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| Ghulam Ahmed Shah (circa 1938 – 17th Dec 2015) |
Do you know who he was? He wasn’t just my Naana Abbu (Maternal Grandfather), he was my first image of Allah Almighty.
As a little child whenever I tried to imagine what Allah Almighty would be like, I thought of him. The old kind-hearted man who always gives you sweets and makes you laugh with his jokes, with his funny acts and by making funny faces. What else would Allah mean to a 5 year old?
My Daada Abbu (Paternal Grandfather) had passed away when I was only 3 years old so he was the only grandfather that I really knew and he played this role so beautifully that I rarely felt sorry for having missed out on the love of my Daada Abbu.
He was a traditional Kashmiri wood carver. His shop which we lovingly called kaarkhana (the factory) was on the ground floor of his home. In my early childhood, whenever we went to his place and my mom would tell me to go out and play, then sometimes instead of playing, I would just go to his kaarkhana and watch him and his assistants work. He would ask me to sit next to him silently and I would just watch the magic happen. How the wood is cut and shaped, how a pattern in created on paper, how that pattern is shifted on to a rubber sheet and then finally on to the wood itself. How the wood is carved, finishing touches are given and then finally the process ends with varnishing. It was a long and arduous work, everything was done manually and there was no room for any mistake. But seeing it was like seeing poetry in motion and it was among the most fascinating experiences and one of the most cherished memories of my childhood. I still love the sound of Randa machine. I love the smell of walnut wood and the smell of varnish.
Every now and then, his clients would come to place orders or to get their finished articles. They would address him respectfully as Shah sahab. He would treat them with delicious milk tea and I would also get to enjoy that tea too. For a long period of my childhood, I used to think that my Naana Abbu is a celebrity since so many people know him and they come to him when they need his help.
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| An example of his art. He made these for me when I was coming to Japan |
Naana Abbu was from Nawakadal area in Srinagar which is currently in the Indian occupied Kashmir. He was 13 years old when he migrated to Pakistan and this was a story that he loved to tell. It was in the month of December, he did not have any transport so he had to walk through the snow covered mountains. The days that he spent on those mountains were definitely the hardest days of his life. After coming to Pakistan, he settled in Rawalpindi and started his life and his family from scratch here.
Allah Almighty blessed him with three daughters, my mom is the eldest. My mother told me that when my little aunt was born, my Naano (Maternal Grandmother) was a bit sad because she longed for a son. When Naana Abbu came to know about this, he became angry at my Naano for feeling sad and said you should be happy because girls are a mercy (rehmat) of Allah.
After this, Allah Almighty blessed him with two sons. Today all 5 of his children are living happily and comfortably because of his hardwork. He never cheated anybody, he was the most honest man I knew and he only earned his living through halal means.
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| Taken on the day he got married in 1964 |
He did not seem to be a man of the world today. He belonged to a bygone era where simplicity, honesty, truthfulness and integrity were considered honorable virtues and hadn’t become synonyms for stupidity just yet. When he would suffer a loss in his business, my Naano would come to my mother and she would complain that your father is a very simple man. He does not know how this world works. Mr. X and Mr. Y have cheated him and betrayed him and yet he does not do anything to them. My sweet Naano did not know that not only my Naana Abbu had the knowledge of how this world works, he also had the wisdom of how to live righteously in such a world. My Naana Abbu understood everything, he would just ignore when people did not treat him well and he would not respond to evil with evil. He would always take the moral high ground.
He was really smart. Whenever I had a discussion with him, he would often surprise me with his sharp wit and concise opinion about various matters. He would not speak much but whenever he spoke, his words were always heartfelt and they would leave an impact on you.
He had a very fixed routine. He would always go to bed at 9pm and would get up very early in the morning. He would cook his own food. Boiled rice and spinach were his favorite. He knew how to cook many traditional Kashmiri dishes like goshtaba, doodh gosht, kaadha etc as well. I did not find these dishes anywhere else.
He would sit on the floor, use his Kashmiri bowl (the biggest bowl I have ever seen) and eat with his hands. Children would always go and sit around him when he was eating because he would keep giving them little pieces of meat and would feed them with his own hands. We used to sit around him while he was eating when we were kids and then I saw my little cousins do it many years later.
He was very active through out his life. Even when he was nearing 80 years of age, he would still go to work and spend time there. He would walk more at that age than most young people do including me. It was only in the last couple of years of his life when his knee really started giving him problems that he stopped going to work.
When I came to Japan, the first 6 months or so were very tough for both me and my family. My mother was not coping well with my absence and Naana Abbu was really worried for her. One day I was talking to him and out of the blue he said Beta! (Son), please try to come back soon, your mother is very hurt in your absence. I was stunned and couldn’t say a word. My mother jumped in immediately and said No! No! Abbu ji I’ll be ok. He has just went there to complete his studies and he will be back soon.
Well, Naana Abbu! Today my mother is more hurt than she ever was and now we don’t even have you to console her.
A month ago, we found out that 3 of his heart valves are blocked and he needs a bypass immediately. This news was a shock to us because he never had any heart problem. It was a very tough and painful operation but like all other tough situations, my Naana Abbu endured it with patience. For many days, he could not move much because of the injuries of the operation and pain was etched all across his face yet he was always patient and would not complain about anything. The operation was successful and he was released from the hospital on 10th December. I talked to him after the operation, he was in high spirits and he responded very well to my questions and my stupid jokes. If only I knew that this would be the last time I was speaking to him.
On the night of 16th December, he started vomiting blood. He was rushed to the hospital where the doctors said that he has developed an ulcer due to the effects of high potency medicine. In the morning, he suffered a cardiac arrest which proved fatal.
Inna lillahi wa inna alehi rajiyoon
Surely we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return
He was as patient and peaceful in his death as he was throughout his life.
He was my personal hero and I have always been very very proud of him.
May Allah Almighty forgive his sins and bless him with Jannatul Firdos.
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| His Obituary in a Srinagar newspaper. 18th December 2015. |