SOMETIMES the urge to go back in time becomes doubly delightful when the people and situations you are referring to are known to you. You can’t take it with you was a commercially successful Broadway play written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart. It was first produced in the mid-1930s. In 1938, the comedy was made into a film directed by Frank Capra and went on to win Oscar awards both in the best picture and best director categories. Frank Capra, by the way, was the director of the iconic film It happened one night as well.

In the 1960s, there was a Students Theatre Guild in Karachi. On Dec 15, 1964 the guild staged its version of You can’t take it with you in the city’s historic Theosophical Hall. As per a report (read: review, because in those days reviews used to be shorter) published in Dawn, Javed Jabbar as the benevolent patriarch dominated the play with ‘good interpretation’ of Grandpa’s character. Showering accolades on the young actor, the reviewer commented he had a ‘natural throw’. A couple of other performances were also praised according to which Najma Rehman as the unsuccessful playwright and Ataur Rehman as the Russian ballet instructor had ‘simply lovable’ and tailor-made roles.

Another familiar social figure: Gulgee. The eminent artist was already a name to reckon with in the ‘60s. We also know, as mentioned in the last column, that in December (1964) Prince Karim Aga Khan was in Pakistan. On Dec 17, Gulgee’s sketches portraying three generations of the Aga Khan family were put on display in room 319 of the Karachi Intercontinental hotel between 5pm and 7pm. Yes, one such hotel once existed in the city.

The same day, Dec 17, the Aga Khan inaugurated the Al Ilmu reading room at Rampart Row Kharadar. The reading room was being run under the auspices of the Aga Khan Students Union. Doesn’t it sound good to know that there used to be a reading room in Kharadar?

Now the following name may not be all that familiar to some of us, but those of us who are into scholarly pursuits, he was a known and respected man. The reference is to Dr Itrat Husain Zuberi. Dr Zuberi worked in many capacities in his lifetime. He served as the adviser on education for the Government of Pakistan and was the founder vice chancellor of Rajshahi University. His last job was of a professor of English literature at Windsor University, Ontario, Canada. On Dec 14, Dr Zuberi died of a heart attack in Canada. His body was brought to Karachi, where on Dec 21, 1964 he was buried near the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi.

From recognisable names to readily identifiable situations! If you think that the digging of roads causing road accidents is a 21st century phenomenon, nothing could be more wrong. Things weren’t different 50 years ago. The newspapers were full of news items complaining about haphazard digging of roads, resulting in ‘narrow passages’ causing minor mishaps. However, the blame at the time was squarely put on government bodies such as the KDA, the KMC and the telephone department for starting work on the thoroughfares without taking precautionary measures. See, history never goes away!

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2014