GETTING hold of Dr Tipu Sultan is no easy task. The Dean of Anaesthesia of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the ex- Dean of Medicine at the University of Karachi is one extremely busy person. And why not, for like any other responsible doctor, his bouquet of responsibilities keep him busy from dawn till dusk. Nevertheless, fame and fortune have never held him hostage and finally when he did answer our call, he eagerly chatted about things, other than his medical profession.
Dr Tipu Sultan belongs to a great movie watching tradition. So surely there must be a dozen odd movies that could be his most favourite, right? Wrong! “I remember watching The Eagle Has Landed during my college days and I still remember it very well. We, me and my college colleagues, saw it no less than four times. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” The other film that he remembers watching is Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Psycho. This too he has enjoyed very much. In fact, he has high regards for the director as well. “There is still a lot of meat in his work,” says Dr Tipu who is ardently a very big follower of the great director’s work. Watching movies that belong to the true events genre; recreation of true events and films that are billed as based on true events are those that he enjoys. And it is no wonder that his favourite movie belong this genre. Other than this, Dr Tipu also enjoys documentaries. “Wildlife documentaries are something that I enjoy watching.” Obviously, the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic are the two channels that he follows regularly. “Last year I along with my family were in Kenya and there we experienced the same thrill that we had for so long seen on these channels. Nature and wildlife documentaries are the things that I like.”
Another genre that he enjoys during what little free time he gets, is the Western genre. “In fact just the other day I was watching a Western and after a hectic day’s work, it was really refreshing.” Clint Eastwood’s Westerns are something he enjoys. Surely, you’ll a few of Eastwood’s classics in his rich home video collection.
However, when it comes to music, Dr Tipu’s taste isn’t the same as his movie likes. Not at least when it comes to western music. But when it comes to the golden sounds of yesteryear, he is adamantly of the option that old is after all gold.
“I don’t like listening to the new songs. Somehow, I don’t like their tunes. My sons, Akmal and Farjad enjoy listening to these new age songs. All this techno stuff is too much for me. But by and large, I don’t fancy the tunes of the modern day. I like listening to K.L. Saigol’s and Mohammed Rafi’s work. Theirs is a voice that is golden even today. When there is a function at home or when I forward a request during some other gathering, it is always a song from the oldies that I want to hear.” Among the songs that he would like to listen to again and again, there is the soundtrack of the movie Mahal that he vividly remembers enjoying. “The song Yeh Zindagi Keh Melay is one of the tunes that I enjoy again and again.” That’s fine with the Indian songs, but how about songs from the Western music that is best described here as English music. “I could never really get the hang of western music. I have been mostly for Indian or subcontinental music and that has been my taste for as long as I can remember. There are a couple of Bengali songs that I like listening to. Their meaning of course I can’t deduce, but the tunes are soothing.” Another genre of music that Dr Tipu Sultan likes listening to, or at least has not adverse comments about are the African tunes of reggae. “During my years in London, when I was there for medical studies, reggae was something that we used to listen while travelling through the streets of the English capital and on the radio waves. And it was something that we as students really used to enjoy. The tunes were something that were we found amazing and that was something that I enjoyed a lot.”
Coming to his reading habits, Dr Tipu confesses that nowadays, his hectic schedule doesn’t allow him to delve into thick books. “I used to read books years before, but now it is not possible. I have tried to read a few, even started reading a couple of these books but couldn’t finish them. Book reading is indeed a time consuming activity.” Apart from his duties and responsibilities to the local medical fraternity, Dr Tipu Sultan is also a medical examiner for the Royal College of Ireland. As examiner, he transverses the globe and his duties take him to places such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. But that doesn’t mean that the good doctor has given up on reading all together. He likes to stay in touch with the current events through newspapers and current affairs magazines. “I read a lot of magazines; Herald, Newsline, Time and the Friday Times are a few that I like reading the most. And mostly, I read them in my car.” Take note all you young lot. Dr Tipu Sultan likes to spend his time, stuck in Karachi’s notorious traffic jams, reading and keeping himself abreast with the latest international affairs; not jiggling to corny FM music and corner comments from the various DJs. “There are number of newsboys who I know and who know me. They are push their ware at the various traffic signals in the city. When they see my car, they run to the car, give me a copy of the latest magazine and I am off. This is an agreement between them and me; they give me the magazine and then at the end of the month, I pay them what lump sum they demand. I trust them that this is how it is.” According to Dr Tipu Sultan if he doesn’t read the magazines, he feels that his day has been incomplete. Or as the good doctor likes to put it, “It feels like I have not had my breakfast.” Spoken like a true doctor. These days though, he is these days reading The Bible, Quran and Science. “There are a lot of quotations in the book and I like reading them.”
GETTING hold of Dr Tipu Sultan is no easy task. The Dean of Anaesthesia of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the ex- Dean of Medicine at the University of Karachi is one extremely busy person. And why not, for like any other responsible doctor, his bouquet of responsibilities keep him busy from dawn till dusk. Nevertheless, fame and fortune have never held him hostage and finally when he did answer our call, he eagerly chatted about things, other than his medical profession.
