Kayare goes to the durgah
with me. There he sits down in the mosque area and chants the Kalima and soon slips into the zikr-e-khafi of the Kalima by breath alone. By quietly observing me, he has developed the alertness of entering the durgah by his right foot and exiting by the left. Having done this for many years, he tells me that it is a tremendous exercise in the alertness of the mind. Since his school days, he tells me, he has always washed three times the bowl out of which he has eaten kheer, firni or ice cream and drunk the washings. If the prophet used to do it, he too must follow him at least in such small things. He also removes stones or banana skins from the road if he sees them. I am a small man, therefore I can always follow great people at least in small things. He calls himself a Musalman Brahmin! He served in Bhopal for some years. His sons used to go to school there. One day, the teacher asked the youngest son his name and he said, “Anil Dixit.” “Are you a Brahmin? If yes, which Brahmin?” the teacher asked. “Musalman Brahmin,” Anil said. The teacher called his elder brother and asked him the same questions. She got the same replies!
Why do they call themselves Musalman Brahmin? Kayare has lived with Muslim friends since childhood. When he had to serve in Bhopal, he and his children naturally and readily absorbed the Hindu-Muslim trans-cultural rituals and various other features of the Muslim lifestyle. For example, he got his sons circumscribed. All of them eat meat except his wife. Kayare would come to meet my mother on Eid sporting a Jinnah cap and faking a faqeer who would sing to wake people up for sehri. While they were in Bhopal, he would invite nine neighbourhood young unmarried girls for his wife to observe a Brahmin ritual called nau kanya bhoj (feed nine young unmarried girls). It was almost impossible to get nine Hindu girls from the locality. Kayare would pick any nine irrespective of their religion. Some of them would obviously be Muslims. During one such feast (bhoj), the first in Bhopal, when a girl called out another by a Muslim name, Mrs Kayare’s hard stare at Kayare was replied with, “Go ahead, we’re Musalman Brahmins and kanyas are kanyas with the same stomach.” Since then, his children have called themselves Musalman Brahmin.
According to Kayare, religion is only a lifestyle. Therefore it should not come in the way of public life. Public life should always have national interest at the top and religions should not come in the way because the love of the land and faithful allegiance to the government working in national interest are the demands of any religion. It applies to all citizens including politicians. He gives an example: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got into fierce public debates to be elected as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate before the last election. But once Obama won, their opposition merged in the interests of the party and the state. Both of them shook hands to serve the nation. Now Obama and Romney debate against but laugh with each other.
But in India and Pakistan, presumably, it is often man before the party and the party before the nation. It is also seen that community and social life nearly always comes in the way of public life.
Kayare is right. I remember when I was in fourth standard Urdu I used to go to Baijnathpara Urdu School after morning prayers for the children’s programme in the 12-day celebration of Milad-un-Nabi (the Prophet’s [PBUH] birthday). I remember there would be programmes for ladies between the two afternoon prayers (zuhr) and (asr) on all 12 days. The main programmes would be held after the night prayers (isha). There would be Quran recitation (qirat), sermons (Wa’z) and poetry presentation of Na’ts (poetic compositions in praise of the Prophet [PBUH]). I distinctly remember there was one Professor Kapoor from the Raj Kumar College. He would come every night to recite one from the 12 he had written over the year. Immaculately dressed in the humility and grace of a sherwani, churidar and a topee, he was a model to copy for other Muslims with handkerchiefs on their heads.
Kayare endorses me and recalls how Diwali would in those days be celebrated with earthen lamps (diyas), and modest firework and firecrackers (atishbazi). Nowadays, both of us agree, all religions have come onto the streets in an unwanted competitive display of fake enthusiasm.
Kayare wishes public places and government offices to be without any shadow of religion. He wishes Imran Khan to become the prime minister of Pakistan. I endorse Kejriwal but I would prefer Sachin Tendulkar, in my opinion, the next PM from Rajya Sabha, to face Imran Khan!
Both of us pray for world brotherhood and peace.
The writer is a retired professor of English and a freelance writer from India. He can be reached at [email protected] and his twitter handle is @khaliqurrahman