Where did I encounter Ardeshir Cowasjee? June 1955, at the American University of Beirut, I had passed my Sophomore Year. Meanwhile, I had suffered from the very bitter disappointment of witnessing my college, coed, sweet heart, Amal Khartabil marrying the Syrian diplomat, Adib Daoodi in Beirut on May 16, 1955.
Thereafter, Amal who was two years older to me graduated with her Bachelors in Sociology and left Beirut for London to join her husband, Adib. He was the Charge-d' Affaires of the Syrian Embassy. June 1955, I returned to Karachi for my summer holidays. The knowledge that Amal would not be in Beirut, when I would enlist for the Junior semester made it possible for my Mama, to prevail on me to remain in Karachi and enroll in the fast, expanding and flourishing family business of my Papa, namely Haji bhai Esmail Dossa.
In 1969, Doctor Khadija Mahboob ul Haq, Professor of Economics, listed Haji bhai Esmail in the twenty-two families that made Pakistan. Data was published in the Pakistan Times. Of course, at the age of nineteen, had Amal not married, after the summer vacation of 1955, I would have returned to Beirut, to pursue a degree in English Literature and the Latin Law of Caesar Marcus Auerlius. Instead, I cut my teeth in our family enterprises, by waiting on tables at our newly opened Hotel Columbus and accompanying my Mama, in the early morning hours, to purchase fresh fish, lobsters, mutton, beef, chicken, vegetables, etc from the Soldier Bazaar and Empress Market, to cater to foreign and local guests, residing at our then 50-room Hotel Columbus. It was in these circumstances that I was introduced to Ardeshir Cowasjee and his golf playing friends by my elder sister Mumtaz in the Dining Room of our hotel. My brother-in-law Yusuf Ahmed Habib was a two handicap Golfer in the Karachi Golf Club. Along with his cousins, Rashid Dawood Habib and Hamid Dawood Habib, he went on to represent Pakistan in the Eisenhower Cup at Tokyo.
Grilled Pomp filet and Lobster Thermo' door made to order by the Bengali Chef Gregory Peter Gomez were the celebrated dishes of the cuisine of our hotel. Ardeshir Cowasjee, his shipping connections and golf playing friends, relished the catering from our dining room and I used to address their cares and needs. Instance of my father and mother, I would give my personal attention to our Parsi guests when they would come to our place, once a week, from their residence in adjacent Civil Lines. During that period I was inseparable from my school friend Hussain Dawood Habib. We used to meet every evening for tennis at the Karachi Club, end up in the roof top of our hotel, where I played the Piano with the Italian trio. Hussain gamely crooned with me the hit song, of the Carpenters of the fifties "Seasons in the Rain" for the leggy European air hostesses staying at our hotel. Aegis of my younger brother Farouk's friend the Swiss Air Manager Ralph Casing, Swiss Air Crew while transiting between Zurich and Tokyo, were wont to furlough for four days at our Hotel Columbus. That is how, by sheer coincidence my company Haji E. Dossa & Sons Limited entered the Guar business, through my introduction to the airhostess Malice Klarer, elder daughter of Herr Fred Klarer, owner of the Guar Gum producers Meypro in Weinfelden, Switzerland. Early in the day, from Hotel Columbus on Clifton Road, Malice had been driven to Laxmi Building at Bunder Road, to see Hyder Mahomed Ali Habib, in the office of Habib Brothers, to complain about the shipments made to Meypro at their plant in Zaandam, Holland. Disappointed with Hyder's take it or leave it callous attitude, Malice was pleasantly surprised to see Hussain at the roof top of Columbus. He was present in the office of Habib Brother when Malice had called on his cousin Hyder. Hussain was belting, swaying a cha-cha number with me and the Italian band. Hussain then suggested to me why I do not reach out to Meypro who would no longer be covering their requirements from Habib Brothers. Event took place in May 1956, while Papa, Mama and my younger sister Munira were on their way to London, to witness the Epsom Derby of June 6, 1956 that was won by the four-year-old French horse Lavandin. En route to London, they had a stopover in Zurich, where Papa, Mama and Munira met Fred Klarer and his daughter Yvonne Klarer the younger sister of Malice. Papa and Munira sold 200 tons of Guar seeds to Meypro for shipments to Zaandam. Hyder Mahomed Ali Habib had moved on to the lucrative manufacturing of Crude Guar Gum for exports to Stein Hall & Company in United States. His father Seth Mahomed Ali Habib, suggested to Hyder that he focus on the production of Crude Guar Gum and pass the Guar seed export business Haji E. Dossa & Sons Limited.
