WHEN Hakeem Faseehuddin Ranj Merthi compiled `Baharistan-i-Naaz` in 1864, he did not know that he had pioneered a concept in Urdu that would be developed as a genre. Though `Baharistan-i-Naaz` was a tazkira, or an account of lives and works of poets, due to its style and treatment it became the first step towards the genre of Urdu literature that later developed as sketch-writing. That it was a tazkira recording the lives and works of female poets of Urdu and Persian makes `Baharistan-i-Naaz` even more unusual.

Mohammad Hussain Azad intended his `Aab-i-Hayat` to be a history of Urdu language and literature but his highly ornate style makes many parts of it look more like tazkiras and sketches than literary history. Later on, Mirza Farhatullah Baig wrote a lovely and lively sketch of his teacher Moulvi Nazeer Ahmed Dehlvi that marked the birth of modern sketch-writing in Urdu. Farhat made sketch-writing a genre to reckon with and prominent among those who followed in his footsteps are Moulvi Abdul Haq, Rasheed Ahmed Siddiqui, Khwaja Hasan Nizami, Saadat Hasan Manto, Chiragh Hasan Hasrat, Shahid Ahmed Dehlvi, Mohammad Tufail, Ashraf Suboohi and many others.

Born as Syed Wali Ashraf in Delhi on May 11, 1905, Ashraf Suboohi Dehlvi was a sketch-writer, humorist, short-story writer, dramatist, broadcaster, translator and writer of children`s stories. But it is his sketch-writing that has preserved a seat for him in the hall of fame.

Ashraf Suboohi has made the city of Delhi come alive through his sketches. His sketches describe the people, colloquialism and culture of Delhi in a delightful manner. What sets him apart from other sketch-writers is his choice of personalities as subject for sketches. He wrote sketches of common folks such as a butcher, a barber, a kebab-seller and common inhabitants of Delhi. When one thinks of the writers who penned common people`s sketches, the only other name that comes instantly to one`s mind is that of Moulvi Abdul Haq, who wrote memorable sketches of people doing menial jobs such as a gardener and a chowkidar.

Having passed his matric exam in 1922 from Delhi`s Anglo-Arabic High School, Suboohi Sahib later on did his BA from Punjab University as a private candidate.

With the setting up of the Delhi Radio station, Ashraf Suboohi began broadcasting talks. He also wrote plays, features and women`s programmes for radio. In 1929, he joined the postal department, but kept on writing and launched `Armaghan`, a literary journal, from Delhi.

Another aspect that makes Ashraf Suboohi`s sketch-writing stand apart is his diction and the milieu he paints. He was not only brought up in Delhi but was also a keen observer of the culture and history that permeated through the city. As a child he would for hours listen to the elders, especially women, relishing the stories and historical events of a city that was the capital of the Mughal Empire. Their local idiom and regional accent enticed him so much that when he began creative writing his portrayal of the local patois and colloquialism of Delhi women was so perfect that many believed Ashraf Suboohi was a woman. Once he even received a letter addressed to `Madam Ashraf Suboohi`.

When Baba-i-Urdu Moulvi Abdul Haq moved the offices of Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu from Aurangabad (Deccan) to Delhi in 1938, he began sending manuscripts to Ashraf Suboohi for pre-publication review. It was a sort of tribute to him as Baba-i-Urdu was very meticulous about Anjuman`s publications.

After partition, Ashraf Suboohi migrated to Pakistan and settled in Lahore. Hakim Mohammad Said befriended him and on his retirement from the postal department in 1962, Hakim Sahib asked Ashraf Suboohi to join Hamdard, Lahore, which he did. Later on he moved to Karachi. But he missed Lahore a lot and yearned for the city he loved most after Delhi.

`Dilli ki chand ajeeb hastiyan` and `Ghubaar-i-Karawan` are collections of Ashraf Suboohi`s sketches. `Jharoke` is a collection of his sketches and short stories. He translated a few novels from English. Ashraf Suboohi wrote many interesting episodes in a series `Kahawaton ki kahaniyan` for children, which explained the meaning and background of proverbs and described the stories behind them. These stories and many of his sketches published in different magazines are in fact buried there and need to be collected in book form so that they are preserved for posterity.

Though Ashraf Suboohi deserved recognition, his contribution has not been properly acknowledged. In the late eighties, Mubeena Begum, a student of Delhi University`s Urdu department, did research on Ashraf Suboohi for her MPhil. The dissertation was later published in book form. Although scholars do not have a very high opinion of the dissertation, at least it paid long-overdue tribute to Suboohi Sahib. Other than that, not much has been written about him.

Hasan Askari, while eulogizing Ashraf Suboohi in his book `Jhaliyan`, wrote “Writing `purple patches` is not a great art. Even schoolboys can do that. But a good prose writer is one who writes good prose constantly. Ashraf Suboohi relishes writing good prose and you may relish reading it”.

Ashraf Suboohi died in Karachi on April 22, 1990.