Mohammad Sayeed Malik*
I cannot recollect the exact date. Probably, it was 1974 winter season. My brother-in-law, Shamim Ahmed Shamim, who was then a member of Parliament from the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, asked me to join him on a short trip to Bombay – now Mumbai. Among the persons he planned to meet was his friend, A G Noorani whom I would be meeting for the first time.
Before starting for Noorani’s Napean Sea Road residence, Shamim lectured me on the ‘protocol’, emphasising strict etiquette. It made me feel uneasy but I kept that to myself.
Noorani lived in a flat in one of the multi-storey buildings probably named Miramar. His mother and brother lived separately in the same complex.
A bachelor, who lived alone, Noorani visited his mother every day, without fail, to pay his respects and enquire about her health.
After formal introduction, Noorani surprised me, pleasantly though, saying that he had keenly followed my extensive news reporting on 1971 hijacking of Indian Airlines passenger plane while flying from Srinagar to Jammu. I was a staff reporter for Patriot in J&K. I felt flattered when he showed us a set of carefully filed clippings from Patriot.
He advised me to write a book, promising to help with additional source material from the record of the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). I was astonished to see how meticulously he maintained a huge, rich library of historical/constitutional documents. A prolific writer, he was a voracious reader of books and documents.
Shamim was meeting Noorani specifically to seek his guidance on the Kashmir Accord which was then being worked out between Sheikh Abdullah and prime minister Indira Gandhi. Noorani’s scholarly exposition on politico-constitutional nuances of the Accord was a treat to witness. No wonder he had serious reservations about its final terms and conditions.
My next meeting with Noorani was in Srinagar about two years later when I was the Director Information and PR. He was not comfortable with the status of a ‘State guest’ but relented after persuasion. Thanks to dexterity of Ved Bhasin whose close, old acquaintance with Noorani was so helpful in making my task easier.
That the temperamentally rebellious Shamim and Ved Ji, both, were uncharacteristically always deferential to the mercurial Noorani, all through their long association, was puzzling for me until I found how highly they valued his phenomenal intellectual stature.
This aspect of their relationship became clearer to me when I watched the three of them discussing the delicate nuance of Kashmir politics. It was during this period that I learnt the lesson better and tried my best to practice it. But, unfortunately for me, my best was not best enough.
During one of Noorani’s later visits to Kashmir, to preside the annual Shamim memorial function, my unintentional carelessness in responding to him offended him and he reacted instantly. Ved Ji tried to defuse the tension. But Noorani remained unmoved. I had not said anything disrespectful but only made an observation in lighter vein. Temperamentally, Noorani was too strictly formal to suffer any informality.
Today when the news came of Noorani’s demise that years-old regret returned to haunt me, as I looked back how deeply I revered him and his scholarship, like countless others, and yet I had so stupidly annoyed him; albeit unintentionally.
Rest in peace Noorani Saheb!
*Mohammad Sayeed Malik is a senior journalist and former resident editor of Sunday Observer
——-
Have you liked the news article?