Every week, mostly on Fridays, I used to receive a call from Kaleem Omar informing that he has emailed his weekly column Newswatch. The words hardly varied: “Mustafa Sahib kaisay hain? Mazmoon bhijwa dia hai.” (How are you Mr Mustafa? I have sent the article).
Our association began about two years ago when I was entrusted with the responsibility of editing the Political Economy section of The News on Sunday. One of my first guidelines was not to mess with Mr Kaleem Omar’s language. Though a fan of his writings myself, I found this a bit too hard to swallow. After all, can there be a bigger affront to an editor’s vanity than not being allowed to edit what he or she publishes?
True to my habit, I started making a few changes here and there in his columns. However, I made these changes only after I was completely sure that they were imperative. Let me admit that many a time when I checked the dictionary I was proved wrong. It was not long before I received an email from Kaleem Sahib informing me that my addition of ‘the’ before World War II in his column was incorrect. I was somehow so sure of this that I would have bet anything on it. I was only assured I was wrong after I had checked the dictionary. After that, I never changed anything in his column without consulting the dictionary and that used to be very rare.
Kaleem Omar was very particular about whatever he sent for publication. Initially, he would call to make minor changes in his column that I would have made anyway. However, with time I was able to win his trust. Before he could ask me to make certain changes, mostly typos, in his column, I would tell him that I have already done the needful. Similarly, he always made sure that I had received his column. In fact, whatever he wrote mattered to him and he took it very seriously. There were hardly any other writers who were as averse to changes in whatever they wrote.
But Kaleem Omar was not only about good English; his knowledge of issues was immense. He excelled in writing in a witty and sarcastic tone, and the fact that he shared a lot of information on the way was an icing on the cake. I have personally learnt, as I am sure most of his readers would have, from each and every single column he wrote during these two years. And the topics of these columns ranged from politics to literature to economy. He was a prolific writer who also contributed to many other sections of The News. His columns on George W Bush and Ireland could be published separately as comic books. But he wrote serious articles and obituaries with the same ease. For example, his piece on Benazir Bhutto after her assassination moved one to tears.
More than anything, he was a humble soul. As our association grew stronger, he started congratulating me on any good article that I wrote. He was an articulate person who loved to talk and share information. The choice of topic for his column was his discretion, but whenever I requested him to write on a particular topic he was always forthcoming. In fact, he would narrate on the phone his whole thesis and what he would be writing. Figures and required information were always at his fingertips.
The knack for professionalism, which is so lacking in our society, won Kaleem Omar many admirers. I came to know about this when he fell ill and stopped sending his columns. After a lot of queries on why his column was not being printed, we had to publish a note informing the readers that his column would resume soon.
As soon as he got better, he started sending his column again. Last week, his last column on US President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech was printed on these pages after a gap of many weeks. We were glad that he had recuperated from illness.
This week, he had promised to write on Sindh’s reluctance to host IDP camps. Before I could call him this Thursday to inquire about his column, I got the news of his death from a colleague. These are insufficient words to fill up the space he graced for years through his illuminating words. One thing is for sure: the void left by his death would be hard to fill.
By: Mustafa Nazir Ahmad
Our association began about two years ago when I was entrusted with the responsibility of editing the Political Economy section of The News on Sunday. One of my first guidelines was not to mess with Mr Kaleem Omar’s language. Though a fan of his writings myself, I found this a bit too hard to swallow. After all, can there be a bigger affront to an editor’s vanity than not being allowed to edit what he or she publishes?
True to my habit, I started making a few changes here and there in his columns. However, I made these changes only after I was completely sure that they were imperative. Let me admit that many a time when I checked the dictionary I was proved wrong. It was not long before I received an email from Kaleem Sahib informing me that my addition of ‘the’ before World War II in his column was incorrect. I was somehow so sure of this that I would have bet anything on it. I was only assured I was wrong after I had checked the dictionary. After that, I never changed anything in his column without consulting the dictionary and that used to be very rare.
Kaleem Omar was very particular about whatever he sent for publication. Initially, he would call to make minor changes in his column that I would have made anyway. However, with time I was able to win his trust. Before he could ask me to make certain changes, mostly typos, in his column, I would tell him that I have already done the needful. Similarly, he always made sure that I had received his column. In fact, whatever he wrote mattered to him and he took it very seriously. There were hardly any other writers who were as averse to changes in whatever they wrote.
But Kaleem Omar was not only about good English; his knowledge of issues was immense. He excelled in writing in a witty and sarcastic tone, and the fact that he shared a lot of information on the way was an icing on the cake. I have personally learnt, as I am sure most of his readers would have, from each and every single column he wrote during these two years. And the topics of these columns ranged from politics to literature to economy. He was a prolific writer who also contributed to many other sections of The News. His columns on George W Bush and Ireland could be published separately as comic books. But he wrote serious articles and obituaries with the same ease. For example, his piece on Benazir Bhutto after her assassination moved one to tears.
More than anything, he was a humble soul. As our association grew stronger, he started congratulating me on any good article that I wrote. He was an articulate person who loved to talk and share information. The choice of topic for his column was his discretion, but whenever I requested him to write on a particular topic he was always forthcoming. In fact, he would narrate on the phone his whole thesis and what he would be writing. Figures and required information were always at his fingertips.
The knack for professionalism, which is so lacking in our society, won Kaleem Omar many admirers. I came to know about this when he fell ill and stopped sending his columns. After a lot of queries on why his column was not being printed, we had to publish a note informing the readers that his column would resume soon.
As soon as he got better, he started sending his column again. Last week, his last column on US President Barack Obama’s Cairo speech was printed on these pages after a gap of many weeks. We were glad that he had recuperated from illness.
This week, he had promised to write on Sindh’s reluctance to host IDP camps. Before I could call him this Thursday to inquire about his column, I got the news of his death from a colleague. These are insufficient words to fill up the space he graced for years through his illuminating words. One thing is for sure: the void left by his death would be hard to fill.
By: Mustafa Nazir Ahmad
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