An autobiography is a non-fiction story of a person’s life, written by the subject themselves from their own point of view. Main zinda Aadmi hoon is the title of auto biography of acclaimed author of Punjabi and Udu languages and former bureaucrat Khalid Hussain . Special feature of this autobiography is that it has been written in a different stride which is uncommon .The style used in this book reminds one the French theorist Roland Basthes . Sahatya Awardee Dr.Manmohan is of the view that Roland, instead of first person, used He/she for the narration. Khalid has used similar style and instead of me used his friends or relatives to describe the events in his life.
The life of Khalid has been eventful in many ways and these find space in an interesting and enchanting way . References to such stories detail literary activism, cultural upheavals, political disasters, bureaucratic machinations and at spots meanness at lowest ebb. There are stories of sinister designs in social life , cunningness and flattery , personal enmity and loathe which throw light upon the overall situation viz politics, literature, social and cultural scenario. Khalid , is an acclaimed writer and has been part of literary movement having rubbed shoulders with doyens of literature like Ali sardar Jaffri, Amrita Pritam, Nida Fazili and Bashir Badar etc. As a bureaucrat he has worked with many political stalwarts and been witness to political jugglery as well as bold decisions taken from time to time. This way he has been witness and first hand observer of history.
Casual reading of the autobiography by Khalid reveals that this 388 page book is divided into 24 chapters , but going through the script keenly one observes ,of course, all contain the description in a captivating style which reinforces the idea that Khalid has used magnetic approach to move his readers while reading his fictional pieces of various genres but holds the same glue to hold on to the interest of his readers while going through his non fiction. His description of events is so attractive that keen, intense and eager reading is not lost in between. That is what forces former HOD Urdu Kashmir University Prof Qudus Javed to note, “ Khalid Hussain produces literature by immersing his pen into the truthfulness of life and society. ……….and every reference bears testimony to the fact that the experiences, his keen observation and his emotions trickle down from each and every word.” He further writes that this autobiography is a description of ‘ personal account as well as an honest commentary upon cunningness about jugular vein and unbreakable part like political jugglery in J&K state for previous decades and should be read as an honest image of these events.’
Khalid Hussain is witness to many events rather upheavals in the J&K state be it political, literary, social but one most important holocaust has been the issue relating to the partition of the sub continent which led to too much of blood bath . Khalid was around three when hi locality was attacked and he lost almost entire family to the sword of the bigots and murderers . The pathetic event is heart wrenching when the survivors in the family, mostly women folk and children, had to traverse the distance under the shadow of death and destruction. One such event is described by the elder sister in her own words, “ We took refuge in Lala Amar Nath’s house who, despite being RSS Sanchalak, entertained us due to his friendship with our father. Lala then managed our shift to his village house in Jaganu Walay during the night hours with the help of his brother. Hindu zealots searched and found us and tried to abduct Mohamad Ishaq and Khalid Hussain but our mother confronted them like a lioness saying ‘I won’t allow you to take our children .’ We were spotted by the villagers in some other village but this time aunt Gulam Fatima rose to the occasion and indulged in a skirmish with them invoking Shalokes from Ramayan and Guru Granth. In desperation the small group moved on surviving on forest fruit and leaves. In few days Peace Brigade spread in whole of Jammu and like others we were put in Ustad Mohella camp .Subsequently , around twenty five thousand Punjabi, Dogri and Gojri speaking Muslims were shifted into an open camp near Neelam Cinema in Srinagar.”
Khalid survived the bloodshed in his early life and then had to brave the vagaries of uncertain environment that too without the affectionate cover of his father who had fallen to the madness of post partition riots. However, these hard conditions made him even physically as well mentally strong. His mental toughness is explained by his sister and friend Naseer Ahmad Naseer. “ Khalid was swift, agile and fit boy in his childhood. He would whisk away a 50kg wheat or rice sac from the ration depot over his shoulders. In similar fashion he would lift the timber from the depot. He put up his helping hand for his mother in her household chores. Khalid had penchant for films .
An interesting feature of Khalid’s childhood was that he was strong and a tough guy to the extent that he broke bricks with head butt and this quality of him forced other locality boys to extend friendship with him. The physical toughness helped him get film tickets from the counters which forced us to pool money for his tickets also otherwise purchase in black would put us to financial loss. I remember in 1960 we skipped presence in the mosque on the night of Shabi Qadar ,went to witness film Junglee , then returned to the mosque in the night hours.
