I'll tell you the first response that I had when I heard from journalist Shahnaz Ramzi that Ameen Sayani was going to be in Karachi and that there would be an opportunity to meet him, at a dinner hosted by Sultana Siddiqui, President, HUM TV.
It was that of nostalgia, and suddenly I recollected that Wednesday evening Binaca Geet Mala that we used to hear as schoolboys in the early sixties. And there streamed into the mind names and faces of schoolboys who would assemble around a Grundig Radio set to hear the most popular songs of the week --- and the broadcaster was Ameen Sayani.
I went back into the past, a neat 45 years ago, and while I wondered about the way years have melted away, the thought of meeting Ameen Sayani was too good to be true. It was a beautiful musical way of returning to where and when a journey of awareness had been initiated. For us, school boys then, it was a first ever awareness of the celluloid world of romance as portrayed by Dilip Kumar, and Kamni Kaushal or Dev Anand and Kalpana Kartik, and which was emotionally fortified by the film songs on Binaca Geet Mala. And the voice that put it all together, like beads in a necklace of the week was that of Ameen Sayani.
It was like being afforded the exciting, incredible occasion to actually walk into the drawing room of the past, and meet one's own self in a way. Those school boys and school boy dreams have gone, as indeed has that idealism --- being steadily replaced by the cynicism and skepticism of an apparent maturity, (read old age?). There are some experiences and occasions which one owes privately to one's self. To meet Ameen Sayani was one such occasion. And given the current "liberal" stance that India and Pakistan have in their bilateral ties such experience is possible. But the highs and lows of our ties are always imponderables.
But I think individuals like Ameen Sayani were breaking socio-political barriers even then, through that weekly Binaca Geet Mala, that came in a rather curious sort of way from Radio Ceylon. I asked him why Radio Ceylon? Ameen Sayani, now an active 75 plus, with that youthful, bouncy, crispy, fluent English voice intact even now, explained the details very articulately.
I think there is a need to mention for today's younger readers that this Wednesday Geet Mala was an hour long programme that enabled one to hear the most popular Indian film songs of the week, selected through a listener's choice. And that also enabled Pakistani listeners to hear the popular songs, from across the border, when acquiring Indian films and magazines was always a difficult proposition. Even in those days Filmfare was expensive, and wasps in demand.
Ameen Sayani whose spontaneity and his sometimes self-effacing humility are infectious, casually recollected how there was an Indian Minister for Culture (?) In the late fifties, who thought that Indian film music (which was at its zenith, said Sayani) believed and implemented the policy that All India Radio should broadcast no film music.
The Indian Minister believed that the AIR should be following a "sedate, solemn, narrow path" and that entertainment should be "left behind". So the music shifted to Radio Ceylon, he recalled; his recollections were fairly graphic and vivid. He was so absorbing and engaging as he talked, and accepted that he found it hard to stop talking. It was his elder brother, broadcaster Hameed Sayani who inducted Ameen into the world of the radio, who also taught him the art of when to stop talking --- and when to end the pause.
Legendary as he is, I asked him whether South Asia would ever get another Ameen Sayani. He remarked that there were atleast 400 men copying him today for a radio broadcasting style that he gave up 25 years ago. So the answer was obvious. In another context he said that there was no relationship between the radio style of communication that he has, and his own personal life style. He is married and has a son, who is also in the world of Television (even though he wanted to be a medical doctor).
The details and statistics in Ameen Sayani's life are staggering, and even inspiring. They reflect richly in his career which began with Radio Ceylon in 1951. For example, he has done, in one way or another over 54,000 programmes, produced over 20,000 commercials and more than 19,000 jingles. He is still active and from the details that have been provided by him, it appears to be a breathless pace at which he is moving --- and hence he diplomatically dodges the question (or option) of why he doesn't attempt an autobiography. He has been a writer and a journalist in English also. Though he affirms that he was born for the radio.
Ameen Sayani in Karachi. It gave to scores of people in town a lovely chance, possibly first ever, once in a lifetime chance, to meet a man whose voice was cheerful, smiling, when they themselves were young and hopeful. This is the kindness that Time can at times offer.
A young man getting married finally this weekend is happy, but simultaneously unsure about how many invitees will show up for the wedding and the Valima. That's the way Karachi is right now. There is another strike call being talked about for the weekend.
There is another young man who is planning his wedding for September 2007 and is unsure of whether that would be a peaceful time, given the changing environment as the elections come closer.
We truly dwell in difficult times, where, both routine daily stress and a certain unpredictability characterise our lives. Even normal family occasions are often impossible to plan and the evening out for family or dinner with friends are frustrating options given our lifestyle. It is all a last minute, fast food option, hurriedly executed.
A young man Khurram has been waiting for months for me to take him to a Chinese restaurant and I have been wanting to celebrate my nephew Murtaza's graduation for atleast eight weeks now. In a semi philosophical moment I have wondered whether "this was the best we could give the young." These are worrying times which bring such disturbing thoughts.
Mr Doubt told me last evening that "an Englishman and an American were out for a walk. After a half hour's silence the Englishman remarked "Spring in the air!" "Why should I?" asked the annoyed American.
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