I (Muslim Saleem) was born in Shahabad (Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh) in 1950 though my school leaving certificate shows the date of birth as November 1, 1954. Though I was born at Shahabad, I was brought up in Aligarh where I imbibed my early education at Qazi Para-based AMU City Primary School (Which has now become a girls school). Later, I studied from class VI to X at AMU City School, which is situation near the Exhibition Ground. From there, I went to Aligarh Muslim University from where I did my B.A. (Honours) in Political Science with Psychology, Economics, Urdu and Persian. I also did first year of LLb but had to abort the course before exams due to unavoidable reasons and moved to Allahabad from where I did M.A. in Arabic. At Aligarh, I lived at a house called Godaam, which was owned by my maternal aunt Begum Aisha Khatoon’s husband Khwaja Mohammad Masood. It was actually a tobacco godown in which a portion was used as residence. The first floor of this building was used by my cousins Khjwaja Hashmat Kamal and Khwaja Haleem (who later became a minister in UP), Chhote Syed Mamoon. For some time, Syed Salahuddin and Syed Abdus Salaam alias Saeed Mamoon also lived. I lived in this house till about 1970 and then was allowed to live on the upper story of Mr Khwaja’s Masood’s house when my mother Mrs Umme Habiba Begum left for Allahabad to live with her elder son. Earlier, the family of Dr. Ghayyur sb lived in that house with his fathter, and brothers Ragheeb, Baleeqh, Sayeed and my childhood friend Syed Nafeesul Hasan. The upper story where these people and later I lived was said to be spookey, means it was haunted by ginnies. (Jinnat). There were tales in circulation that Jinnat used to lift the cot of anyone sleeping at a particular place in the open area and put it atop the tinshed. And the person concerned used to be astonished and shaken when he woke up in the morning. When I was allowed to live almost alone in that portion, I sometimes felt some uncanny and eerie movements, but was not scared. Sometimes, the doors and windows of this portion started shaking when there was no wind, pointing vividly that there was something amiss. But since no harm was coming to me, I use to lie down without being much bothered, although I used to recite whathever little Duas I had imbibed. In fact, I had experience more spookey events in Godam earlier where I had come face to face with a very tall spookey figure. I lived in this portion of the house till I moved to Allahabad in the year 1974.
(Muslim Saleem email ID muslimsaleem@rediffmail.com)
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About Dr. Ataullah Butt
Dr Ataullah Butt M.D (Berlin) was the phupha (uncle) of My (Muslim Saleem’s) father Dr. Saleem Wahid Saleem. He was appointed by Dr Ziauddin as Principal of Tibbia College although he was an allopath. Dr Butt was an ardent Ziaudddin supporter in the University politics and was a close confidante of Chaudhri M. Zafarullah, a member of the Viceroy’s Council. Dr Butt after independence stayed back in Aligarh in his palatial house at Marris Road. He loved humanity as a whole and kids in particular. This writer remembers a septuagenarian Dr Butt with a smiling visage often distributing ‘lemon drops’ to the locality kids. He was also a great philanthropist. I vividly remember that scores of people were given alms by him when he had started a clinic after retirement at Baradwari, Aligarh. Dr. Butt’s elder son Hameed Butt had settled for sometime in Bombay and made a couple of films. Later, he migrated to Pakistan and passed away there. Dr. Butt’s younger son Mahmood Butt was an ICS and rose to become the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh. Mr Mahmood Butt was highly honest and upright. During his stint as administrator of Allahabad Municipal Corporation, Mr Mahmood Butt had the courage to serving notices to Anand Bhavan, and realize the bills for electricity and water, which were not cleared since Independence. He shot to national fame and repute after this courageous act and Indira Gandhi promoted him to the post of chief secretary. However, Mr Mahmood Butt relinquished the post after 4 and a half successful years in the office due to differences with Sanjay Gandhi. I (Muslim Saleem) stayed with Dr. Mahmood Butt for some time during the last leg of his chief secretaryship at Lucknow and when he resigned and formed a new political party with Jagjivan Ram. (Mr Mahmood Butt passed away in Bagalore, where he had settled, in the year 2010). Dr. Ataullah Butt’s daughter Mrs Amina Malik was a learned person. She had married col. Majeed Malik and died in Pakistan in October 15, 2004 at the age of 91 years. Salman Rushdie is also the son of Dr. Butt’s another daughter. In one of his speeches on March 10, 2010, Salman Rushdie recalled Dr. Ataullah Butt in following words:
“My mother’s father, Dr Ataullah Butt, taught me the same lesson from a different end of the religious spectrum. Unlike my father, my maternal grandfather was a devout man, who said his prayers five times a day throughout his life, and made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He was also a man of infinite sweetness, tolerance and patience, who taught his brood of grandchildren that there were to be no limits, in his presence, on what could and could not be discussed. “Babajaan, I’ve decided I don’t believe in God,” a serious little boy could say to him and he would reply, “Is that so? Come and sit down here beside me and explain to me how you arrived at such a foolish conclusion.” His tone might be gruff, but his eyes were twinkling. Openness: it was always openness with Dr Butt. And we learned from that twinkle in his eyes that it was all right to push, and test, and try to open the universe a little more, even before we knew how.”(Click link)
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/88916/Cover%20Story/%27Is+India+forgetting+its+own+narrative+of+openness%27.html
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Here I am presenting pictures to tell the tale of my Aligarh connections.
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- rReconstructed house at Qazi Para where Muslim Saleem was brought up
Muslim Saleem in front of Lal Phatak Qazi Para
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Arif Aziz: He is a prolific journalist working with Daily Nadeem (Urdu) Bhopal. He is also a columnist and writer having 9 books to his credit. His books include 1. Nabz-e-Dauran 2. Zikr-e-Jameel 3. Qadr-o-Qeemat 4. Talash-o-Ta’assur 5. Had-de-Nigah 6. Suraj, chand, sitare 7. Musafir-e-Haram 8 Azad Hind Mein Urdu Sahafat. The 65-year-old writer lives at 20, Ghati Bhadbhunja Road, Talaiyya, Bhopal. Mobile No. 9425673760.
