At any hockey activity in Karachi, an octogenarian and his bag are omnipresent. The bag, it so happens, is a treasure trove of books with information and statistics on hockey. As you delve in the wonders of numbers and records, out comes a book with a request for your name. Before you know it, you are the proud owner of an enlightening book on hockey by Mazher Jabalpuri.

“I loved playing hockey so wrote about it while I played. I am the only historian and statistician of hockey in Pakistan,” beams Jabalpuri. “I distribute my books to help clear the mess being created at home.”

Rummaging through his bag, one discovers a number of books authored by Jabalpuri. “The hockey books are 16 in number. My 17th book on the national sport is in the pipeline,” he proudly says.

In fact, his first book was on football. He wrote one on fishing too, a copy of which was also lodged inside the bag that accompanies him everywhere. As it turns out, Jabalpuri always wrote on the sports that he fell in love with.

“The first book I wrote, which was on football, was penned back in 1960 and the one on fishing, which is a hobby of mine, I wrote in 1997. I recently wrote my second book about football, too,” he says. Asked if he has received any special training in writing, Jabalpuri who maintains a sports library at home, says, “No, not really. I loved to read and collect books on sports. The writing then came naturally.”

Before becoming a published book author, however, Jabalpuri began writing for a newspaper. “Real writing started for me with an article on sports that got published in a newspaper in 1956. It was arguably the first newspaper article on sports, as papers would only publish sports reportage not a full-fledged article,” he recalls.

Having started the trend of analytical sports writing, Jabalpuri doesn’t even remember how many sports articles he has penned till now.

A sports buff his entire life, Jabalpuri has founded and run numerous hockey, cricket and shooting ball clubs. He served in different official capacities for various sports associations, including working as the secretary of the Karachi Amateur Wrestling Association and Islamabad Shooting Ball Association. But his love has always been hockey — a passion he attributes to his roots.

Jabalpuri, as his name suggests, originally hails from Jabalpur in India, one of the major centres of hockey in the subcontinent. “I have played hockey since I was 11 or 12 years old, and even won several prizes at the school level. I have also played first-class hockey for 22 years but had to slow down to an extent after reaching the age of 40,” he narrates. “That was also the time around which I was posted at the Embassy of Pakistan in Aden, South Yemen. But I kept playing a bit despite that, and continued coaching till the age of 60.”

Budding and established newspaper reporters, those working in the electronic media, as well as commentators all still take information from him. Jabalpuri has no issues with helping them out. In fact he loves to present his books to them for free, but laments that “there is hardly anything left to cover in hockey.”

What about the money he’s losing in publishing the books and then giving them away for free? “Well, some of the books have been funded by people and for some I spend money from my own pocket but I want people to read them, too, so I gift them,” he says.

Asked if it was difficult for him to get his first book published, Jabalpuri replies “not really.” But there was a good reason for that: “I was working with the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) at the time. So research and compiling of facts was easy. My book, too, was published by the PFF,” he explains.

“The federation’s head office was in Karachi back then. It only shifted to Lahore in 1961. And the PFF joint secretary, Rashid Tabassum, was also secretary of Karachi Hockey Association. He wanted me to pen the book and then he published it, too. In fact, he also published my first book about hockey,” he says.

Asked if he was impressed by any other sports writers, Jabalpuri’s instant reply is Olympian Khawaja Aslam. “He was the sports secretary at Pakistan Railways and besides being an all-rounder sportsman, has also written some three dozen books on various sports,” he says.

And has he received any advice or compliment about his own writings from any other sports writers? “Other writers take advice from me, really,” he laughs.

Jabalpuri says that he is always thinking about what book he should be writing next. “I am very well-organised. As a statistician I have to be. I have saved cuttings from newspapers from 1956 to date. Doing that I have made various folders and maintained plenty of files, too,” he says proudly.

His recent book on football took a lot of his time as, he says, researching for it wasn’t easy. “There is hardly any material here about the sport. Sometimes I look up the web and sometimes I visit old players,” he says.

Any works in progress?

“Another book on hockey, but on which aspect of the game, will remain a heavily guarded secret.”

Could Jabalpuri have ever left a book midway? The author nods. “I was writing a book on fresh and salt water fishing combined, which I left midway to start writing on football. My first book on fishing was about fresh water fishing, by the way,” he smiles.

Any interests other than writing?

“Fishing is a hobby. But there are not as many fish left in the water as there used to be. Earlier, I used to bring home the catch, but now we catch so few fish that we eat whatever we catch there and then,” he laughs.

Jabalpuri’s initial books were in English but he writes in Urdu also now. “Both my football and hockey book in the 1960s were in English. But the one I wrote on fresh water fishing was penned in Urdu as it is the language the people in the industry prefer,” he explains.

It is a pity that even after spending a lifetime in sports and in the writing of such informative books Mazher Jabalpuri has not received any kind of acknowledgment from the government. “Many Olympians have recommended me for an award or recognition but nothing has come through so far. It is fine. I only do this work because I enjoy it,” he says with a smile.