KARACHI: Friends, colleagues and admirers of renowned writer the late Dr Asif Farrukhi took part in an online event held at the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi on Tuesday to pay homage to him on his first death anniversary.

The council’s president, Ahmed Shah, was the first speaker. He said Farrukhi was a multitalented man. When he was around, he [Shah] used to seek his opinion on literary events that the council organised. Now that he’s gone, he seeks the opinion of half a dozen people instead.

Kamran Asdar Ali, who joined the proceedings from the US, said a year has passed and not a day goes by when he doesn’t remember Farrukhi. He had known him since 1980 when they were at a medical college. They instantly hit it off. The late writer had a passion for reading and writing and he [Asdar] wanted to learn from him. Sharing one of his earlier memories involving him, he told the audience that in 1981, when they lived in North Nazimabad, Farrukhi came to him and said he’d been commissioned to interview the novelist Shaukat Siddiqui for the Herald. Asdar tagged along Farrukhi for the job.

Karan Singh said Farrukhi was a man of many colours (talents) and fragrances. He had the Midas touch: whoever met him would one day become someone worth mentioning. He knew how to extract work out of people. Any place he visited, he would create a relationship with the soil of that area.

Inaam Nadeem said he had known Farrukhi for the past 25 years but in the last five years or so he became very close to him because of the educational institution (Habib University) that both worked at. Farrukhi had joined the university after leaving his job at Unicef and designed a course [regional and world literature]. Once there, he called up Nadeem to apply for the job of a teacher, which he did. Subsequently they became colleagues and Nadeem taught the course Farrukhi had designed. “He was the most popular teacher of the university,” he claimed.

Friends and admirers pay homage to the late writer at online events

Wajahat Masood said Farrukhi belonged to the world of creativity and culture. He had a wide range. In the last months of his life, as if intuitively he knew that he didn’t have much time to live, he began making vlogs for a website which were widely seen. He was a man devoid of any kind of prejudice. “I have no words to describe the loss that I feel every day ever since he departed.”

Tanveer Anjum recalled the time in the past when there used to be a study circle where Farrukhi would come regularly.

Khalid Javed, who joined online from India, said Farrukhi’s death saddened all those associated with the culture of Urdu (Urdu muashra) in India. He had been in touch with the late writer on a daily basis from the month of March (2020), especially after he had started to do vlogs. Renowned Indian critic Shamim Hanfi (who passed away on May 6 this year) was also very fond of Farrukhi and they would often talk about him. Farrukhi was in contact with poet Obaid Siddiqui, critic Shamsur Rehman Farooqui and short story writer Naiyer Masud as well.

Attiya Dawood said Farrukhi liked the culture of Sindh. He was instrumental in bringing into the limelight quite a few ‘low-profile’ writers. For example, she said, Shah Mohammad Pirzado is not someone who likes to talk a lot. But Farrukhi encouraged him so much that he’d persuade him to get on the stage [at literary events].

Dr Shershah Syed remembered some of his tours to foreign countries with Farrukhi.

Dr Fatema Hassan talked about a book, Majmua-i-Asif Farrukhi, a collection of all of the writer’s short stories compiled by Rukhsana Parveen, who teaches at the Government Emerson College, Multan.

M. Hameed Shahid from Islamabad shed light on the art of Farrukhi’s short stories. He emphasised the need for analysing his stories anew.

Syed Afzal Ahmed Syed, who presided over the event, said with the passage of time Farrukhi will be known as an important short story writer in world literature.

The programme was conducted by Syed Kashif Raza.

Habib University tribute

Habib University also held an event later in the same evening to pay tribute to Asif Farrukhi who was a teacher at the institution at the time of his passing.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nauman Naqvi went down memory lane to tell the online audience how Farrukhi joined the university. Once he became part of the faculty, he designed a course for it and enabled qualified teachers to join the institution, turning his department into an important centre of literary activities. But his greatest talent as a teacher came to the fore when the university started functioning; the kind of impact that he left on the students no one else did, he said.

Dr Sahar Shah said her relations with Farrukhi spanned 25 years. He loved and respected the giants of Sindhi literature. For example, he translated Imdad Husaini’s (her husband) poetry into English. In 1997 when Shaikh Ayaz passed away, Farrukhi arranged a programme in his honour and asked her to recite her poem on Ayaz.

One of Farrukhi’s students, Yusra Afzal, said on her first day at the university where she was being interviewed (by Farrukhi) she showed him a script meant for theatre. From that day to the last working day of the late teacher, she never missed his class. If she wasn’t able to enrol in his course, she would go and attend his class just like that. She would be associated with him one way or another.

Syed Afzal Ahmed Syed, Inaam Nadeem, Tanveer Anjum, among others, also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2021