By Syed Arif Hussaini

December 16 , 2005

A High Achiever Shows the Way

Dr Amjad Hussain, a high achiever by any measure, a paragon of versatile talents, and a virtual monument to modesty and self-effacement, has just come out with his tenth publication “Dar-e-Maktub” –the portals of learning.
I have just finished reading this 239-page book in Urdu that presents the profiles of his teachers at the seven educational institutions in Pakistan and the United States who have shaped his personality and put him on the pedestal of eminence where he is today.
It is a tribute of a grateful student to his mentors, but it struck me also as a subtle, undeclared manifesto for the youth of Pakistan aspiring to reach high in life. By narrating how the qualities of head and heart of the outstanding mentors have rubbed off on him, he has attributed all his successes in life to their impact. Fact of the matter is that his inbuilt modesty does not admit of his even mentioning that the major factor has been his own intense desire to acquire knowledge and improve himself from all sources available. Without this burning desire and matching efforts to quench it, nothing could have been achieved. That message, though unexpressed, comes through the book clearly. He retired a couple of years back as the Head of the Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Medical University of Ohio, where he is now a Prof. Emeritus.
In the brief introduction, he has beautifully summed up his perspective by saying: “When I cast a look at the voyage of my life (he is 67 now), the schools, colleges and other learning centers where my breeding took place strike me as glittering islands in the vast ocean of life and my teachers as light-towers brightening up the path to my future.”
The glittering islands were and still are there, and their number and glitter have both increased. But, how many pupils are there who have taken full advantage of these facilities. It is only the thirsty like Amjad Sahib who have drunk deep at these fountains of knowledge. Not only that, he would seek out such fountains even in far off lands and manage to reach there somehow. While still a student at Khyber Medical College, he reached Kabul to watch closely the surgery of a famous American heart surgeon.
It was this thirst for knowledge that took him to the United States. It was this thirst for knowledge that made him study hard and qualify in the Adeeb Fazil, Urdu {B.A. (Hon)} exam while he was a full time medical student. It was this very thirst that turned him into an excellent calligraphist in English and Urdu, an efficient photographer, an essayist, columnist, an award-winning author, a connoisseur of music, and a linguist with proficiency in half a dozen languages. On the top of these attainments, he elected to be the first person to travel the entire course of the Indus river, from its source in Tibet to its terminus in the Arabian Sea, by boat, raft, on the back of a horse or yak, or on foot. What a versatile genius!
The book mentions the fact that he had flunked in the Intermediate exam. He could have easily avoided a mention of this, as the context did not demand it. But he deliberately makes a mention of this. Perhaps, he wanted to make the point that a setback like this should not deter an ambitious, focused person from his objective. He is not selected for admission to the Khyber Medical College. He became a clerk in an office and joined the BSc course. But, he kept knocking at the door of the medical college. Eventually, the college door opened for him. I recall that my elder brother too had likewise failed in the Inter exam, but he was not disheartened. He reappeared, passed and got admission in the medical college. He too became a surgeon and set up a 500-bed hospital in Karachi. Moral: remain focused and work hard in pursuit of your objective.
A quality of Dr. Amjad that stands out is his distaste for any kind of bias. He is uncomfortable with those inhabitants of the Frontier province who consider the Hindko speaking people as immigrants and outsiders. Similarly, while offering a bouquet to his Islamia College professor of Urdu, Tahir Farooqi, and crediting him for generating in Dr. Amjad a taste for Urdu literature, he is critical of his biased views in the Urdu-Bengali controversy.
“In my view”, writes Dr. Amjad, “East Pakistan separated from us because we regarded that part of the country as subservient to us.”
Several of his teachers and colleagues in Ohio were Jews -Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Dr. Ernst Sternfeld, Dr. Zwi Steiger- for instance, but Dr. Amjad had the highest regard for their professional competence and deep affection for their qualities of head and heart. He learned from them that professional responsibility holds sway over personal, religious considerations: an accomplished mind is seldom a biased mind.
Being a highly accomplished person, Dr. Amjad comes through this and his other books as an exceptionally unbiased man. His love of Pakistan and of his city-Peshawar- emanate from no sentiment of bias but from a deep feeling of patriotism
A practicing Muslim, a man with a religious bent of mind, he is nevertheless quite comfortable in the company of people of other religions. He is essentially a purveyor of happiness and bias would have derogated his efforts in this direction. While still under training at a hospital in Toledo, he went from room to room on Christmas Eve with liquor bottles, ice and soda on a trolley and served by one by one all patients. His superior called him to his office next morning and pulled him up for having served liquor to the patients while being a Muslim himself who had never tasted any alcoholic beverage.
The highest ambition of Dr. Amjad was to be a teacher at Khyber Medical College and serve the people of Peshawar as the first cardiovascular surgeon of the area. He had and still has a strong patriotic nerve. That kept urging him to return to his beloved place of birth soon after he became a qualified heart surgeon. He had to pend his marriage to Dorothy Brown whom he loved deeply till she agreed to accompany him to Peshawar. He did return to be given a left-handed treatment by the authorities of Khyber Medical College. They cancelled the job they had advertised and Dr. Amjad had traveled all the way to Peshawar to give an interview. He describes the sad episode but without bitterness. Stability being the outstanding facet of his character, he bore no grudge and continued to nurture a deep affection for the College. It is this quality of stability and sustenance that has made his marriage and family life an exemplary success story spread over the past 37 years.
Dar-e-Maktub, a book worth reading and keeping in your library, can be had from: aghaji@buckeye-express.com
- arifhussaini@hotmail.com Dec. 9, 2005

