Project Facilitator:

Nadeem Ghazi
nadeemwli@yahoo.com

Interview of a Senior Citizen

Project Report submited by:
Arsalan Danish, YES 2008

Interviewer:
Arsalan Danish

Interview of:
Mohd. Ali Ikhtiar

Reason for Selection:
Mr. Ikhtiar is a famous poet and a distinguished personality due to his social services for the community.

I took an appointment for the interview a day before the interview. I prepared myself for the interview, took a recorder and made my friend go with me for taking few pictures. He had called us to his residence for the interview.

We reached his residence on the required time i.e. 5 pm on 5th of March. After thanking his for his precious time I started the interview.

I first asked him about his biography. He was born in March 1934 in Iran. He acquired his primary knowledge in Iran after which he migrated to Pakistan and was settled permanently here with his family. He said that when he came to Pakistan he joined a school in here. At that time the British Govt. had introduced “Boys Policy” for the students who had passed their 8th grade which allowed him go for the EME i.e. Electrical And Mechanical Engineering course, equivalent to our metric. “I was interested in Electrical Engineering and wanted to continue it after my intermediate but I couldn’t continue due to some problems” said Mr. Ikhtiar.

When asked about his professional life he said that he has an experience of working 25 years in Army workshop. “Out of my 25 years of service i spent 3 years in Punjab which was the best experience I’ve ever had” said Mr. Ikhtiar.

On a question about his interest in poetry he said that he got fascinated towards poetry because of his father. Though his father was not a poet, he used to advise him through poetries of other poets. He said “When I was 8 I had already read two books of Hafiz”. “I was really inspired by his poetry” said Mr. Ikhtiar. He said that he has a good collection of Hafiz’s books. He has written poetry in three different languages i.e. Persian, Hazaragi and Urdu. In his first book “Gulcheen-e- Ikhtiar” he has laid more emphasis on Hazaragi dialect. Fot his this book he won a Provincial literary award for the Govt. of Balochistan for the year 2005. And he said that he is looking forward to publish his new book for which he has completed his collection.

When I asked him his opinion about social service he quoted a quotation “Man is a social animal”. “We live in a community and we are interdependent on eachother, we can’t live alone” said Mr. Ikhtiar, “We have some responsibilities which needs to be completed”. About his experience in social service he said that he started his work in social service by entering an organization named “Anjuman-Falah wa Behbud Hazara” in which they assisted those brilliant students who due to their economical conditions couldn’t continue their studies. Due to this organization many of the youth of their time got the opportunity to enter good colleges and universities. After this he founded an organization named Tanzeem, which not only solved the problems regarding the educational sector but also was a centre which promoted the culture of the people and solved many problems regarding the community. Despite offering free classes for the students in their organization they were involved in many other social activities too.

I asked him that despite his busy life how could he manage his time for the social service? He smiled and replied that "we took it as a mission for us and we were really devoted towards it. And the positive response from the people really motivated us a lot in our work". “I really got relieved by helping people” said Mr. Ikhtiar. He said “This is an everlasting happiness for me”.

At the end I requested him to give a message for our youth he said “Study hard and try your best to improve your quality of education and always try to work for the betterment of the educational sector so that our coming generation could get good education”.

At the end of the interview he gifted us a copy of his award winning book “Gulcheen-e-Ikhtiar”. I thanked him again for his precious time and for his valuable gift.

After taking Mr. Ikhtiar’s interview I was really inspire by his zealous attitude that even at his age he is ready to work for the betterment of the society and the country. His ideas, his experiences of the social services really made me think of my role in the society. I really am thankful to Mr. Ikhtiar for all his worthy advices.