March 21, 2004

There is the inevitable pang of sadness as one remembers friends who are now no more: apart from Ijaz, friends like Yunus Said, Mehdi Qizilbash, Riaz Qadir, Hamid Jalal, Nasir Kazmi, Yusuf Zafar, Qayyum Nazar, Naseer Farooki, Abdulla Malik and of course many, many others

WITH one’s paternal ancestors having migrated to Lahore in the aftermath of the sepoys’ valiant though unsuccessful rebellion against the Raj in 1857, one had maintained a close link with Punjab, and Lahore had always been a part of one’s subconscious. The Government College and its environments particularly seemed like familiar landmarks though one did not get to see them in reality until late October 1947 when, driven out of Delhi as a refugee, one landed in the ancient city.

Thus, despite the trauma of having to abandon the ancestral home and having been a witness to the communal upheaval, one felt comfortable on arrival in Lahore and not at all like a stranger. At the first opportunity, one took a trip to No 7, Railway Road, the home of Darul Ishaat Punjab and of Phool, which had been a staple almost from the time that one was able to read Urdu. After having called on Imtiaz Ali Taj and Hameed Ali and Hijab Imtiaz Ali, one felt returned to the fold of one’s extended family after the gap of a few years.

The India Coffee House, until then still under the management of the India Coffee Board, was inevitably the next destination. There it was a privilege to be immediately accepted by the ‘old timers’ who seemed to have a sort of proprietary right over it. And there among others one got to know Ijaz Husain Batalavi whose friendship one cherished for all the years until his recent death. The Coffee House was indeed the beginning of many new friendships, almost all of which have stood the test of all these decades.

Today, nearly 56 years later, it is a delight to recall the good old times. However, the pleasure is not unmixed. There is the inevitable pang of sadness as one remembers friends who are now no more: apart from Ijaz, friends like Yunus Said, Mehdi Qizilbash, Riaz Qadir, Hamid Jalal, Nasir Kazmi, Yusuf Zafar, Qayyum Nazar, Naseer Farooki, Abdulla Malik and of course many, many others have embarked on their journey to eternity.

Apart from the Coffee House, the Lahore chapter of the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq was also a weekly rendezvous at the YMCA, not far from the Coffee House. One had a frequent encounter there with Ijaz Batalavi.

It is a pleasure to recall that the Halqa too had led to many new and abiding friendships, among them those with Aftab Ahmad (who has since acquired the appellation of Dr). Aftab too was a common link between this writer and Ijaz. It is a blessing that despite the toll that time has taken in the past 56 years there continue to be around friends like Tajammul Hussain (Altaf Gauhar’s younger brother), Zia Mohyeddin, Zia Jullundari, Sayeed Hasan Khan. There are of course countless others but one cannot recall all the names offhand.

If one’s memory serves one right, the first encounter with Ijaz was on the occasion of an inter-college debate in Delhi. One also caught an occasional glimpse of him in the corridors of All-India Radio. After Partition, Ijaz worked for some time with Radio Pakistan in Lahore. Then suddenly one heard that he had packed and gone off to London to do his bar. The bar was of course the ideal profession for him with his gift for articulation. Though now one had fewer occasions to spend some time with him because he was always busy with the High Court in Lahore or Islamabad or with the Supreme Court in Rawalpindi, dedication to literature continued to be a strong link. When the writers’ convention was held in Karachi in early 1959, Ijaz was one of the delegates from Punjab. We spent a few hectic days together. The convention led to the formation of the Pakistan Writer’s Guild.

Ijaz’s was a highly educated and literary family. His elder brother, Ashiq Husain Batalavi, distinguished himself as a man of letters and also had been close to Dr Iqbal. This proximity resulted in Ashiq Batalavi writing his most well-known book, Iqbal Kay Akhri Do Saal, which has been a mine of information for researchers on the history of the Pakistan Movement and on the life and time of the great poet-philosopher.

Ashiq Batalavi’s active involvement with politics and his personal knowledge about Iqbal and his politics was a most valuable asset which served political historians for many decades. It was a rare pleasure when I met him in London several years after Partition.

One of Ijaz’s other brothers, Agha Babar, was already an established short-story writer at the time of Partition. He made his name in literature at a time when Krishen Chandra, Rajendra Singh Bedi, Madhu Sudan, and so many others were also in Lahore and active in the literary field. Agha Babar some years ago decided to migrate to the US, but used to come home every once in a while. He too died recently.

While working for his bar in one of the Inns of Court in London, Ijaz was eagerly sought out by the BBC Urdu Service. With his standing as a writer and his experience as a broadcaster, he frequently participated in BBC programmes. In trying to establish a reputation for its Urdu broadcasts in the early and mid-50s, the BBC was fortunate to have access to a host of celebrated Urdu writers and poets. Among them, apart from Ijaz, were Qurratul Ain Hyder, then living there while on study leave, Dr Aftab Ahmad, Zia Mohyeddin and the eminent novelist Atiya Hossain. In collaboration with some members of the BBC’s regular staff, such as Aley Hasan, Yawar Abbas (who had migrated to London from Karachi after Partition) and Taqi Ahmad Syed, they produced some of the BBC’s most outstanding features and radio plays, remembered to this day.

To one’s regret one did not get to see Ijaz quite as often as one would have wanted to in recent years because of his extreme preoccupation with his law practice. He was much in demand, being one of the top lawyers in the country. His association on the prosecuting side with the military government’s case against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came as a surprise and also did seem as somewhat out of character with his standing as an enlightened intellectual. However, what one cherishes is the memory of his personal charm and wit, and the delightful moments spent in his company.

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