 

 

 

PREVIOUSLY

Desire and the Culture of Instant Gratification
March 23 - Memories & Nostalgia
Deeper Malaise of Pakistan Polity
BJP’s Debacle in the Battle for Ballots
Feudalism’s Aversion to Education
Forgetfulness -a Prank of Old Age or of Hyperfocus
The Taliban and Beyond
Meetings of World Economic Forum and Its Counterweight
BJP Fails Again to Frame Pakistan
Indo-Chinese Relations in Perspective
Taj Mahal and Indo-Pakistan Standoff
Grandma, Grandpa
'The Clash of Civilizations' : A Questionable Thesis
In the Gadgeteer's Dreamland
Emergence of MMA on Pak Political Landscape
Chechnya and Moscow's Hostage Crisis
Turkish Elections in Historical Perspective
Iraq's Oil Wealth
America: A Nation on Wheels
"Jinnah & Pakistan" - A Worthwhile Book
Afghanistan Merits More Attention

The Siren Song of Sale and Savings

In Memory of Dr. Hamidullah

Tackling Murphy at the Airport

Musings of a Superannuated Man

US Economy: Will Bush's Plan Work

Tempo of Life in America

The Genius behind the Mouse

The Media Mogul Who Manipulated Men and Events

Hearst and Disney: A Comparative Study

Nothing but the Truth

War on Iraq Imminent and Inevitable

Mahathir's Interesting Views

Portents of a New World Order

March 23 - Memories & Nostalgia

Rachel Corrie & the Spotted Owl

Lost in Cyberspace

The American Nice Guyism

Connecticut - A Nursery of Men

On a Visit to Canada after Half of Century

Some Legal Aspects of the Iraq War

Bureaucratic Antics

Rhode Island: An Oxymoron, a Paradox

The Mystique of California

Comic Operas in Islamabad & in Texas

Khyber Knights: A Fascinating Book

G-8 Summit Skirts Touchy Issues

In Memory of a Versatile Genius

Hillary Clinton's Cleverly Crafted Book

Chitranwala Katora and Chutkiyan

The Yak Shows : The Trash Talks

The Giants of Sequoia National Park

Reflections on Pakistan's Independence Day

Aziz Kay 'Sifarati Maarkay And Mujtaba Kay 'Safarnamay'

