The Honour of Working with Sadequain - the legendary Muralist and Calligrapher

In one of my earlier posts on legendary artist, calligrapher and muralist Sadequain, I mentioned how one of my elder brothers Zaffar Hameed Bhatti got to know Sadequain and how a professional relationship between the two developed that lasted till the death of Sadequain.

Just to recap the first meeting between my brother Zaffar and Sadequain, this is how it happened. In early 70s, Sadequain was working in the Lahore Museum and Jinnag Garden on a number of life size murals for the Lahore Museum. As it happened one day that my brother who was then studying in the Government College was standing on the bus stop opposite Lahore Museum, when he spotting Sadequain strolling on the footpath and taking a dose of the fresh air after working for long hours inside the museum.

Seeing a golden opportunity, my brother rushed to the nearby paper market, bought an autograph book and a pen and rushed to Sadequain for an autograph. And from the a long association started between the two and my brother would spend endless hours with Sadequain and helping him finish his many paintings and calligraphies.

The initial days of association

Later my brother got a job in the Pakistan Ordnance Factories and moved to Wah. But the communication between him and Sadequain never broke. In those days, Sadequain was busy in his new project for murals for Pakistan Sports Complex, Islamabad and needed my brother to finish his huge work. For this, he requested the chairman POF to spare my brother for a month to help him in his project. The chairman duly obliged Sadequain and sent my brother to Lahore. In those days Sadequain had his abode in the Jinnah Gardens' Montgomery Hall.

Here the two worked day and night to complete the project. Here it may be mentioned that the help provided to Sadequain was purely voluntary and no monetary gains expected. The mere working with a legendary artist was more than any worldly gains.

One day while brother was standing on a raised pedestal working on a huge mural, his head hit the fans overhead. Sadequain who had just happened to saw the incident, immediately called my brother down and asked the administration to remove the blades of all fans lest a fatal incident may occur. Thereafter, my brother worked on the murals without any threat from overhead fans (as can be seen in the photo above).

Sadequain was down to earth a simple soul, that is why he always called him Faqir Sadequain, the humble Sadequain. Devoid of any pride and lust for appreciation, he would sit on floor and even entertained no matter who was visiting him on the same floor next to him. And there was no sumptuous hospitality except for a few biscuits and a cup of tea.

On my brother's request Sadequain also visited Wah, something very unusual as he never went out to a outstation place on someone's personal request. But for my brother, the relation of a mentor and  student was very dear to Sadequain and he willingly consented to accompany my brother to Wah. There a special evening was celebrated at the Officers Club and he dished out his hand written sketches and calligraphies to those present. Luckily, I was also there on that day on weekend from the Pakistan Military Academy where I was undergoing training as a cadet.

After the removal of fan blades, my brother could freely work while standing on high tables

 Tea time between work 

The one month leave soon expired but the work had not and my brother had to stay a few more days. In order to compensate him for the over stayed leave, Sadequain wrote a handwritten letter, something he seldom did, to the chairman POF, apologizing my brother over one month and appreciating his efforts in completion of his project. The letter in itself is a tribute by a great artist to my brother's hard work - something that is cherished by all of us a great treasure of all times.

There is yet a memorable gesture that Sadequain made for my brother. This is how Zaffar Hameed Bhatti explains it:

In 1974, I was working on his 'calligraphic painting project' for the Middle-east Traveling Exhibitions, he named it as the "Air Mail Edition", that included, "Asma-e-Hasana", 40-piece "Surah Rahman", 280 feet long "Surah Yaseen", and more. 

During that period,we celebrated Sadequain's 44th birthday on June 30,1974, and he very much liked the birthday card I made for him ... three days later, it was my birthday on July 3,1974, and besides a "Limited Edition Tea Party", Sadequain wished me as can be seen in the photo above.

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook
Follow @JalalsPages

Read More

Dream: These do come true one day

Dreams are always fascinating - these come to us while we are asleep and we see images, people or events happening even if we had never thought of these in our lives. sometimes we actually see real life events that later happen to our lives or have an impact on our lives. These dreams are involuntarily which may or may not come true,

But we also dream of things in our real life and hope these to come true one day. Usually these dreams or wants are on a higher pedestal of life that we are - which generally remain unfulfilled unless we make an endeavour to realize these.

