KARACHI, Feb 28: Men of letters heaped praises on Mohammad Zakir Ali Khan at the launching ceremony of his ninth book, Mai baap, on Friday.
The leading lexicographer of the Urdu language, Shanul Haq Haqqee, said that Mr Khan was not a humorist in the literal sense of the word. “While his writings are mainly light-hearted, he refrains from employing the usual techniques of humorists which are aimed at making readers laugh. For instance, Pickwick Papers, works of Azeem Beg Chughtai, Patras key mazameen all are intended to make people laugh. Mr Khan does not try to make people laugh. Nevertheless, there is never a dull moment when he is around.”
Speaking about the Urdu language, Mr Haqqee said that some words of this language were older than the relics from Moenjodaro. He added that it had been discovered that the beh of batees (32) and bialis (42) were from the pre-Dravidian period.
Speaking about the author, Dr Manzoor Ahmad said that Mr Khan had acted on the advice of a teacher who had told him that the most
difficult thing in life was to make others happy. “All his life he has done his utmost to make others — his friends, associates, relatives, acquaintances — happy.”
He recalled that he had joined State High School in Rampur the year Mr Khan
had left it. “Our teachers were at once hardworking, friendly and idiosyncratic. One
day Master Ehtasham walked in the classroom and asked us if we knew common abuses. Nobody raised his hand.
But one bold boy rose to his feet, and rattled off a stream of unadulterated invectives commonly used in Rampur. The teacher then asked him to tell him the characteristics of oxygen. The boy was in luck, for he knew the answer of the question. Otherwise, he would have been hauled over the hauls by the teacher.”
Dr Farman Fatehpuri said that Mr Khan was very good at moulding new words. “At the Urdu Lughat Board, with which I have been associated, we take words directly from books and not from dictionaries. I once had Mr Khan’s book, Marhaba Alhaaj, checked for new words. I was surprised to find that it contained a large number of words which were facile translations of difficult Arabic words.”
Obaidullah Baig, Z.A. Nizami, Jazib Qureishi, Saadia Rashid, Rizwan Inayati, Hanif Fauq, Prof Rehman Khawar also spoke on the occasion.
