Entering Mumtaz Muftee's home, I met Uxi Mufti, who has committed himself to preserving Pakistani folklore – a treasure trove nobody was ready to explore. Uxi recalls how his father sitting on a carpet, with a pencil in hand, would write his books. When he was over eighty years old, the elder Muftee would say, “I'm like a passenger waiting on the platform for my train, but my train is not arriving. Maybe, my Allah wants me to write yet another book!” And he wrote Talash . After finishing the book, he died.

Uxi published Talash after his father's death. Nowadays Uxi has devoted himself to writing the sequel to it in English. “It will be called ' Allah ' to integrate the concept of Allah with philosophy and science.”

Uxi did his MA Honors in Psychology from Government College, Lahore, and PhD in Philosophy in Sociological Thought from the Charles University, Institute of Philosophy, Prague, in 1969.

In 1970 Uxi returned after witnessing the Russians taking over Prague – soldiers and tanks outside his room's window one fine morning. In Pakistan, he did not pursue careers in either of his selected fields of specialisation.

“The reason is that I made friends with Jan Marek in Prague. He was an orientalist and a specialist on Iqbal. He translated Iqbal into Czechoslovakian language. He even named a road after Iqbal.” Uxi met Marek accidentally. “Looking for English books for my thesis, I was told I'll get them in the Orientalist Library. He could speak Urdu, and we became friends.”

In the library, Uxi was astonished to see more works on Pakistan than he had ever seen back home. The library had ' Unveiling of the Veiled One' , an English adaptation of Hazrat Data Gunj Bukhsh's Kashful Majub . And many other books of Bulleh Shah, Khwaja Fareed, Sultan Bahoo, Shah Hussain and others.

“I read all. It was a unique experience as at the same time I was into western philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and many others.”

This extensive study made the future course clear for Uxi. “It dawned upon me that our Sufi poets were way ahead of the western philosophers. I became interested in the Pakistani soil, its folklore, Sufism, Sufi poetry and music.”

The elder Muftee wanted his son to become a CSP officer. “But I knew I had found myself. My inner need was to bring the beauty of what we possess, into the hands of inheritors of this treasure.”

But the journey to self discovery and whatever he wanted to do did not happen smoothly as initially Uxi's 'conviction' was not valued in his own country.

Qudratullah Shahab, himself a top bureaucrat and author of Shahabnama , was the only person who understood Uxi's passion. “There are enough CSP officers here, he said and backed me.”

In 1971 Shahab managed to get Uxi a six-month Unesco project on “Pakistan popular music research mission”.

“I worked with Samir Naguib who was a Unesco consultant and professor at Santa St. Cecilia Academia, Italy.”

The two went from village to village collecting Sufi lore and music of different regions of Pakistan. “Within six months we prepared a repertoire of 2,500 musicians, performers unknown to radio and television.”

Uxi and Naguib recorded about 200 hours for “our library, which is now in some remote corner of Unesco”.

When the project was completed, he urged the government to keep all this material in Pakistan. “No one would listen to me, and Qudratullah Shahab had left.”

Uxi started a campaign to get others see the treasure he had found.

“In those days I was also guest producer of PTV. I went to Aslam Azhar, who was general manager of PTV.

Zia Mohiyuddin Show was the most popular programme. I said I'll have a live show with musicians from all over Pakistan with Allan Faqir, Faqir Ghafoor, Khameesoo Khan, Tang Takor and party and many others.

“But they were not known nationally. He said you'll have tomatoes thrown at you! I said 'ok, let me do a pilot show!' So I did that with Mohammad Tufail, Allan Faqir and others, but the show was disapproved.”

The disapproval forced Uxi to give a thought to going back to teaching in Rawalpindi's Gordon College. But then the change came. “One foreign programme did not arrive, and in desperation, PTV aired my programme, just to fill in the gap.”

It was an immediate hit. “PTV was flooded with letters and telephones, with the people saying they felt something of their own was shown on PTV.”

Now it was Aslam Azhar's turn to ask Uxi to do a weekly live show Lok Tamasha, which lasted for nine years!

Uxi's next stop was Faiz Ahmed Faiz who was setting up Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA). He praised the legendary poet for setting up the arts councils but also had a complaint. “When you set up arts councils, you think of art, dance, music, except folklore.

Folklore includes lullabies, legends, tales, superstitions, all your known physical regional culture.”

Faiz asked, “Who will do it.” Uxi said: “I will.” The outcome was Folklore Research Centre.

All these efforts led to recognition. Uxi received Pride of Performance for documenting folklore, and making Lok Virsa, and Sitara-i-Imtiaz for making the National Heritage Museum in Pakistan, and for preserving Pakistani culture. He also received the highest cultural award in Asia – Japan Asian Culture Prize – in 2006 as a leading folklorist of Asia who made efforts to promote artisanship and cultural interaction. Late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is the only other Pakistani who has received this award.

After getting the prestigious award, Uxi became the president of Asia Pacific Region World Craft Council for four years.

Today Uxi lives in his father's home in Islamabad with his third wife. He credits his father for encouraging him in pursuing his passion, just as he himself did.