California's Political Circus

Lali Chaudhri's Provocative Short Stories

September: A Witness to Wars

America in the Quagmire of Iraq

Collapse of Another WTO Summit

A B C D: American-Born-Clear-Headed Desis

The Pangs of Waiting

Chechnya: A Ray of Hope for Peace

American Job Exodus to China

Islamabad : Its Beauty & Oddities

Welcome Proposals to Break Indo-Pak Logjam

Benazir's Case and the Corruption Scenario

Predicament of Pakistan's Polity

When Memory Starts Faltering

Terror in Turkey Unrelated to Nation's Cultural Conflict

The Siren Song of Sale and Savings

Wrinkles in US-China Relations

Wrinkles in US-China Relations

Saddam Crawls out of a Hole to Ignominy

Saddam Crawls out of a Hole to Ignominy

When Memory Starts Faltering

A Day in the Company of Mujtaba Hussain

Hyderabad Presents a Panorama of Progress and Change

Conflict over New World Economic Order

Pakistan's Nuclear Scandal

Urdu in Hyderabad Deccan

A Good Book on a Great Man

Gay Marriages in Vivacious San Francisco

The Passion of the Christ - A Well-Sculpted but Fuss-Causing Film

A Treat of Mujtaba's Wit and Humor

Predicament of Pakistan's Polity

The Murder of Sheikh Yassin: Israel's Hidden Agenda

Army Action in Pakistan's Tribal Belt

Would the NSC Buttress or Besiege Democracy?

Desire and the Culture of Instant Gratification

Swiss Court and the Benazir-Zardari Plunder Saga

Pakistan and the International Economic Forums

Why Do US Follies Keep Piling up in Iraq?

The Tamasha at Lahore Airport

Indian Elections and Subsequent Developments

Bush Flaunts His Faulty Policies on Iraq

Post Civil War America and Post-Independence Pakistan

Bureaucratic Antics

Tackling Murphy at the Airport

Asma's Fascinating Book on Islam

APPNA Qissa - 25 Years of Activities of Pak-American Doctors

Bureacratic Antics

Nightmare in Sudan

In Pursuit of Terrorists

Why Turkey's Entry into European Union Is Blocked?

Forgetfulness - A Prank of Old Age or of Hyperfocus

Kremlin's Inept Tackling of Chechen Extremists

Who Should Get My Vote In November Election?

Bush vs. Annan on Legal Status of Iraq War

Rethinking the National Security of Pakistan

The Brief Message

Desire and the Culture of Instant Gratification

Is Iran the Next Target?

Dollar vs. Euro -A Question of Hegemony

Zardari’s Release Indicative of Reconciliation?

The Siren Song of Sale and Savings

Christmastime – A Festive Occasion

Pak-China Ties Keep Growing Firmly

American Shopping Malls

Tsunami - an Asian Disaster

Dr. Cohen’s Thought-Provoking Work on Pakistan

Alice in the Freeland

Balochistan: Crisis & Conflict

Iran the Next Target, but

The Common Man

Chechnya: Chaos to Continue in the Caucasus

Global Warming and Emulators of the OstrichA

Treat of Mujtaba’s Wit and Humor

Reflections on the Idea of Pakistan

‘Engaging India’ - A Valuable Book by Strobe Talbott
Memories & Nostalgia

American Nice Guyism

Balochistan at the Verge of Revolutionary Changes?

India as Seen by Early Muslim Chroniclers

India, China Leading a Resurgent Asia

The Pain at the Petrol Pump

Mujtaba Husain - a Humorist Par Excellence

Musings of a Superannuated Man in America

The Pangs of Waiting

Chaos and Killings in Uzbekistan

Prospects of the Pain at the Petrol Pump
French Voters Reject Proposed EU Constitution

Why Turkey’s Entry into European Union Is Being Blocked

What Ails Thee, My Native Land?

The Deeper Malaise of Pakistan’s Polity

Resistance to Change in the System

Feudalism’s Aversion to Education

Rhode Island: An Oxymoron, a Paradox

The Spotted Owl Wins against Bush Administration

Sufi Sage of Philadelphia and His Devotee from Toronto

To Ease the Pain at the Petrol Pump

Pat Robertson - a Loose Canon?

Monkey Menace in New Delhi

September - A Witness to Wars

The Trouble with Islam Today

Two Revealing Books on Afghanistan

To Lighten the Tedium of Air Travel
Islamabad as I Remember It

China’s White Paper Upholds Its “Democratic Dictatorship”

The Brief Message

Halloween: The Fun-Filled Fantasy

Practical Joking: The Sport of Creeps?

Senate Rebuffs Bush on War in Iraq

Bush’s Unproductive Visit to China

Global Warming or Terrorism: Which Is a Bigger Threat?


Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
© 2004 pakistanlink.com . All Rights Reserved.