In 1956, I assumed charge of the Guar Department with my added duties at Hotel Columbus. And that is how I saw more of the co-operative, straight forward and witty Ardeshir Cowasjee and Hansa Lines German Manager Edwin Heier in their office and at the Keamari port for loading of Guar seeds on Hansa Lines vessels. Cowasjee & Sons were the agent of Hansa Lines, the carrier of our Guar seed consignments to Amsterdam and Genoa. During 1962/63, my Company Haji E.Dossa & Sons Limited became the largest exporters of Guar products from Pakistan. Chairman of Board of Directors was Abbas Khalili and due to his contacts with Ardeshir Cowasjee, most of our Guar shipments were made through Hansa Lines. Meanwhile, on June 27, 1959, there had been the witch hunt of Ayub Khan in the removal of senior C.S.P Officers. Abbas Khalili, Secretary Ministry of Commerce was compulsorily retired for misconduct. There was this apprehension and fear Abbas Khalili would be arrested and incarcerated in Karachi's Central Jail by the Military authorities. I was deputed by my mother, to be at Abbas Uncle's residence after breakfast at nine o'clock in the morning. Present with me were Ardeshir Cowasjee, Jaffer Naqvi, the Journalist I H Burney of the Weekly Outlook and Razi Mirza. We were at hand to help out and report if anything untoward action was taken against Uncle Abbas. Five of us would lunch with Abbas Uncle at his residence Seven Bricks in K.D.A. Scheme No 5. And then I would proceed to Hotel Columbus or my Guar factory in Rangiwara. I had got to see more of Ardeshir Cowasjee at the residence of Abbas Khalili in K.D.A. and his cynical, vivacious personality and the repeated use of the cat call, Salah and Indian film abuses. Be that it may be, under the surface one could guage how very true Ardeshir sahib and his illustrious father Rustom sahib were committed, sincere, to their friend in adversity, namely Abbas Khalili.
BHUTTO'S NATIONALIZATION Ardeshir Cowasjee lost his ships M.V. Rustom and M.V. Hormudz on January 1, 1974. He had the courage and guts to speak out that Bhutto's pseudo socialism would cause an economic disaster. He was arrested and kept incommunicado in jail for sixty nine days, without a charge. He would joke with me, the initial three days in his cell, he suffered from acute constipation and the Christian Superintendent of Karachi Jail agreed to provide a portable commode, much to the reservations of the Secretary of Interior, Mohammed Khan Junego, who had attested the Order to put Ardeshir Cowasjee behind bars without a charge sheet.
Fear of the People's Party had to be instilled in the business community. Cowasjee was made an example. The docile businessmen should not raise their voice against the highway thugs. The harsh treatment meted out to Cowasjee earned Bhutto, his wife Nusrat, daughter Benazir, son-in-law President Zardari and the People's Party in general the unremitting hate of the columnist and scribe. Cowasjee contended, vis-à-vis Bhutto's three nationalizations orders, businessmen were deprived and robbed of their self-esteem. There was a time, when they mattered to Pakistan and the people of Pakistan mattered to them.
Released from Jail, his father Rustom sahib had opted to give the management of Cowasjee & Sons shipping agencies to his younger brother Cyrus. Cowasjee ships M.V. Rustom and M. V. Hormudz, made under the personal supervision of Ardeshir Cowasjee at Cardiff during the Ayub era. The vessels had been abruptly, overnight taken over by the Pakistan Shipping Corporation, on January 1, 1974. Workaholic, Ardeshir sahib was bereft of a job. Every cloud has a silver lining. Cowasjee turned from Shipping to Journalism. He had this latent talent of compiling in English. Fearlessly, he upheld with his lethal and scathing pen, the rule of law, standing up for human rights in Pakistan. Cowasjee was at his finest, peak hour, in Journalism when like the true mard ka bacha he wrote the article "Twenty years to zero" printed in the Dawn of Sunday, July 8, 2001.
TWENTY YEARS TO ZERO Members of Shias community are forever indebted to the good work of Ardeshir Cowasjee, for the courage displayed in standing up for them, when other scribes were mortified to write against the atrocities of Taliban and their Afghanistan Government in Kabul. Even the august Zakir preacher Allama Abbas bhai Kumaili showed his appreciation for Ardeshir sahib by having dinner with me and Ardeshir sahib in the then Spices Restaurant of Sheraton Hotel on the night of Friday, September 21, 2001. Eleven years after the publication of "Twenty years to Zero" Dawn of Wednesday, July 4, 2012 carried the News that murderers of Doctor Mohammed Reza Pirani, namely Attaullah and Azam were scheduled to be hanged in Karachi's Central Jail on Tuesday, July 17, 2012.
Last I met Ardeshir sahib, as I used to honorifically and patronizingly address him was to obtain his signature on his farewell article "Winding Down" of Sunday, December 25, 2011 that he promptly, endorsed, provided though he was on the Dinner Table.
I was accompanied by a woman anchor of a private TV. She had come with paraphernalia for the interview, which did not come through because the pretty woman was mortified of dogs. Ardeshir sahib could not care less. He would rather have his dogs in the dining and living rooms, instead of answering stereotyped questions put to him by her nervous of Dogs. Ardeshir sahib was then having meal with his daughter Ava, his co-writer, companion Amina and friends. Ardeshir sahib, requested me to join him. I was too embarrassed to sit on the extended table, because a high strung, screaming TV anchor in fear of dogs, was running all about the dining room and hiding, her self behind trees, in the overlooking garden.
Adieu my kind friend Ardeshir sahib. Hopefully, the coming more educated generation will pick up, come to terms with your ideals and that nation will emerge as you envisaged Jinnah's secular Pakistan. For Ardeshir sahib's services to retaining the pleasant environment of Karachi, a resolution should be moved to give to Clifton the nomenclature of Ardeshir Cowasjee Avenue, just as Deepchand Ojha Road had been named Business Recorder Road, Drigh Road as Shah Faisal Road, and Father Jamanez Road, renamed Mahomed Ali Habib.
"How good to have known you, Ardeshir Cowasjee,
Given your features of clerical cut
And your mouth so prim,
And your clothes so trim,
With your diction of so nicely,
Confined to what precisely,
The ifs, and perhaps and Buts"