PART TWO

Personalities

A Very Angry Young Man at 75

Chacha  turned 75 this Thursday. I wouldn't have known had I not been told so by Chacha himself a good two weeks before the happy day.

          "I'll be 75 on March 15, and what do you propose to do about it?" He demanded, as he sailed into my office like an ancient man-of-war coming to part.

          "What do I propose to do about it? Well, nothing except to wish you a million happy returns and embrace you and Chachi ."

          I told him I'd do nothing of the sort; because birthday interviews make me sentimental, and I did not want to be sentimental because Chacha would be 75 on such and such day.

          Chacha insisted, however, and more and more forcefully until I thought of a compromise settlement. No interview but I would do a column on him. Chacha affixed his signatures to this agreement but only reluctantly. I was as bad as the rest of them, he told me in no uncertain four-letter terms and more than once. So now, here goes.

          I don't know when the city started calling him Chacha (uncle). But I have known him by no other name. (Even as I write, in walks another hardly perennial- Dada Amir Haider, who was born on January 1, 1900-a full nine year ahead of Chacha , but still younger and fresher looking than myself in spite of his snow-white head of hair. Dada hasn't gone grey. He's as near platinum blond as makes no difference. He retains his sense of humour and can even make Prof. Amin Mughal laugh, which is something not all of us can do. This is only a respectful digression. I couldn't just go on writing about Chacha with Dada sitting by my side, and telling a very young colleague how much he loved him and why.

          To return to Chacha ; I have, as I said, known him by no other name. He was born in Saharanpur where his father, Yuhanna Khan Chaudhry, was a Professor of Theology at a seminary. Chacha was 4 when his father died and 12 when mom joined pop in heaven.

          Chacha received his early education at the Mission High School in Dalwal, a remote village in Jhelum , and then came to Lahore to join the Forman Christian College.

          To begin with, Chacha joined St. Anthony's where he taught science and Urdu for a while. However, even as a teenager, Chacha was more interested in the camera than in anything else. He took his first snap in 1925, and the camera been his first love for all of 60 years. In his personal archives, therefore, lies the pictorial history of Lahore  and of the rural Punjab spanning more than half the twentieth century.

          Chacha started his career as news photographer in 1935 when The Civil and Military Gazette , Lahore, The Illustrated Weekly of India , Bombay, and several other newspapers started accepting his work.

          Chacha says he is the founder of news photography in the Punjab. And to the best of my knowledge; this claim has not been challenged by anyone living.

          Chacha is very proud of having taken an exclusive photograph of the Quaid-i-Azam, when he visited Lahore during the Shaheed Ganj Mosque agitation in 1936. The thirties marked a turning point in the history of the sub-continent. The Government of India Act had been passed in 1935, and great political changes were afoot. The depression had not left India unaffected. There was poverty and misery all round, and Hitler was preparing to take the world to war after having come into power in 1933. Armageddon did come in 1939 and India generally sided with the Allies against Fascism, Subhas Chandra Bose's being almost the sole vice of dissent. Hundreds of thousands of Indians fought with the British on several fronts across the world while at home they were fighting against them. Gandhi's Quit India Movement had come in 1931-or was it 1933? Bhagat Singh was hanged in 1931. These were the years of All Indian Congress, of Gandhi, Nehru, Azad, of the Muslim League, and of the Quaid-I-Azam.

          The Lahore Resolution and the Pakistan Movement heralded the forties. The Bengal  famine followed in 1942 and millions died like flies. Three years later, the war ended with the Americans using nuclear weapons to obliterate two Japanese cities-Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

          Chacha was 5 when the First World War ended, and around 9 at the time of the Great October Revolution. He was 24 at the time of the Quit India Movement, 30 when the Second World War started, 38 when the British left India and Pakistan came into being, and 62 when Bangladesh  was born.

          Chacha has seen war and famine and poverty and pestilence. His camera has caught the world around him in joy and sorrow, in hope and despair.

          Chacha joined the Pakistan  Times in 1949, and served that paper until 1973 when he was retired. He was re-employed in 1976; but in June 1978, came the parting of the ways. Chacha may have retired but he still retains critical interest in men and matters around him. Injustice and graft and greed and deceit still pain him and he still is capable of being angrier than men one-third his age. At 75, Chacha remains a very angry young man. He left his rickety old autocycle only few years ago. Before the autocycle, he had a James Motorbike, which he got in 1943. On these two bikes, he must have done a hundred thousand miles in the city he loves and hates. This was a small and compact city 60 years ago. It was more literate, more caring, and more compassionate; and it recognised merit. Today it has become uncaring and callous. "The flowers are gone and those who loved flowers are also gone."

          Here comes Chacha again and "Where's the piece you were to do on me?" he demands as he bobs in, sporting a cotton sun-hat and looking like a pirate straight from the days of King Henry VIII.

          "You look like a pirate Chacha ," I tell him

"I am a pirate," he concedes and sings: "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum,"

          "Hush, Chacha , these are dangerous days," I tell him.

"What dangerous days?" he laughs, again like a pirate, and says, "I'm a Christian."

Someone talks of Brzezinski.

          "I wish Brzezinski were a drink" says Chacha, and may he be in the honours list of March 23. There's no one deserving of honour more than Chacha . The city hasn't many people worthier of recognition and respect than Chacha .

          And if you want to know who is Chacha , he is F. E. Chaudhry, the city's first news photographer, and the proud father of Cecil and Anthony, 'Guppoo' and 'Baby', as he calls them. Both have served the Air Force with distinction. This is not to forget Sheila, who teaches at a convent school in Karachi, or Stella who is a doctor at the United Christian Hospital in Lahore, or Cyril who is an executive with Bata. They all love father, and with good reason. One must not forget Chachi Mrs. Iqbal Chaudhry who has been happily married to F. E. Chaudhry for 52 years.

          One day I asked Chacha if he loved the camera more than Chachi.

          "That's a stupid question but let me tell you, I caught her with my camera."

"Great shot," I said.

          "The very best of my life," said Chacha .