At the age of nineteen Khalid got married and with the birth of a daughter Khalid put restrictions over his waywardness. He then continued his studies in private capacity till he graduated in 1970 and in 1972 acquired Diploma in journalism. Then he focused on journalism as a part time job to further his income and worked for Sandesh, Waqt and Imarat in Jammu and in Srinagar Zamindar, Roshni and Political Times. “
Khalid had special affinity for writing, translation and newspapers. This quality helped him get nearer the corridors of power .After 1975 Indra Abdullah accord, through which S M Abdullah became the Chief Minister, he formed a small cabinet comprising his trusted friends Mirza Afzal Beg, Devi Das Thakur and Sonam Norboo . Beg wanted a personal assistant who would be adept in Urdu, English and be able to speak Kashmiri as well as Dogri. With the introduction from secretary cultural academy M Y Teng, Khalid became a natural choice but Beg gave him a test with scripts in English and Urdu for translation. Both translated scripts were checked by Beg himself and Khalid was selected. Subsequently , Khlaid came much closer to Beg, cultivated his confidence and worked with him for about four years . The bond was broken after Beg was forced to resign in view of conspiracy hatched by Gul Shah and Khalid returned to his parent department and became editor of Dehat Sudhar magazine. This posting brought Khalid into close proximity to new KAS recruits like his adopted sister Tanveer Jahan, Naseem Lankar, Dilip Singh , Syed Fazlulah , Sunita Gupta and Masood Samoon through his friend Prithipal Singh Betab. These people would get seating space in Khalid’s office. Since Khalid was engaged in part time with few papers these officers including some IAS entrants would spend some time with him in the paper offices also .
Khalid’s journalism came once to the rescue of J&K government when Indra Congress lost elections in 1983 miserably . Indra Gandhi did not take the defeat lightly and was hell bent upon dislodging the Farooq Abdullah government . As a prelude national press was put on dubious job of smearing Farooq Abdullah with tags like anti India, corrupt and what not. In such circumstances someone was looked for who would use his influence over editors of Ajeet, Jag Baani, Akali Patrika, Nawan Zamana, (Jallandhar editions) Tribune, Indian Express, Times of India and Hindustan Times (Jallandhar and Chandigadh editions). Khalid was picked up for the job by the Communication Minister and posted as Head of Information Bureau Jallandhar . This move was vehemently opposed by O N Dhar ,Commissioner Information, who did not want a Muslim officer at a sensitive place but despite his dissent note file was cleared by the CM Dr. Farooq and Mr. Dhar had to eat the humble pie which he did with his opinion on the file while issuing the orders. Khalid faced a peculiar situation with staff asking for leave one by one. Khalid boldly sanctioned leaves except typists in English, Hindi and Punjabi. He used his expertise in running teleprinter and his knowledge of Hindi and Punjabi. However the papers did not carry news . At this juncture he used his friend and Punjabi author Prem Prakash Khanvi who introduced him to Head of Hind Samachar group . Khalid cleared the air about concocted news like destruction of temples, abduction of Hindu women, killing of non Muslims and non Muslim percentage in various government offices. Khalid ,subsequently, wrote around 45 articles under the ghost name Ibn e Hussain in which contribution of S M Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah was highlighted .
Subsequently, post Op Blue Star Indra Gandhi turned her attention towards Kashmir asking her maternal uncle B K Nehru ,the governor, to dislodge the Farooq government. On his refusal Jagmohan was assigned the murky job who completed the task making Gul Shah , Farooq’s brother in law , the CM.
With Gul shah as CM Khalid was called back and, subsequently, going through various postings retired from government service in 2003.
Mughal Road in its present condition is a black topped road and traffic plies over it for about eight months. Demand has been growing for construction of couple of tunnels which will make it all weather motorable road. This road has been in use during the Mughal period and Saraies were constructed at various places . One such resting place is known as Noori chamb where Noor Jahan, the queen ,used to enjoy splashes of water. A tall mirror had been fixed on the rock cut which remained intact till recent times and Khalid has seen the same in 1990. King Jahangeer died on this road and the doctor extracted the inner body parts and buried them at Chingus. Gullible people pay obeisance at the spot not knowing that inner body parts only are buried there which they think is burial place of some saint. Infact the body’s inner extras are called Chingus in Turkish language so the name Chingus. The resting places constructed by Mughals have remained in use by Mughals, Pathans, Sikhs and Dogra sepoys .These are used nowadays by Indian soldiers . Khalid visited these far flung areas as an officer to asses the weak economic condition of residents and tried to mitigate the problems. Even such issues remained subjects in Khalid’s fictional and literary works.
Post Raider attack: An interesting feature, recorded in Khalid’s autobiography, is the Indian army repulsing the raider attack and being disciplined and powerful push the unorganized groups from across the border. “Possibly Nehru and Abdullah took this conscious decision not to allow army beyond Kaman Pul. The Indian army did not cross the river as the area beyond had Pothwari Punjabi speaking population and the Sheikh was not interested in annexing that area. In that scenario Kashmir would be overwhelmed by Punjabi, Pothwari, Gojri, and Dogri speaking people which are sister languages of Punjabi and it was not acceptable to him. Kashmiri speaking area include Kashmir valley, Mandi Loran in Poonch, Banihal in Ramban, Gool and Mhore, and around half of the Kishtwar and Doda districts. This population would have added up to 32% of the total population which would deny power to Kashmiri leadership…….Nehru agreed to Sheikh because Sheikh had honoured his advice to change Muslim Conference into National Conference. …….post partition communal riots followed. Like in other parts of North India gory incidents took place in Jammu, Kuthua, Udhampore, Doda and Bhadawah where it’s feared 235000 Muslims were massacred and around 70000 non Muslims lost lives in minority areas. These figures have been released by UNO.”
