Beera , Talha , Irfan , Late Asif Shaukat , Cantt Public School Quetta,Forman Christian College Lahore and Old Cavalry Ground
I visited a house somewhere , cities are not important in my life scheme , countries are a conspiracy against the superior specie so not important ........I visit some one regarding business and it turns out that we were contemporaries , lived in generally the same neighbour hoods , joined the Forman Christian College in Lahore also known as FC College in November 1977.
I could find his face familiar but not his name ! Yet many of our friends criss crossed !
Tanvir Shaukat my class fellow in Cantt Public School Quetta in class ninth and tenth also known as Beera was his best friend ! Tanvir had left Quetta in 1976 and we had rejoined in FC College in 1977 November .He in the science section and I in the arts section.
Talha Saeed I met in FC College . A Close friend of Beera , they lived in old cavalry ground , an area where many beautiful girls lived ! I lived on Asad Jan Road , the old Jhelum Road !
Beeras brother had joined the juniour cadet battalion in 1977 ! The third course known as JC 3 and later known as 64th Long course. Asif Shaukat was a better than average , rather dynamic school fellow , a class senior to us ! A good sportsman ! I was sad to hear that he died an year or so .With him in JC 3 was another class fellow of mine Waqar from Saint Marys Academy Lalazar.Waqar was a fine gentleman , good background , courteous , a graceful personality.I met him after many years when a first termer in the military academy , while he was the seniormost fourth termer ! He recognized me and was most friendly and courteous ! He was company sergeant major of Babar Company and Battalion Sergeant Major after de-belting of the awesome and barbarian like Khalil ur Rahman Afridi !
Both myself and Khalil ur Rahman were commissioned in the cavalry ! Khalil became a good friend while we were serving at Multan in 1986-87 ! He later achieved some fame in a wild encounter with Iraniana Baloch drug mafia while commanding the Saindak Wing of FC in 1991 or so . He was shot in the shoulder and badly wounded I am told !
Another class fellow at FC College was the dashing , handsome Naushad Kiani ! We sat in the same class rooms and Naushad was the most handsome looking gentleman in FC College !
Also hanging out with Naushad Kiani was Pervez , another class fellow , not as handsome as Naushad but a sharp intelligent guy.Both joined 65th Long Course ! I met both when I joined the academy !
Naushad a true gentleman was most courteous and friendly ! I met him again on the steps leading into the command and staff college Quetta in July 1994 where I had gone to meet Colonel Naeem Phanna , a platoon commander of ours in the PMA and then an instructor ! Myself and Naeem Phanna were good friends ,having served in the same stations from 1983 till 1991 and having actually been colleagues in the tactical wing at school of armour Nowshera.Naeem rose to be a major general in the army. I am glad that Naushad is a general officer in the army ! Although one good man cannot change the corrupt system of this doomed country nose diving into decadence and chaos !
Pervez I am told is the CEO of the Uch Power Company ! Goes well with Pervez's modus operandi of being a smart ambitious person ! Although never a close friend I am glad that he has done well ! His brother Gulrez , some courses juniour to me and a colleague at the armour school in 1991 , although an extremely bright officer did not do well .Life has its imponderables and enigmas !
Pervez with his hang-ups was awkward and hostile ! It did not matter though ! Pervez as a Battalion Sergeant Major of 65th Long Course was ineffective ! Not abale to exert his fear of personality in the juniours , inters and uppers ! He was a dwarf in the art of bullying and ragging after towering terror personalities like BSM Khalilur Rahman Afridi or BSM Naseer Raja ( an old Formanite who I heard of but did not see).Also with us in PMA was Aamir of 64th Long Course and a class fellow at Saint Marys.Aamir was a great soul ! I did not see him after the 64th passed out in October 1981.
Now coming back to my old college fellow that I met after 31 years.
We recollected about Taimur Aslam son of Brigadier Aslam Dandy from the SP regiments , my class fellow at Saint Marys till he failed in class seventh , class fellow at FC College and course mate at the Military Academy ! A fine soul ! About Noman Kiani son of the famous Brigadier Jan Kiani probably a class fellow at Saint Marys Academy Lalazar ! Colonel Irfan Kiani a nephew of Brig Jan Kiani a senior in the army who has done extremely well in defence procurement ! Irfan Kiani is a fine gentleman from the old school !
He told me that Irfan was also his best friend ! I asked him if it was the dark Irfan who hanged out with Haneef Ramays niece and he roared with laughter ! That off course was the landmark recognition of Irfan ! Irfan played squash with us in Services Club Lahore .We were novices in squash then when compared with champions like Ateeq son of Brigadier Khalil (son in law of President Zakir Hussain of India and a class fellow of my grandfather in 1918).Ateeq was also a class fellow in FC College after having failed his class because of too much squash ! Ateeq now runs his advertising agency in Lahore and is doing well I am told .
So back to the college fellow ! The news report that he gave was that Talha and Irfan were now senior bankers and Beera was in the states !
The fellow was a cousin of a dear Jat friend and my quarter master in the independent squadron that I commanded and I was able to get his contacts !
We recollected memories of other friends and contemporaries like Saail Ishtiaq ,Nabeel Ishtiaq the asian games swimmer and Pakistani swimming champion , Sohail Anwaar the army squash champion with whom I shared an office for an year while serving as mechanical transport officer of an independent armoured brigade ! Nabeel was a dare devil Casanova whose list of clients was long and included the high and the mighty ! He made good use of my room in the old armour officers mess at the Benares Road in Lahore in 1990 ! His violent death in 1999 came as a matter of shock and grief to me in 1999 . He was a nephew of the famous writer Ashfaq Ahmad .
Life in those days was simple and defined ! Every one knew everyone ! The dirty money of Afghan war had not yet seeped in Pakistan like seepage of a gutter although it started doing so from 1979 !
This country became militarized ! Liberalism and finesse disappeared ! Lahore was overtaken by the noveau riche of the gulf labour money , the drug mafia , the property speculators !
All of us were scattered while pursuing careers or living lives of bankers , military officers , free booters and so many other professions !
Nevertheless it was nice meeting a person after so many years with whom you could relate something ! Some old memory ! Lahore cantonment remains a place of nostalgia always like Quetta where I spent a large part of my youth ! But more on Quetta later !
Tailpiece :-- Although not really relevant , in the course of remembrance of the past I gobbled more than half of the Johnie Walker Black Labels bottle of my host which it turned out belonged to his brother in law , a rich doctor ! So my host planned a rescue operation and when I told him that I might like to leave as I wanted to pee in the open , he insisted that I should use his beautiful washroom and while I was doing so his newly married wife hijacked what 45 % was left in his brother in laws bottle ! The Punjabis off course are misers in sharing booze and miles below Sindhis and Baloch who are hearty hosts ! The Pashtuns are finer hosts and far better company in a booze session ! I cannot forget my Khalqi Afghan boon companions ! But God created Kabul with its cool crisp weather for the having the booze and off course the other allied pleasures !
--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21693873/Indo-Pak-Wars-1947-71-A-STRATEGIC-AND-OPERATIONAL-ANALYSIS-BY-A-H-AMIN
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