On Friday, April 15, 2011, I wrote to my now departed friend Hyder Mahomed Ali Habib in Zurich, the President of the Habib Bank A. G. Zurich, head-quartered in Switzerland, "Dear Hyder bhai: April 15, augurs the birthday of your cousin and my best friend Ali Asghar bhai (A.G.) Ghulam Ali Habib.
Yesterday (Thursday) I reached Khurasan Bagh in the evening twilight to offer al Fa'thea at the gravesides of my respected Papa, Mama, eldest sister Mumtaz bai, Seth Mahomed Ali Habib, my Sakkar aunt and of course A. G. and his mother, my Amina aunt, etc. Unfortunately lights in Khurasan Bagh have hitherto not yet been restored and require maintenance. Front portion where stand the eternal abodes of the departed Habib family, continues to remain in pitch darkness. I telephoned you in Zurich on Friday, April 1, 2011. I am indebted to my younger brother Farouk, for having placed me in touch with you. Following my visit to Khurasan Bagh, from Meva Shah burial ground I drove to the Gymkhana, to be with my younger brother Farouk where he plays Bridge every evening. Sixteen years of litigation, between we four brothers culminated on February 2, 2010. Nowadays, Farouk and I get on splendidly.
"City is given to all kinds of restraints. Claustrophobia prevails, imposed by self-serving and self-styled, interpreters of Islam. Farouk has shifted the sales organisation of his HAJI DOSSA Nutural Gum factory, from Karachi to Dubai, to meet his foreign Guar Gum buyers. Dubai, given its rigid law and order, is far more secure than undisciplined and volatile Karachi where no one feels really safe. Perforce, Farouk has to see his clients in Dubai. Farouk alternates between Karachi and Dubai.
"While Farouk is in the city, I see him almost every evening in the Gymkhana. As you know, I am a chronic bachelor. Why maintain a cow when milk is available in the market you were wont to tease me with this adage when you played Tennis at the Karachi Club, almost every day, until December 1973, when your Habib Bank was nationalised. I had hosted a dinner dance party for the most fetching, blond and brunette, Tennis playing Atlantis Airlines and Lufthansa Air Hostesses at our Hotel Columbus on the night of Saturday, July 29, 1972 when you passed the remark to my indulgent father who was at the gathering. This was the time when Habib Bank was still with your family. Habib Bank and Habib Bank Overseas were grabbed by the arrogant, capricious, Bhutto, a year and half later on December 31, 1973.
"Be that it may be, I complained to Farouk when I met him at the Gymkhana on the night of Thursday, March 31, that the day before augured the fifty second death anniversary of the philanthropic Seth Mahomed Ali Habib. "I described to Farouk at the Gymkhana, I had inquired from the attendant of Khurasan Bagh, namely, Yar Mohammed, if anyone had come, on Wednesday March 30, to the graveside of the divine Seth. He replied in the negative.
"Calmly, after I had covered the adjacent grave of my sister Mumtaz bai with roses, I placed a rose chuddar over the grave of the Seth. The visionary Seth had done so much for the Khoja Isna'asheri dispossessed in his life time, particularly in the field of education and other services. Following my rituals for the Seth, I then spread a chuddar over the grave of his wife Sakkar Khanum bai. Khurasan Bagh or Bankwala's Cemetery, was referred by the rank and file, indigenous newspapers, when the poet Syed Mustafa Zaidi was murdered and buried on October 12, 1970. I have been going routinely to Khurasan Bagh, at least once a week, from the day my Mama expired on December 9, 1979.
"Mama was reposed to eternal rest in the five graves, under the third lamp post. Site for the five tombs was provided by you to my Papa, in the wake of the demise of my Pyar Ali Uncle on June 1, 1971. This was eight months after the passing away of Mustafa Zaidi. Yesterday, Thursday evening, situation of illumination was very much the same, unchanged as it was when I spoke to you in Zurich on April 1, 2011."
Memories My letter of April 15, 2011 to my late friend Hyder Mahomed Ali Habib has been printed. I would like to inform my valued readers what I most cherish of Khurasan Bagh is the vivid scene, I witnessed on the first death anniversary of my Mama in the twilight hours of December 9, 1980. My Papa and I were accompanied for the ritual visit to the cemetery by our friend Khurshid Anwer, then Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax. Saga of Shehnaz Gul was still fresh.
From my Mama's tomb, Papa, Khurshid and I sauntered to the graveside of Mustafa Zaidi that is in proximity. Extempore, spontaneously, visualising the tombstone of the celebrated poet, in his chaste Urdu, Khurshid quoted the couplet the poet laureate had compiled for his mistress Shehnaz Gul in Meena Bar of what was then the Inter Continental Hotel.
