It was 2001 and Islamabad was a little unnerving for someone who had not just lived in big cities, but also cherished a frank, inclusive, multiclass and unpretentious existence. In some sense it was cosmopolitan, being the capital, but that cosmopolitanism was largely ghettoised and limited to those who mingled with the diplomatic community. There was such distinction observed between civil servants belonging to different grades in hierarchy and among those with varying income levels that wide-ranging social interaction was next to impossible. Most people I met, their conversations and persuasions kept reminding me of the masterful novella of Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich. In this work, the artificiality of life is challenged by the reality of death for a careerist civil servant — a judge, in the case of Ilyich — and the world becomes indifferent when he is both frail and removed from a position of authority. Therefore, I used to take a ride to Lahore almost every weekend, Karachi every few weeks, and London after a few months when some money was saved.

Things have changed dramatically since. Islamabad is now naturalised as a mainstream South Asian city after people belonging to different trades moved in over the past decade or so. I became naturalised here as well.

The company of Mushir Anwar and Ashfaq Saleem Mirza helped. When we met, Anwar had retired from government service and was writing about books and literary events for Dawn. Before joining the government as an editor, he had worked with newspapers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. His wit and insight made his commentary on culture and literature engaging and relevant. The scholarship acquired through decades of passion and hard work, and the depth of reflection on life and letters he subsequently achieved, made Anwar totally self-contained and self-effacing.

Anwar was a discerning critic and a natural storyteller. He read, wrote, told and translated stories. Almost a year before his death, his idiomatic Urdu translation of Isaac Bashavis Singer’s A Young Man in Search of Love under the title of Muhabbat Ka Mutalashi Aik Naujawan, was published by Aaj Publications. His original work of fiction is in English, hitherto unpublished. His son and a close friend of Anwar’s are currently working on the publication of his novel, to be followed by a collection of his short stories and creative non-fiction.

After his death on Dec 30, 2015, a mutual friend was regretting that Anwar did not write as much as he could because there are few who have a comparable facility with language coupled with a deep sense of plot. I disagreed. Anwar was consumed by the need to earn his living on the one hand and the passion for reading what others wrote on the other. He had little time to himself. But what he wrote stands head and shoulders above the much-celebrated but ordinary fiction that we continually come across. I say that after having the privilege of reading some of his unpublished work. Here, Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmed is a good example to quote. Ahmed published just one book of fiction that remains superior to almost all of the work produced around that time in Pakistani Anglophone fiction.

Anwar could never hide his contradictions. While being a rationalist in politics and public life, faith and society, he was fascinated by the supernatural, the occult, the mysterious and the divine. He was in awe of J. Krishnamurti at one level and equally captivated by Antonio Gramsci on another. A Maoist and a Gandhian at the same time, Anwar was as frank, inclusive, multiclass and unpretentious as it gets. He was a calm man whose work will agitate you.

Whenever in his element, he would send you off at the end of an evening by reciting a lovingly humorous couplet for Rawalpindi where he grew up: “Pindi shahr bara guldasta/ Thallay Lai te uttay rasta.” [Rawalpindi is such an amazing bouquet of flowers/ There is a pathway laid over the flowing waters of the Lai.]

The writer is a poet and essayist based in Islamabad. His collection of essays Crimson Papers: Reflections on Struggle, Suffering, and Creativity in Pakistan was recently published by Oxford University Press

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, April 2nd, 2017