The clickety-clack of the keys of a typewriter doesn’t stop. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, beige, grey, white, brown and black… You can find a typewriter of every colour and a typewriter of every size and shape in Hizbullah Qureshi’s collection.

He doesn’t remember the exact number of typewriters he owns but says the last time he checked, a few years ago, their number had grown to 120. “Then I added a few more so you can safely say that there are at least 120 typewriters in my museum,” he tells me on the phone.

The clickety-clack sound reverberates on the phone. When asked if he was typing something while talking to me, he says: “Oh that! It’s my students in their typing class.”

Qureshi owns and runs a typing and computer institute on Old Power House Road in Qila Qafila in Shikarpur, better known for its historic buildings and pickles. He says he opened this institute, which also happens to be registered with the Sindh Board of Technical Education, some 40 years ago after spending 10 years “finding himself.”

In this age of computers, when no one has any use for typewriters, a gentleman in Shikarpur boasts of owning at least 120 typewriters and shares how he developed his love for them

A restless soul, it has been 50 years since Qureshi first ventured out of his hometown of Shikarpur to seek his luck. He studied law at Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur and also earned a Master’s in Economics there before proceeding to Sukkur for a Diploma in Homeopathic Medical System (DHMS). From there he travelled to Karachi in 1977 as he thought of also enrolling in a typing course. And then something happened: he fell in love with typewriters.

Next came a diploma in typewriter repairs because he wanted to keep his own machine in pristine condition. And then came the collection.

“My intention at first was just to get a few good typewriters because I wanted to come back to Shikarpur and start teaching typing but then it became an obsession,” says Qureshi.

He wanted every typewriter he set his eyes on. His love of typewriters also sent him into a consumption spree as he acquired them from all over the country. “I started with junkyards where I often came across old and broken typewriters in pretty bad shape. But thanks to my diploma in typewriter repairs, I could fix them and also restore them to almost new, which may not be as simple and easy as it sounds.”

He also mentions how families would dispose of possessions after someone’s death, and he’d bring home a typewriter that children or grandchildren did not need. “I would bring the machine home like a little puppy or kitten no one wanted to keep,” he says. “I have travelled all over the country for my typewriters, to Karachi, to the Misri Shah Iron Market in Lahore, to the ship-breaking yards in Gadani, to the Chaman border to fish out typewriters from scrap. The new generation is more interested in computers and laptops, they don’t know what to do with typewriters but I do,” he says.

He has been successful in restoring typewriters to nearly new condition, which, he claims, is no easy feat because spare parts are not readily available in the market. “Sometimes I have also had to dismantle an old typewriter with a heavy heart in order to reuse or transplant its various parts to give life to several other typewriters,” says Qureshi.

His large collection includes typewriters which can also type in languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, German, Russian etc. He counts a wood and metal 1878 Remington 7 as his most prized possession from the vintage typewriters.

He doesn’t just teach typing skills to students at his institute, but also teaches the history of typewriters. “My students know about how Christopher Latham Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard and how he, Samuel W. Soule, Carlos Glidden and John Pratt invented the world’s first typewriter in America,” he tells me with pride.

Today, the ground floor of his institute, which he runs with his youngest son Tariq, is reserved for typing and computer classes while the first floor houses his typewriter collection. “It’s not a big place. It’s just a 12 by 24 foot hall in which I have brought in racks and showcases, put up shelves and placed tables to display my typewriters,” he says.

“It’s better known as a typewriter museum. In fact, it is the first typewriter museum in Pakistan. The Mohenjo Daro of typewriters,” he points out before becoming a bit quiet.

“The recent rains have resulted in damage of some of the typewriters. Rainwater that dripped from the ceiling at places and the moisture is not good for typewriters. Yes, I’m again working on repairing them but I’m also no longer young. I suffer from various health conditions. So sometimes I also worry about how to preserve this treasure,” he says.

“I had shared my worries with Naseem Mughal, who represented the Sindh Archives in Shikarpur. His book Shikarpur Heritage also mentions me and he had plans to take this little museum of mine under his department’s patronage. Unfortunately, he passed away and that was the end of that,” he says.

“I have dedicated almost half a century to my typewriters. Of my five sons and three daughters, only my youngest son, Tariq, has inherited my love for typewriters. What would become of my typewriters after we are gone, too? Will this museum survive? If not, will there be another Hizbullah Qureshi to give them a new home?”

The writer is a member of staff

She tweets @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, EOS, November 6th, 2022