In the Navid Zafar :A Good Man and a very fine friend By Mahfooz ur Rahman Sometime in the nineteen seventies TIME magazine gave some obituaries in its last issue of December of great people who died that year. Among them was an obituary of John Rockefeller .Beneath it was simple caption describing him as a good man. Navid was also a good man. I think that description alone should suffice . However , I repeat the following lines taken from Shakespeare ‘O Sir , the good die young’ Navid Zafar died on March 12, 2009 of a sudden heart attack . According to his older brothers ,Javid, and younger brother , Fareed , he was sitting with his aged mother in his house . He got up and saying to her that he would be coming back to her soon left the house never to return home alive . According to the clinic sources , he came to them .The doctors took his ECG and advised him to accompany them to the Shifa Hospital .He told the doctors that he would be able to go there alone. As her started his car he collapsed and died . It was a fun to have Navid as a companion. Recently, in January, I was reminded of a English poem ,which I had read in School ,on seeing my grandson leave the room in the cold wintry night and the keeping door open .The words of the poem Godfrey Gordon Gustufus Gore Was the boy who did not shut door He father would beg ;his mother implore Godfrey Gordon Gustufus Gore I was first reminded of the time when my children were young and they would never shut the door. Accordingly I sent an email to Navid . Back came his repartee that when I was young my father would beg and my mother implored. I admit I rarely met Navid because of the sheer distance between of our houses . Secondly , I was a friend of his older brother , Javid. But whenever we met , it was pleasure . One learnt a lot from him. Javid was an year senior to me when I did my masters in English Literature. We were both in Gordon College , Rawalpindi. There was a Post- Graduate English Literary Society of which Javid was the President and I was the Secretary through elections. Professor Sajjad Sheikh was the Patron . Gradually our friendship blossomed and we started visiting each others’ houses. I came to know their parents . His father was a very sweet soul : an exactly replica of Navid. The late Mr. Yusuf Zafar gifted me a book of his poetry . Although I met Navid occasionally in their Peshawar Road house in the 1970s but in keeping to our traditions to maintain a distance with a friend of one’s elder brother he kept a respectable distance between himself and yours truly . My wife and I attended the marriages of Navid and Fareed in that house. I found the entire family very humble , caring , loving , down to earth and ready to be of service to the people . With the passage of time the distance between Navid and I eroded . In a reference held in the International Islamic University , Islamabad to pay tributes to Navid , many speakers told various incidents revolving his life . It was a grand but a solemn occasion. Each speaker dealt with a particularly facet of his life . I think he was an all rounder : a gem of a person . a very dear friend in whom one can put an absolute trust without a care in the world that one’s secret would remain secrets , a perfect Momin , and intelligent man, a devourer of books , man of letters , a family man . Above all he was a friend to all people of all ages . My younger son, Mustafa , set up a NGO to help poor sick children . He invited Navid although the NGO comprised his friends and class fellows only. To Mustafa’s great surprise Navid came and fully participated in the meeting . Not only that , he donated Rs.1000/- to the NGO. My family and I went to his house once. Both my elder son , Saad, and daughter , Amina, wanted to discuss something with him . He heard the young ones patiently .No wonder my children thought of him as their favourite uncle . Navid occasionally came to my office . He had an ocean of knowledge . He had a great love for Allama Iqbal and Quaid e Azam. Discussions with him was absorbing and as a pleasure . He discuss mundane things as well as super mundane with equal ease. I learnt that silent grief is majestic when my cousin died in an accident in 1976. I apply the same adage to my grief at the passing away of one who lived and loved Allah’s creations. May Allah Bless him and illumine his eternal life the same way he illuminated the lives of many.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 16:46:41 +0000
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