August 3, 2003

AYAZ Daudzai is among the senior writers of modern Pushto literature who has contributed in a big way to drama, criticism, personal essay and prose. His role in the promotion of Pushto has been considerable. A widely read and well-travelled person, he has displayed rare versatility in his literary pursuits.

Daudzai shot to fame when he began writing in the prestigious Pushto literary magazine Qand published from Mardan. His long association with literary giants Like Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari, Qamar Rahi and Dr Humayun Huma honed his talent for writing.

When I spoke to the octogenarian Ayaz, he was more than willing to dwell upon his early life.

“My early childhood was spent in chasing mirages and pursuing fantasies. I had inherited romantic and idealistic sensibilities from my parents. My father had embarked on an odyssey of China in quest of fairies at the age of 18. For three years, he journeyed to the hills and valleys, the towns and hamlets, the forests and pastures of that ‘promised land’ of his youthful dreams. He found no fairies but was realistic enough not to lose heart in frustration.

“My mother, though staunchly religious, was fond of reading and reciting Pushto romances, mostly fairy tales. Every evening, after dinner, she would read aloud to us — father, my elder brother, me and three sisters — in her resonant, rhythmic voice. It was thus that I developed a love for fairy tales.

“My only playmate was my elder brother, Jan Muhammad Zalmai. After the nightly encounters with fairies in the reading sessions, Zalmai and I would wander the next morning in the vast ‘wasteland’ between the rivers Shah Alam and Naguman, where our village Chaghri Matti (popularly known as Matai) is located. We wanted to catch the skylarks but in our heart of hearts, we hoped that fairies would descend on us and take us to Koh-i-Qaf (Caucasus).

“That is how my childhood was spent. Born on June 26, 1922 (as per my Matric Certificate), I have come a long way. At age 81, I am still haunted by the ‘visionary gleam’ of those childhood years. I firmly believe there is some unknown, unnamed beauty, somewhere, and one should never give up one’s quest for that. This is why I am romantic, idealistic and an optimist. This may sound fiction but this is the stark reality of my life.”

After receiving his early education from the village primary school and two mosques — one for lessons in Persian poetry and the other for Arabic grammar and Islamic jurisprudence — he went on to graduate from the Punjab University in 1949 and obtain his law degree from Karachi in 1954. Earlier he had passed his Honours exams in Pushto in 1946 and Munshi Fazil in 1948 from the Punjab University.

But what was more significant was the intensive reading he had done while he was still in school. He had read the Panch Kitab, also known as Panch Ganj, Mahmoodnama, an anonymous poetry book believed to have been the work of Mahmood Ghaznavi which had the underlying theme of his platonic love for Ayaz, Saadi’s Gulistan and Bostan, Yousaf Zulaikhan’s Sikandarnama and, of course, Diwan-i-Hafiz Shirazi.

Later, he also went through Rubayat-i-Umar Khayyam, Diwan of Saib, Urfi and Naziri. With his Arabic teacher, he completed the Dars-i-Nizami (Fiqh) course, and committed to memory 30 chapters of Sarf Meer (grammatical formulae).

He published the first-ever examination guide for Pushto Honours in 1949 as well as the prose version of Qasas-ul-Ambia which was included in the Honours course of Pushto at that time. He joined Radio Pakistan as programme producer and worked there in different positions. He planned to write a comprehensive book on Pushto literature but unfortunately could never get round to doing it due to his tight schedule.

As a journalist, he was required to be on his toes all through his waking hours. As a reporter, he had to cover leaders at the highest level in national politics. The Foreign Office, the parliament, the round table conferences of President Ayub Khan, the wars with India in 1965 and 1971, the 1973 Middle East war from Damascus, Beirut and Cairo, the foreign tours of heads of state and governments, from Ayub Khan to Ziaul Haq fell in his beat.

He visited the USSR, China, and Iran thrice on professional assignments. He also went to Afghanistan, Romania, France, the US, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and North Korea. As the Controller of News, PBC, he received a two-year extension on his superannuation at the age of 60. He was shifted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as OSD, on contract for an indefinite period, one month ahead of his retirement from broadcasting service on June 26, 1982.

Daudzai is the author of five radio plays during his one-year tenure as Programme Producer, one of which, “Khkula”, is still on the re-broadcast schedule of Radio Pakistan, Peshawar. Later, he joined the ISPR as a Research Officer from where he moved to the Frontier Post, a move which signified his entry into the media world. Next came the Kashmir Media Service, which he joined as senior editor and still works for.

Daudzai is a prolific writer. Starting with his first article for Dawn, Karachi, on poet Syed Rasul Rasa’s life and work in 1951. Then there was no looking back and he has ever since contributed numerous literary articles to different newspapers and journals.

A major contribution he made to Pushto was in promoting the language by securing official patronage for it. It was on his suggestion that the NWFP government established a culture department in its secretariat in Peshawar. In Quetta, he was instrumental in introducing Pushto programmes in Quetta Radio. It was at his initiative that Pushto mushairas and other cultural functions were launched in Quetta. He founded the Pushto literary society (Pushto Adabi) which was later named the Pushto Academy, Quetta.

Daudzai narrated to me his woeful tale of a personal accident, which robbed him of literary treasures. “Our house, 116, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, near Layee Nullah, was deluged by heavy rains from morning to evening in 2001. It was July 23. And the Layee Nullah was in furious spate. Though our house has a plinth level of four feet above the ground, the water flooded in and for six hours the rooms were inundated. Some of my rarest books were washed away, while others were soaked and reduced to pulp. All the manuscripts, including my diaries containing my poetry, which had been copied by my brother, Jan Muhammad Zalmai, were washed away and destroyed,” he said with tears in his eyes.

He then appealed to his well wishers and fans to help him compile again whatever had been published in different journals. The response was massive and he has now published a huge tome titled Adabi Hassay (literary attempts).

Although in his eighties, Ayaz Daudzai is youthful looking and his good looks have won him many offers from film directors for cinema roles. He has declined them all. Once a senior journalist asked him why he did not look his age, he humorously replied, “A Pakhtoon does not grow old, he only dies.”

Being media shy, he remains reclusive but determined to serve his mother tongue because according to him the “inspiration for writing comes from within as does the yearning to do something worthwhile”.

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