A massive mandate was given to National Conference in 1977 and Beg was nominated deputy CM by the Sheikh. However, this step put embers on Gul Shah . Beg had managed mandate for his son in law Yaqoob Beg but Gul Shah was bent upon mischief . Congress party’s Mangat Ram Sharma alerted Beg about Gul Shah and informed him about buying some congress MLAs . This was done by Sharma in presence of Khalid. Although Yaqub Beg won but the results came when Sheikh was in Bombay for an eye surgery . Gul Shah used the occasion to spread venom against Beg citing incident of Congress support to Yaqub Beg claiming that 1953 would be repeated and Sheikh removed . Beg’s resignation was sought and the resignation letter was handed over by Khalid to Sheikh Abdullah.
An interesting episode followed. Some of the MLAs namely G M Bhadarwahi, Samad Teli, Mohidin Malik (speaker), Hakim Yasin, Bashir Kichloo, and few more assured Beg that they accept him as their leader. Beg christened his party as Inqilabi NC and proposed a press conference. Samad Teli, Malik Mohidin, Hakim Yasin, Haji Buland Khan and few more stayed at Beg’s house that night and Khalid arranged nice service for them. But Khalid kept reading their faces whole night and concluded that they were petrified. In the morning Khalid apprised Beg about the situation and suggested that during presser he should not express any thing badly about Sheikh , however he may speak against Gul Shah. That moment Baldev singh and Jalal u din arrived . They ridiculed Khalid but subsequent events proved Khalid right. To thwart Beg’s Gol Bagh public meeting Gul Shah, Kochak and Hisam Din monitored from Jehangeer hotel the stoning the dais through some street urchins . Hamid Banihali, who had been posted DC Udhampur and Div Com Kashmir by Beg , as Div Com pushed Beg from the stage .Hamid was a sycophant and tied Begs shoe laces and ‘felt pain when Beg took insulin pricks.’ Beg’s stature was small compared to Sheikh and all close ups had left Beg including his personal aides. Jaiswal and Khalid would still visit him occasionally.
Beg had become weaker and handicapped over the years and later died. The chameleons were seen talking in front of TV screens and people thronged the Rajbagh residence for condolences. It is believed Sheikh later realized that he had fallen out with his 45 year old friend due to conspiracy weaved by GUL Shah. Some of the writers and poets who had been introduced by Khalid to Beg like Hakim Manzoor ignored Beg after he lost power. Similar was the case with Yusuf Teng.
One more incident relating to Beg family which jolted Khalid was when in Jallandhar he worked as PRO and Beg’s youngest son Mumtaz Afzal served in Door Darshan there. His mother who was called as Aapi Ji had come to the place. .Khalid ,known to her, went to meet her but the sight jolted Khalid. Staying in a rented house on a mat and using hand driven fan in the fierce heat the old woman was without any domestic help or a table and chair. The woman wept bitterly as in Srinagar other sons had raised the property dispute.
Khalid rose to fame with his Punjabi story Thandhi Kangdi which first witnessed inter rivalry between writers. In 1971 this story was read in front of Saran Singh, kanwal Kashmiri, Gurcharan Singh Gulshan and Prem Singh during Srinagar session of Punjabi Saahat Sabha but they did not like the story. However , the story was liked next day by people like Harbhajan sagar, Bandhu Sharma, Narsingh Dev Jamwal, Deenu Bhaie Panat and Brij Nandan. The story was later sent to magazine Naag Mani published under the editorship of doyen of Punjabi literature Gyan Peth Awardee Amrita Pritam. People published in Naag Mani considered themselves very fortunate and rightly so. It was a launching step for Khalid to get known in Punjabi circles here and across the border. Many magazines published writeups about Khalid and some included his interviews.
In December 1971 during a literary conference in Jallandhar he read a Punjabi story Dharti Rondhi Aay in front of Baraj Sawhni and others. Sawhni took Khalid along to the hotel and analyzed the story . ‘ your story is nice in all respects but you have restricted to Muslim issues only whileas other communities also face grave problems.’
From Bombay Sawhni wrote three letters to Khalid explaining finer points of story writing and Khalid says , “ After that I never confined my stories to communal brinkman ship.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Shafi Ahmad is a writer and columnist, can be reached at wanishafi999@gmail.com
