30th November 1999 is the day when he left this world after a brief illness at home, even before death he was as agile as ever, making people smile. Many people do not know his real name – Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Khan. As a young child he visited a Hakeem sahib for severe respiratory infection, along with other advises, he was given ill advise of using hookah, to get sputum out. After years, he gave it up in his late fifties by his will power. Any way Hakeem sahib misheard his real name also and wrote Khizer Mhuhammed. Decades later, when he began writing humorous poetry in Kashmiri language, other poets gave him his pen name Khazir Maghribi as they thought humour is incompatible with Kashmiri language. There are many dimensions to my father’s personality. I hope I will be able to cover all. Born in a humble family at Chotta Bazar Srinagar in late thirties, his other siblings also rose to higher positions like his elder brother Shehzore Kashmiri or Muhammed Shafi Khan known as a great administrative officer. My father was not initially sent to school but to a tailor shop. One day he was seen in this shop by authorities who wanted to promote education. My grandfather was asked to send him to school, which he reluctantly did. This shows how sincere were the authorities in promoting education. He learned some skills there and would sometimes sew his own clothes to our astonishment at home. When we asked him the reason he would talk about dignity of labour and Islam. Anyway after getting scholarship for pursuing his school education, he passed 10th class examinations with merit from Lahore University. Among the Muslim students he secured the second highest marks, and would say that only a girl secured more marks than him. But my father would always say that passing examinations is not important, hard work is.
After graduation in Geography, Persian, Urdu he was struggling to get a job. He would always make us burst with laughter when we asked about his job search. He would recall, and say that he covered so much distance and climbed many mountains to get a job as a forester or a job in police. But he was denied job as he did not pay 5 rupees as bribe. And this attitude remained till death and became his brand. Finally, after much struggle he got a job of a teacher, where he made his mark by unique style of teaching. He wrote many books on Geography, History, Maths and English; and Ali Mohammed and Sons was his publishing house. These books were sold like hot cakes, and till 1990 remained a big source for all students specially who struggled to pass 10th grade in JK. He would tell us that when he wrote a book on Mathematics for student of 10th grade, he would think like a student of 10th grade. His fight against nepotism and corruption lead to his frequent transfers, prominent being the one to Rajori and Poonch, which he embraced with grace. During his stay there learned Pahari language.
Life story of my father is incomplete without my mother’s mention. My father always told us that how they fought battles of life together and remained steadfast during testing times. My father got married to my mother, from Khan Family of Gojwara, who also started her career as a teacher. Much to the discomfort of the society the marriage was held in a simple way. Actually my father had rented a car with a loyal Sikh driver who was told to be ready to go back if there are any signs of rituals; thankfully it was all simple. I do remember my relatives showing displeasure even after decades of marriage, but my father and my mother both stood their ground. And today when in 2020 I read about overage boys and girls, I think of my father and talk with my mother on this. She smiles and says proudly how difficult it was then to persuade people in making marriage simple.
There were nationwide reforms in education that started since 2010; one of which is no student will be declared as failed till 8th class examinations. My father initiated this way back in late seventies in Batmaloo school, where on the result day it would be declared – AWLI PETH EETHMIS TAAM SAREY PASS [From Ist to 8th all are declared pass]. Whenever he was questioned, he would say, “show me even one student of mine who is not doing well in life. My pupils include doctors, engineers, researchers, bureaucrats, and businessmen”.
After getting married my father was briefly transferred to one end of Kashmir and my mother to another end. One day, much to the embarrassment of my parents, I discovered their love letters written after marriage and sent by mail or hand. One letter reads, “How I wish I became a singing bird and tell about my love”. We had preserved all these love letters till 2014 floods razed our house to ground, and nothing could be retrieved.
My father had many books to his credit, one being “BAAGHI AROOZ”. It is the first book published of its kind which talks about writing poetry, correct usage of grammar in Kashmiri poetry. It was published way back in 1970, and sold at Ghulam Ahmed Booksellers, Zaina Kadal and Kapoor Brothers Lal-Chowk. His other books include MOTI-MAALA for children, and Gulshani Khizr.
My father was known for his humorous poetry. When asked the reason he said “In Kashmiri poetry except for LADDI-SHAH we do not have humour. it is mostly sad. So I thought of including humour to make people laugh, as well as motivate them to do well instead of lamenting them on past”. My father regularly featured on radio and TV shows including NATIYA MUSHAYRAS [Poetic tribute to Prophet Muhammed – peace be upon him] .
Most people do not know that my father has written a series of books on Sir Muhammed Iqbal – the series is known as GUFTO–SHINEED’. I end with the hope that state cultural academy takes up further publication and circulation of his books. Some of them are already in libraries, but now with internet and digital formats, we need to move in that direction.
Author is youngest son of Khazir Maghribi.