When I was a child, I could not read the hands of the watch and wondered why there are number instead of hands for immediate reading and recording time. It was just a childish thought or a dream I never knew would one day become a reality when digital watches came and helped many children like me to read the time instantly.

Seeing places has always been my favourite day dreaming. and of all the places, I always wanted to see was Switzerland on top of my 'dream listing.' That was decades ago when I read a travelogue in which the writer described how he bought a cup of hot milk and Tobbler chocolate and drank while in the typical Swiss countryside with lush green meadows and mountains and a scented breeze blowing. Reading this I dreamed of being in Switzerland and drinking this heavenly drink.

Unknown to me how onne day things will move and one day my younger son, about the same age when I dremaed of seeing Switzerland, announced one day that he wanted to go to Germany for his higher studies. He convinced me and I let him go for I never wanted to stop his dream short of being realised. So of he went and one day the rest of us decided to go to Germany and visit him, never relaisng that one of my decades old dream was about to come true.

Once in Germany, a friend suggested that we rent a car and have a tour of neighbouring EU countries for which we laready had a valid visa. So we hired a car and set forth for a journey that also inlcuded Holland, Switzerland, France and Italy. 

Thus travelling we met a school days friend in Groningen, Holland after some forty years, went to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arch de Triumph and Disneyland - it was as if all childhood dreams were unfolding into reality one by one. We went to Italy and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa and then on to Switzerland.

My son had deliberately booked a motel some 60 kilometers from Zurich in the 'typical Swiss landscape with mountains in the back, with rolling down meadows and Swiss cow grazing. When we reached the motel, it was already dark and we could not see the landscape shrouded in the dark.

When the dawn broke, I sneaked out of the bedroom into the balcony and suddenly I saw something that I had dreamed decades ago. The lush green landscape with a heavenly scented breeze blowing with a clear sky criss crossed by airplanes going in different directions. While I was obsessed with the heaven I was watching, my younger son brought me a cup of sizzling hot coffee - an alternative of milk and chocolate but with the same background. I sat there drinking my coffee sip by sip and enjoying the realization of my dream - in the meantime my wife also came out, sat with me and enjoyed the scene I was already enjoying sipping my coffee.

 

Even till date I reminisce the drinking of the coffee and Switzerland landscape which I had once longed to  happen to. So don't stop dreaming - may be one day your dreams may come true without you knowing it.

You may also read one of my earlier posts linked to this post: Two days and two nights in Lichtensteig, Switzerland

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook

Read More

From Uncle to Baba Jee

Life has a speed perhaps faster than the speed of light. It seems moving at a slower pace but in fact it is zooming past at a much higher speed than we can actually feel.

From childhood to teenage the period is so short that when one start to enjoy it, it is almost half way though and over in a few years time - taking us into a bracket of life when small children start to call us uncles. And then the 'uncle' stage continues for a pretty long time - to our late 50s. And then graying of hair sets in  - taking us into a transitory period of life between uncle and the old.

I too have been enjoying the uncle stage for quite some time now even when my hair had become grey and mustaches almost white with a few black hair here and there. But still I was uncle.

But last night, my transitory stage came to an abrupt end. I was sitting in a store while my wife and son were busy shopping. Next to me were sitting a young father and her angel like doll baby girl, eating potato chips. While I was not actually looking it at her and was trying to find my wife and son, suddenly the doll touched my arm and in her sweet still learning voice said: Baba Jee, Baba Jee (or in other words Old Man, but with respect) !!

Well that was the first time anyone addressed me with Baba Jee - it was both amusing and interesting. I smiled at her who by then was again busy devouring on her pack of potato chips. When my wife and son came and I told them what had happened to my status and naturally they were all smiles. 

But her addressing me Baba Jee suddenly took me from the middle age to the beginning of old age, which made me wonder how swiftly the life has gone by and it has been two years since I stepped into my six decade age bracket - the last age bracket of my life which can abruptly end anytime. But till it happens, I intend to enjoy someone call me Baba Jee for it is both amusing and loving.

Photo: Pixabay
If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook

Read More