A tribute to Patras

The life-stories of great people are very important.  If we study how a person rose above ordinary human beings, we can learn a great deal from his struggle to reach the heights of success and recognition.  Natural talent, personal effort, favourable circumstances and good luck all combine to take a man towards achievement.  But the lesson one draws from the lives of great men is that hard work plays a vital role in one’s life and it is the only ingredient of success which a person himself can provide.  He has no control over others.  Reading about successful, accomplished individuals also serves as a source of inspiration for the common man.  For these reasons perhaps, biographies and autobiographies of prominent people have always been popular with the public.  The memory of such individuals should be preserved and valued.

One way of doing this is to take out a magazine’s special number on a person of renown.  That’s what the students and teachers of the Government College, Lahore have recently done.  They published a special issue of The Patras commemorating the life and achievements of Ahmad Shah Bokhari Patras.  This magazine is one of several regular publications which the college’s students compile under the guidance of their teachers.  The Patras is published by the residents of the New Hostel.  They decided to take out the commemorative issue on the 100^th birthday of Patras who had a long and strong association with Government College.  He attended this prestigious institution as a student and then served it as a teacher and as its first principal after Partition.  He is one of the best-known figures linked with GC.  Among the Ravians, he is seen as a legend.  A few years ago, when the hostel boys resolved to launch a yearly publication of their own, they were faced with the problem of choosing a name for it. However, the solution was easy: name it after Patras.

Who was Patras, by the way? Someone may ask.  A gem of a man.  He was a dominant figure on the country’s literary and cultural scene in the ‘50s.  His was a multi-dimensional personality – an educationist, a broadcaster, a writer, a poet and a diplomat.  While he wrote delightful humorous pieces in Urdu, he was also known for the excellent English speeches delivered at the United Nations.  Endowed with the finest qualities of head and heart, he was a liberal scholar with a charming personality – a species which is now almost extinct in Pakistan.  Popularly known as Patras Bokhari, many educated people still remember him.

He received his early education in Peshawar where he was born in 1898.  Then he joined the Government College, Lahore to study there for about four years.  Patras got his Master’s degree in English Literature with a gold medal.  He was also selected as the editor of the college’s reputed magazine, The Ravi.  After his education, he didn’t leave the classroom.  He stayed there, but now as a lecturer.  His love for learning took him to England in the ‘20s where he attended Cambridge University.  Then, Bokhari Sahib came back to India and the Government College as a professor.  In the late ‘30s, he switched over to broadcasting by joining All India Radio.  In 1940, Patras was appointed the Controller General of the organization.  Radio was important in those days as television was unheard of at the time.  All India Radio touched new heights under his leadership.  When Pakistan came into existence, Bokhari Sahib was appointed as the Principal of Government College, Lahore.  He took a personal interest in encouraging academic and literary activities on the campus.  The educationist turned into a full-time diplomat in 1950 when he was sent to the United Nations Headquarters as Pakistan’s representative.  In a short period of time, Patras established himself as a fine speaker, an able diplomat and a popular personality.  He died in New York in ’58 and was buried there.

The commemorative issue of The Patras has two sections - Urdu and English. The Urdu part is larger and more interesting. The contributors to the magazine can be divided into three categories, students, teachers and well-known personalities. In the last group you will find the names of Wazir ­Agha, Ibne Insha, S M.Zafar, Alys Faiz and Gilani Kamran. The maga­zine also contains interviews with two scholars'  Prof. K K Aziz and Dr Wahid Qureshi who knew Patras Bokhari through personal contact. From yet, another angle, this publication comprises two types of writings. First, what others have penned down about Patras including personal memoirs, critical appreciations, interviews and even poems. Second, you come across a whole lot of writings from the man himself. First of all, there are pieces he wrote for The Ravi as a student back in 1919-21. Then, you may read the products of his mature years in­cluding prose pieces and poems. In addition, a few letters have been given which Patras wrote to some famous contemporaries and his son.

Keeping in view that the Patras Bokhari Number has been taken out by students, not professional journal­ists, it is a very good effort. Not only is there plenty to read about a wonder­ful individual, but the variety of con­tents and the quality of writing are also impressive. Almost a complete picture of Ahmed Shah Bokhari emerges in the pages of this publica­tion. There is a great deal of informa­tion about Patras - the teacher, the administrator, the diplomat, the writer and the man. In a short but touching article, the wife of the great Faiz Ahmed Faiz describes Patras as she saw him during his frequent visits to their home. Here is a beautiful memory, "One of the most memorable evenings of all however was when ASB danced with my mother. He was humming a song, an old-fashioned one, I guess, to awaken my mother's memories. She joined in. Then, ASB got up, bowed, ever so slowly and with a great deal of dignity he said, "Shall we dance?" and that old mother of mine and that not-so­ old Principal of the Government Col­lege waltzed round the room. Oh memo­ries sweet!" AIongwith information, the reader may also derive pleasure from the contents, including the ones, written by Patras himself. On the whole, this special issue is a valuable docu­ment and a befitting tribute to a man of many talents.

At the close, one feels the students and teachers who compiled the Patras Bokhari Number deserve apprecia­tion. The editor Jawed Ahmed and his team managed to take out a good pub­lication with the help of their teach­ers, especially Mr Faisal Khurshid and Mr Khalid Sanjrani. It is easy to do something as others have been doing it, but it is difficult to set a challenge for yourself and then to achieve it. Instead of publishing a "routine" student magazine, these people decided to compile a special issue on a person who died about half a century ago. And they have been successful in vividly reminding us of a marvellous individual. In fact, you feel sorry after reading the Patras Number that we don't have people like him any longer.