At the launch of Javed Jabbar's seventh hefty 470-page, a compilation of his writings, in a book form, it was rather inevitable that one kept toying with the question of why the man had not written more in life. Why with his apparently insatiable creative urge to express himself he had not journeyed deep (or deeper?) into the domain of self-discovery.
Why had he not travelled through his times primarily as a writer? Such questions arose as I sat through the book launching ceremony of "Criss -Cross Times" on Friday evening at the Goethe Institut. The book has selected published writings about "conflict and confluence 2001-2009."
For the ceremony, the speakers were Dr Navid Ahmed Tahir, Director of the Area Study Centre for Europe, Karachi University, economist Dr Khalida Ghaus, and Dr Ishrat Husain, a former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. The audience heard them with keen interest as they spoke about Javed Jabbar, his writings and his societal concerns. I wondered why there wasn't a speaker invited to talk about him in his role as a writer, for that to me is his greater potential - his gift for creativity, compassion and expression is something that has been manifest all through his lifelong innings.
Had Javed Jabbar been a cricketer I would have imagined that he would have played only Test cricket, even though one-day games and T20 matches would have offered better over all returns. Test cricket being comparable to writing and the other two formats being akin to politics of any kind in a rather generalised sense.
Anyway, when he thanked the audience, including his immediate family, as well as his former school mates from the Cantonment Public School (those who were present that evening) he emphasised with feeling that for a person who writes, the process of writing is one self discovery. He said that this was applicable to him also, and that this was the reason why he wrote.
There were two points that he made at the culmination that warranted serious consideration. The first was a reference to his old school - the motto of which he recalled was "Carve your destiny. Know thyself". Excellent motto, really. It made me wonder how many of our schools today do have a motto, and if and when they do how many are emphasised enough to the students to remember purposefully them through a life time. Interestingly, Javed referred to some of his school mates sitting in the audience, and one of them being Shirley Haidar Valika. That was half a century ago.
That mention enabled me to identify over tea, and recall vividly Shirley Haidar (International Relations as well as an athlete of Karachi University). We met after 42 years, and that evening was a hurried walk down memory lane. She remembered her long flowing hair, and we remembered her pony tail!
That evening also revived memories of when and how I met a teenaged Javed Jabbar when he was an exuberant editor of the impressive newspaper sized weekly, Pakistan Students' Observer, which I naively assumed would flourish in the years to come. That was in the mid sixties. And as a student, I imagined that he would pursue journalism as profession, full steam - and make his big mark. It was at the St Patrick's College that I recall where I first met him. He was a year senior to me. And then onwards, it was at Karachi University where he chose International Relations as his major - but displayed a diversity of interests and thematic concerns.
The other point that Javed stressed at the book launch was a reference to Goethe whom he quoted as having said that "I don't know myself. And God forbid if I ever do". He stretched the point that knowing oneself could actually bring a moment of horror. The traces of candour and realism in his concluding remarks were significant.
It seemed that while Javed, as a writer alone was on my mind on that humid June evening, it was foremost on his mind as well. I remembered the several times through the years that he has fought diverse battles, political and cultural in this crises-ridden country, of having suggested to him that he should enter the field of journalism, and given his writing and entrepreneurial skills (and may I dare add, networking), it would be a proposition worth pursuing. I am certain that he never took the idea seriously. For he had his own priorities, and his vision - which I neither knew, nor agreed with, as they unfolded in the years that came.
Interestingly as Pakistan's fractured politics underwent twists and turns of fate and fortune, Javed became a senator, and a federal minister for information, and science and technology in the PPP government (after the November 1988 elections) and in the caretaker government of Malik Meraj Khalid (1996-97), recalls Sartaj Aziz, now Vice Chancellor of the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, in Javed's book.
It was in 1998, that Javed's preference for national politics motivated him to help set up Millat Party, which was launched by former President Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. He became its founding secretary general, and as someone who knew him long enough, remarked many a time that this was a strange decision that he had taken, and that the Millat Party had no future. But then the optimist in him knew better!
Then came the Pervez Musharraf times - and possibly Javed's concern for Pakistan adrift made him join the dictator who had seized power after staging a bloodless coup in 1999. Javed realised after a year (October 2000) that this was not the wicket that he should be playing on, or that he was in the wrong playing eleven (cricket again). So then through this turbulent decade that Pakistan has lived through, Javed wrote on a variety of themes. He also wrote and produced a film "Ramchand Pakistani" directed by his celebrated daughter Mehreen Jabbar. I hope to see this film, which makes me remember that he made in 1976 "Beyond The Last Mountain". I have often wondered why he never pursued his cinematic interests also - and put aside his passion for politics and power in a backward society where corruption and vested interests of the many faceted elite are amongst its cancerous ills.
Indeed, Javed Jabbar today has a big enough story to tell. He has always had stories to reveal about this society, and more so because he has been inside the corridors of power. This is a debt that one hopes he will pay off. Pakistani society is currently in a phase where electronic media in particular is laying bare home truths and sharing information and inquiry reports long denied to people. The agony, anxiety and the anger of the masses is so evident, so threatening, to say the least.
He has to reveal to his readers that is the people of Pakistan, what is his side of the untold power game being played in Pakistan. And it needs to be an original book also. He has realised this and announced that evening that in August this year will be released an original book titled "Pakistan - unique origins - unique destiny." But from the name alone this does not sound like the themes that I have in mind.
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