days, but the talent of
his expression, spearheaded him to overnight fame. Offers started pouring in from other
publications and he says, "I penned down all my past and present love affairs." He was
living in the world of renaissance romanticism, caught in the web of aristocracy and
chivalry that he had read about.
He explains, "The area of Gawalmandi where we lived had drug addicts, poor daily wage
earners, women and girls toiling all day, those sitting on the threshold of their houses
buying vegetables with whatever little money they had, men fighting among themselves,
and those who loved their wives and also fought with them for every paisa. Hunger and
poverty was all around us. I was greatly touched by what I saw. Suddenly romanticism
and realism were running side by side within me and in 1950, I wrote my first novel
Darbay, a story of the post-Partition problems of the mohajirs." The novel completely
sold out and Hameed earned eight hundred rupees. The rent of their home in Misri Shah
was just fifty rupees so there was ample money for the family with which to live a
comfortable life.
His stories continued with the same themes sometimes intertwining both aspects of
romanticism and realism. He read a lot of Hardy, Dickens and Oscar Wilde where the
prose and the ability of expressing the inner psyche stirred him the most. "Among the
romantic poets, Shelley impressed me with his intellectual thought and practical
philosophy. I read Gorky and English translations of French writers. When I started
writing, I began recollecting the people I had met and the experiences that had molded
me. I recalled the blended fragrance of coffee, cocoa and cigar floating in the streets of
Rangoon.
People were fascinated as to what I was writing about, they had not seen the places I had
visited during my childhood adventures." From these recollections came such
masterpieces as Zard Gulab, Khizan ka Geet, Jehan barf Girti Hai, Jungle Rotay Hain,
Ravan kay des Main, Sona Gachi ki Ratain, Ra ki Sazish, Dilli Action and others. Among
the 2,500 books published in Urdu under his name, there are five collections of stories,
seventy novels, hundreds of travelogues and three hundred novels of a hundred and fifty
pages each comprising part of a series for children called Amber Naag Maria. The books
features thought provoking stories based on fantasy, science fiction, history and detective
themes.
Another of Hameed's highly popular series for children that ran on television for well
over two years and eventually became popular with adults was Ainak wala Djin. It was
for the drama serial Dachi that he won the PTV National Award for the best writer and in
1997 he was honored with the Pride of Performance award. He speaks of his literary
pursuits, "My association with the newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt dates back to 1950, in fact
the best time of my writing was between 1950 to 1970 when I was contributing stories to
the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Ten years ago, when Voice of America selected me
for their Urdu programs, I was on night duty with Nawa-i-Waqt. Although my contract
with the American news agency remained for five years, I missed the fresh breeze of
Pakistan and the fragrance of motias, and so I came back after three years."
He was fond of Persian language and tried to learn Rumi, the great scholar of Persian
from Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabbasum, who was his neighbor. "I personally believe that
knowledge of the three languages - Persian, Arabic and English - is very essential. For
instance, only if you read English, will you be able to understand the greatest works of
literature, science, technology, and international relations. I read Leo Tolstoy, Anton
Chekov and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the leading exponents of nineteenth century Russian
realism in fiction and drama, all in English. We must know a language in order to fully
understand the meaning of its literary texts."
A widely traveled person, Hameed enjoys travel writing as he says, "The memories I
recall are like rewinding a film. I laugh, feel happy and write. I keep in touch with my
friends Ashfaq Ahmed, Hameed Akhtar and Shaukat Siddiqui. Those who are no more, I
miss especially Ibn-i-Insha and Ibrahim Jalees and I feel terribly sad."
His last love affair in his younger days was with the young Rehana Khadija. It was more
of a story out of a Hindi film, which always seems so very unrealistic. The young lady
used to study in Kinnaird College and read Hameed's novels. She was an ardent admirer
of his work and always wanted to meet him. After three years, they coincidentally met
and fell for each other. Unlike all his previous infatuations, which ended tragically, this
one had a happy-ever-after ending. They got married and have two children, a daughter
and a son, both of whom are also married.
Intezar Hussain has rightly written that people travel from the first rung of a ladder to the
top but Hameed started from the very top. That is where he has remained.
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