Four companions and friends of Munoo Bhai, namely rights activist I.A. Rehman, journalist and writer Masood Ashar, poet Kishwar Naheed and Asghar Nadeem Syed shared their reminiscences about Munoo Bhai in a session at the Lahore Literary Festival, titled Munoo Bhai Ki Yad Mein Jungle Udaas Hai.

Kishwar pointed out that railway train featured in many of Munoo Bhai’s writings due to his early childhood and his father’s job in the railways. “The most important drama that came out in those days was Platform.”

Talking about the columns of Munoo Bhai, Kishwar said a woman approached Imroz office to publish news of her missing son. “When asked what he was wearing when he went missing, the woman replied that he was wearing white clothes which must have got dirty since then. This moved Munoo Bhai and he became a columnist.”

About his stutter, Kishwar said Munoo Bhai had told her that when he was a child, his father once slapped her mother in the face and he got stutter after that.

Rights activist and journalist I.A. Rehman referred to three roles of Munoo Bhai in journalism, ie chief reporter of Masawaat, journalists union leader and a columnist.

“He had a composite personality as a poet, rights activist and columnist.”

Rehman added that Munoo Bhai never cared about the results of his writing. He said there was a lot that has been left to be explored in his works.

Playwright Asghar Nadeem Syed said that in social life, Munoo Bhai was the most popular among his contemporaries due to his humour and openness. “From early morning, his door used to be opened for all. I used to go to him daily before going to the Govt College.”

He said Munoo Bhai’s obituaries on deaths of his friends were in fact dirges on the time. When collection of them, titled Jungle Udaas Hay, was published, many of his friends said they were willing to die if somebody could write such obituaries for them, he added.

Masood Ashar said he had a companionship of 50 years with Munoo Bhai which started with his joining Imroz as reporter. He was working in Rawalpindi when Gen Sher Ali, who had brought up Two-Nation Theory which was never heard of before him, got offended with him and he was transferred to Multan. “Munoo Bhai started writing his column, Garebaan, from Multan.”

As the atmosphere got a bit serious, Asghar Nadeem Syed narrated some funny anecdotes involving Munoo Bhai. Kishwar Naheed gave the background of two famous Punjab poems of Munoo Bhai, including Ajay Qayamat Nai Aai and Ehtasab Dey Chief Commissioner Sahab Bahadur.

AGE OF RAGE: Novelists Mohsin Hamid said he had been migrating whole his life as he moved to the US from Lahore, then to London before coming back to Lahore.

He was speaking in a session, titled Writing of Nationhood in an Age of Rage. The other participants were Somali Land novelist Nadifa Mohamed and Turkish novelist Kaya Genc. The session was moderated by Robert Worth.

Hamid said the humanity was up against a challenge as everybody was migrating in the world. “Nobody is indigenous as earliest humans spread around the world from Africa. Migration is what we are.”

He said that the great migration of today was not from South to North but from rural areas to cities. “Lahore was not as large when I was a child as it is now.”

Talking about Turkey, Genc said in Turkey, identity was fabricated and manufactured in the name of Turkishness.

“When I started writing my novels, I wanted to record and explore which identity I was part of. Identity was my motivation to write.”

To the question how fiction writers deal with the subject of nationhood, Nadifa said one had to consistently assert identity and neutrality. She said she was constantly interacting with the illegal immigrants to Europe and they say that they had moved as they wanted to see a better world.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2018