Saturday, September 17, 2011

Tragedy as Integral Part of Life

Senior followers of An Alig's Armchair will recall that this blog got kick started because of illness of Miyan, that late Dr Syed Muhammed Ahmed Sahab, former Assistant Public Relations Officer of AMU, Aligarh. Allah(SWT) in His wisdom sometimes allows some tragic incidents too in people's life. The one that is weighing heavy on the poor heart of your poor Alig concerns Miyan's books. During Miyan's burial people heard an obnoxious person say that half of the books in Miyan's possession belonged to him. This was a blatant lie. But then frauds are no so uncommon in life. After Miyan's demise the question of his books was a prominent one. At some point of time the relatives decided to give them to a public library in Delhi. This was a horror scenario. Miyan's books (an enviable collection that should have put any decent society into action to create Muhammed Ahmed Collection) fall into three broad categories: Aligarh Movement, Islamic Studies and History of Islam and Muslims. Of course the variety is much wider than that. The best place to value them would have been Aligarh. Your poor Alig tried to convince people about the sensitivity of the situation but to little avail. The heart sinking news was received that the books have been disposed in waste for a meager sum except for those that were in Old Boys Lodge. We hope this all is a mere nightmare.