Munoo Bhail is no more: Munoo Bhai lives twice

Munoo Bhai or Munnu Bhai, whatever you spell the name, is no more. 

There were days whenever his celebrity or commoner friend died, people would wait for their obituary by Munoo Bhai (let us agree on these spelling for this piece; by the way his original name was Munir Ahmed Qureshi), whose words would make the deceased a larger than life figure, and in many cases, life-affirming people. 

He taught the world that every person, regardless of riches and fame, was somewhat larger than life for some people, if not many. Every single sentence of the obituary would wail the death; every line would pour glaring and befitting tribute to the deceased. 

Only, his imagination and vigilant eyes would the unique aspects of the bygone people. Now, the time has come when his own obituaries are being written, and he is not here to read them. Who can do justice with his obituary? One would wish he had written his own obituary to do justice to the person like him. But who has the guts to write their own obituary?   One of his columns – You Only Live Twice - published in Jang on November 12, 2012 starts with these lines:

ایک جاپانی نظم ضرب المثل بن چکی ہے جس کا اردو ترجمہ کچھ یوں ہوگا کہ
ہم صرف دوبار زندگی پاتے ہیں
پہلی بار جب پیدا ہوتے ہیں اور دوسری بار
جب موت ہماری آنکھوں میں آنکھیں ڈالتی ہے
مطلب موت سے آنکھیں ملاتے وقت آنکھوں کا نہ جھپکانا ہمیں نئی زندگی دیتا ہے۔

(A Japanese poem that has gained a proverbial status, can be translated into Urdu as 'we get life only twice; one, when we are born, and two, when death eyes us warily, means when not blinking while meeting the death angel bestows us with a new life'.)    

But to remember Munoo Bhai just as the finest obituary writer is not any justice to him, who died at 84 on January 19 in Lahore. Several people love the playwright Munoo Bhai. A successful play is the work of playwright, director, producer, actors and supporting staff. Munoo Bhai the columnist stands taller than the playwright Bhai.

Not many people would have met Munoo Bhai in their real life, yet they would meet him four or five times a week in Pakistan’s most circulated newspaper Jang’s inside page No 2, where his column was published with his picture. In his columns, he talked to his readers about poor people, common people, weak people, the grassroots level political workers, social workers and so on. He wrote endlessly on political worker Saeen Gutteywala, a small time vendor-plus-dedicated Pakistan People’s Party worker. He wrote why Saeen Gutteywala was hopeless and how his hope could be revived. This is what he conveyed to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari when he visited Munoo Bhai to enquire after his health earlier this month that he needed to study the policies of his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and mother Benazir Bhutto.

In his last years’ columns, Munoo Bhai turned more to national and international civic and social issues; he would cite international reports, laced with research and figures, in his columns. Such columns were devoid of true Munoo Bhai coulurs, but that is how intellectuals evolve over the time. The moral of each column, however, would voice the poor people’s concerns.  

That is how Munoo Bhai learned to live twice: once, through his columns, and now through his everlasting messages in each column.