Prof. Mukhtar Ahmed Siddiqui

Professor of Urdu (1964-1994) and Head Dept of Urdu (1988-1994)

Prof. Mukhtar Siddiqui - Petaro days

Prof. Mukhtar Siddiqui - Feb 2009

By Kazi Zulkader Siddiqui, 671/Latif

 

Prof. Mukhtar Ahmed Siddiqui joined Cadet College Petaro in 1964 to teach Urdu and remained there till his retirement in 1994.

He was born on 1 January 1929, and married Mrs. Nasim. They have 3 children - Saman, Nabeel 8921/Ayub and Fazeel 9301/Jinnah.

Mukhtar Sahib retired officially retired in 1989. However, the college retained him on contract for a further period of 5 years until 1994 to take advantage of his personality and thoughts.

He was settled in Hyderabad, Sindh and obtained his B.A. degree from Sindh University in 1955. The following year (1956), he got a B.T. degree and an M.A. degree in Urdu in 1960 - all from Sindh University.

During his Petaro tenure, Mukhtar Sb became head of Dept of Urdu upon the retirement of A.A. Faruqui sb in 1988, and remained as such until his own retirement in 1994.  He was the patron of the Urdu Debating Club from 1966-1967 and then again from 1979-1976.  He was also the Patron of The Cadet magazine from 1970-1982.

Mukhtar Siddiqui Sahib was never my teacher, although he was the darling of many of my batch mates. I had always been groomed in the English tradition, and thus my grounding in Urdu was weak. I was a student of “salees Urdu”. Mukhtar Sahib’s philosophical bent of mind and his eloquence in Urdu were beyond me.

But he was there all around us. He was par excellence in Urdu poetry and was the hub of many of the cultural and artistic activities at Petaro. In our times, he was the one who supervised “Funkada” - the Drama Club of Petaro.

Mukhtar Sahib was always very humble and soft spoken. And it was purely through his intellectual discourses that he was able to attract many of his students towards himself. Even to this day, his students are mesmerized whenever they talk about him.

Mukhtar Sahib now lives in Karachi and is very frail. Ever since his fall and fracture of his hip bone, his movement is very restricted. But he always welcomes his students.

He has however kept up his intellectual activities. So far, he has written and published three books. The first two are a collection of his poetry, while the third one is an intellectual autobiography. He writes under the pen-name of "Mukhtar Karimi". The books are as follows:

  1. "khayal ki dastak" (poetry) - out of print

  2. "nihal-e-dard" (poetry) - 2002

  3. "ram khurda ghazaal" (autobiography) - 2009

Presently, he is working on his fourth book which will also be a collection of his poetry.

I had the good fortune to visit Mukhtar Sahib at his place in at the beginning of February 2009. I went there with Nauman 556 and Shujauddin 679. He welcomed me with such love that I cannot express. He gave me autographed copies of the two latter books which will be part of my treasure. In the short time that I was there, he told us about his own experiences and I talked about mine.  It was a wonderful exchange of thoughts.

Mukhtar Sahib had given me his autograph in 1969 which is reproduced below.

May Allah ease his pain, and give him health and happiness!

Mr. Mukhtar Siddiqui’s own handwriting and signature

“Yahan kotahi zauq-e amal hay khud giriftari,

Jahan bazoo simat-tay hain waheen sayyad hota hai.”

 Signed Mukhtar Siddiqui

11th July, 1969