Aviator’s Kahani
Early years
During the fateful times of partition of India my parents Mr. Afzaal H. Siddiqui and Mrs. Ghausia Abbasi, were in Delhi Living at my Nana’s place, who was principal Tibbiya college Delhi. The country was facing a very serious law and order situation, and everybody was on his own. Muslims were to move to territorial boundaries of Pakistan, and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shooting, looting, and arson was the daily routine. The sounds of this disturbance were frightening and very disturbing to everyone in the house.
My mother was in labor and the situation, due to what was happening outside, was not very encouraging. The childbirth therefore was managed by members of the family without professional support. I was also not in a hurry to see the real world and the birth was pretty much delayed. I was born in the early hours of the morning. Both my mother and I were healthy and therefore all attending the childbirth took a sigh of relief and as all were very tired went to sleep.
In the meantime, when everyone was settled someone hurled a firebomb in the house and a fire started. As my mother was still in pain and had not gone off to sleep, she tried to shout and wake up other members of the family to extinguish the fire, which was spreading fast. Unfortunately, everyone was very tired, and no one responded. It was getting bad, the Almighty took over the situation and rain started pouring down, which extinguished the fire. It was September 19, 1947.
In all, we are one sister and five brothers. Our sister was the eldest, Mrs Rehana Jalil, who was a housewife. She not only excelled in studies, but she also used to take part in Radio programs, in which she used to read her written script on different literary subjects etc. No. 2 is Dr. Fuzail Ahmed Siddiqui who did his doctorate in Mineral geology. By the grace of Almighty he is still physically fit to carry out Geological work in the field. No. 3 is Mr. Assad Kamal Siddiqui who was a Banker. His exploits include working as a banker and establishing new banks as well. No. 4 is Mr. Nusrat Kamal Siddiqui who has done his master’s in petroleum Geology. He is also a writer and has so far published a book on Seerat un-Nabi and another one on Geology. He is currently working on Family Shajra, bur so far it has not reached the printer because whenever he is ready to send it for print, news about addition of another Siddiqui arrives, and therefore the final product is further delayed, for necessary correction. I am second last, and all the above siblings including myself were born in undivided India. Our family youngster Mr. Anwar Kamal Siddiqui was born in Lahore. He has done masters in Arabic language and is a qualified Arabic interpreter.
In late 1949, we moved out of India and reached Lahore, which was our first stop in the Land of Pure. My father could not get a job in Lahore, so we moved to Sukkar, where he was posted in PWD. We got a house 6 4-C in Barrage colony which was just a one-bedroom house. My sister and elder brother left behind in Lahore to continue their studies, as they both were in senior classes. 64-C was just about good enough for a small family. Considering our education and other expenses, we were a shade short, and it was difficult to make ends meet. It was then that my mother established a small shop in the house, to cater for the basic needs of the neighborhood which would earn us the additional required funds.
I got admission in Taamir e Nou High School where our principal was a renowned educationalist, Mr. Nassem ul Huda. It was a couple of years of early education, and the school not only had a good education system, but they also believed in extracurricular activities as well. I represented the school in an English debating competition which was organized at a neighboring Town Shikarpur. I did not get a position; however, the exposure was worth it, and I enjoyed every bit of this adventure.
We moved to Lahore in 1960, I got admission in Model High School, Model town where I did my 10th class in 1963. During these years, we were exposed to the happy-go-lucky lifestyle of Model Town, as well as new friends and the exploits of the adolescent age. Our parents bought us a Suzuki 125 sports motorbike, which were just two in Lahore at that time, the other one was in Ichra. This was something big for us, and most of the time we used to drive the motorbike at high speeds. The motorbike adventures also included exploring Lahore and doing what youngsters would do having independent mobility. By the way, fuel was Rs one and a half per gallon, (four liters), it was not difficult to manage such small sums, which certainly increased our reach. When our Metric result was declared, we went to Rang Mahal area where most of the newspaper offices were, and instead of buying the paper to look for our result, we snatched one from a hawker and luckily found that me and my friend had passed the exam. Unfortunately, our motorbike exploits were not acceptable to a lot of friends and folks in the area; as such the speed violation and reckless driving was reported to our parents who were not too happy about it. In the evening, when we returned home after our days’ multi–dimensional activities and faced our father, the scene was not very pleasant, and we were told not to repeat this in future – the usual father-son dialogue.
This evening activity was quite embarrassing, and the usual young reaction was to look for ways to avoid this daily bashing. Hence several options were considered, debated, and rejected. Some of them were rash and would have brought a bad name to the family. The best one was to avail any opportunity to leave the house in a respectable manner. It is therefore that when an ad appeared in the papers about GD Pilot selection for the PAF, I saw it as an honourable way to get away from home.