"If you desire to see me, You will have to cross a rock strewn pathway There won't be a luxurious Garden Adorning my abode, along the sideway." Verses of Mustafa Zaidi were delivered by Khurshid in the quiet and stillness of the tombstones. Papa was overwhelmed. He broke down in tears. I wept with my Papa for my departed mother. My friend Hyder Mahomed Ali Habib is no more. We are all mortal, birds of passage. Rites of the funeral were over. Hyder was reposed to eternal rest in his grave. My elder brother Nissar and I condoled with his son Mohammed in the burial ground. He narrated, his mother, namely Hyder's wife Zubie and he were at his bedside on Wednesday, May 4th 2011 in the Heilliband Hospital of Zurich. Mohammed described in misted tones.
In a twinkling of an eye Hyder's life had ended. Hyder wished me well even when we competed fiercely against each other in the Guar business during the fifties up to early seventies. His cousin A. G. related to me that Hyder was perturbed, upset and very sad in Zurich when informed that my brothers Mamibhai, as Petitioner and Farouk the Co-Petitioner, had taken me to Court over the Estate of my Papa on the very day of Papa's demise, December 5, 1994.
Hyder was present at the Chelum gathering for my Papa at Mehfil-e-Khurasan on Wednesday January 11, 1995. He was then coincidentally in Karachi. Hyder was keen to arbitrate the differences, between the four brothers. His cousin Hamid Dawood Habib dissuaded and prevailed, that it would be an exercise in futility. Hamid explained to Hyder in Zurich, he had tried desperately, in Karachi, even invited me twice for dinner at his residence in K.D.A. but failed.
Habib bank A. G. Zurich Disillusioned Hyder had left Pakistan for good in the first week of January 1974, immediately after the nationalisation of his Habib Bank Limited and Habib Bank (Overseas). I arranged an impromptu tea party of the Tennis fraternity on the courts of Karachi Club, the night Hyder left for Jeddah en route to Zurich, Tennis members were in pain, tearfully exchanged good bye, appreciating that there were no knowing when we would see Hyder again. Embittered with the government of the day, feeling profoundly betrayed, he did not return to Karachi for six years. Meanwhile, Hyder Habib adopted Swiss nationality and pursued expanding the Habib Bank A. G. Zurich, from Bank's Headquarters in
Zurich, in all corners of the globe But the truth is that he never left Pakistan. He did not nurse ill will for the nation. No matter how beautiful things were in Zurich, to Hyder the life in Karachi was still the best. His heart was always in the twelve or more institutions in Karachi, namely Habib Public School for Boys, Habib Girls School, Dawood Habib Home for Girls, Mehfil-e-Khurasan, Khurasan Bagh, etc established by his philanthropic, father Seth Mahomed Ali Habib. Hyder's soul remained steadfast bound to Pakistan.
That is why he forthwith responded to my letter of April 15, 2011. Seth Mahomed Ali's immense contribution to his community has well grounded the young Khoja Isna'asheri in Karachi. Coming generations with scholastic degrees in hand and attuned by working in Mahomed Ali Habib's bank, insurance, shipping companies, ghee industries, etc that were nationalised with one stroke of the pen, proved themselves fruitfully, in foreign lands. They were hounded out of their jobs, because Khojas were protégés of the Habib family. Khojas were forced to leave the shores of Pakistan, in the seventies for lack, for want of opportunities.
I was informed by Hyder's younger brother Rafiq Mahomed Ali Habib, at the funeral in Khurasan Bagh on Friday, May 6, 2011. Hyder read my letter of April 15, 2011 in Zurich, over my dismay at the neglect, upkeep of Khurasan Bagh. Hyder advised his Swiss Secretary Mlle Suzanne, to forthwith fax the contents, verbatim to his brother Rafiq care of House of Habib and Indus Motors. Probably, Hyder had this intuition and premonition that in a fortnight he would be returning to his beloved Karachi for good. His banking expertise not wanted in his native land he had perforce lived as an expatriate for four decades, thirty seven years (1974-2011) to be precise. Accordingly, Hyder informed his younger brothers, Rafiq and H.M.
He implied by faxing my letter of April 15, 2011 post-haste from Zurich to Karachi that very soon his spirit would be presiding, over the affairs of Khurasan Bagh that his father Seth Mahomed Ali Habib, had lovingly conceived. Burial ground was to be primed up for his arrival from Zurich to his eternal abode on the afternoon of Friday, May 6, 2011.
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath, said,
This is my own my native land." (Sir Walter Scott)