KARACHI: A book titled Chaar Aadmi by Dr Amjad Saqib was launched at the Arts Council on Tuesday evening. The book tells the stories of three eminent personalities — Sir Ganga Ram, Malik Meraj Khalid and Dr Rashid Chaudhry — as narrated by Dr Saqib.

Speaking about the publication and the men highlighted in it, Dr Saqib — who runs Akhuwat Foundation, a known Islamic micro-financing organisation that provides interest-free loans — said the book is an attempt to know what neki (good deeds) is all about, whether it dies or belongs to any religion.

Giving the background of the attempt, he told the audience that in 1923 a man by the name of Ganga Ram constructed a building spending Rs300,000 on it and wrote on the building ‘built by somebody who loves widows’. It was a shelter space for the widows in Lahore inaugurated by the viceroy at the time. It was functional up until 1947 (according to the author, Ganga Ram passed away in 1931). After partition, all those Hindu widows living in that building moved to India. For two decades the building was used for different purposes — sometimes it was turned into a school, sometimes into an orphanage and sometimes the government got control of it — or remained empty.

Dr Saqib said the second character in the book, Dr Rashid Chaudhry, like Ganga Ram, grew up in an underprivileged atmosphere and went on to become a distinguished psychiatrist.

In 1960, Dr Chaudhry thought about making a home for those suffering from problems related to mental health and made an institute called Fountain House. He took a few houses on rent where his patients began to live. But after every six months, their neighbours would tell them to vacate the area arguing their area was now known as pagalon ka mohalla (mad neighbourhood). One day, someone suggested to him that Ganga Ram had made a space for widows, perhaps the psychiatrist’s patients could shift there. When Dr Chaudhry saw the piece of construction, he felt as if it had been built for him.

In those days, the third character of the book, Malik Meraj Khalid, was chief minister of the Punjab province. Dr Chaudhry wrote an application and took it to the chief minister. When he reached the steps of his office, Khalid came out of his office and asked the doctor where’s the file that he needed to sign. And that’s how a building built by Ganga Ram turned into Fountain House.

He said in 2001, Dr Chaudhry died, and his son Haroon Rashid, 10 years later, too passed away. And from that point, he got involved in the management of Fountain House.

Earlier, Journalist Mahmood Shaam said he doesn’t exactly remember when he got to meet the dervish of the 21st century, Dr Saqib, for the first time but recalled the time when he invited the doctor to appear at a programme in Lahore as the chief guest. He pointed out that the foundation of change that Dr Saqib and Akhuwat have laid has earned him prayers and good wishes of all. “Not only is he soft-spoken, his writing skills are impressive. The torch lit by Sir Ganga Ram has passed on from Dr Chaudhry and Malik Meraj Khalid to Dr Saqib.

Journalist Mazhar Abbas said the book tells the tale of four dervishes in a distinct style. It fills him with hope that all is not lost yet. Even today, there are people in our society who do selfless service.

Arts Council president Ahmed Shah thanked the guests and informed them about the philanthropic work that the council is doing.

Ayaz Mahmood, Shaheen Aziz Niazi and Nazeer Tunio also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2022