SONS OF DESERT JHAMANDAS D. BHATIA B.A, M.R.S.T. (London) Compiled By RAVINDER L. JHA SINDH ARCHIVES Information & Archives Department Government of Sindh Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved with the publisher. Moral rights heirs of author are being asserted. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. Book Name: Sons of Desert Written by: Jhamandas D. Bhatia Compiled by: Ravinder L. Jha General Editor: Dr. Kaleemullah Lashari Composer: M. Iqbal Abro Layout: Zafar Aftab First Edition: March 2014 Print-run: 1000 copies Price: Rs. 350/= ISBN# 978-969-9543-06-7 Published by: SINDH ARCHIVES Information & Archives Department, Government of Sindh Printed by: Peacock Printers Suit # 404, Rafique Center, Abdullah Haroon Road, Saddar, Karachi. Ph # 021 35682020 Cell # 0300 2152634 CONTENTS PUBLISHER’S NOTE 5 COMPILER’S NOTE 7 WORKS BY PROF. JHAMANDAS D. BHATTIA 9 G. EDITOR’S NOTE 30 1 POSTMARKED 1936 34 2 THE QUEST 40 3 WHAT IS LOVE? 45 4 LIFE AND DEATH 48 5 LIFE CIRCLES 49 6 PILGRIM IS QUEST 55 7 THE QUEST 57 8 DESERT 60 9 SHAH KARIM 63 10 SHAH LATIF 76 11 KUTAB SHAH 93 12 BEKAS 117 13 BEDIL 137 14 PARU SHAH 156 15 THE TRAVELERS 161 16 THE GIFT 163 17 THE DIVINE VAGABOND 165 18 BACHAL SHAH 168 19 THE PURCHASE 174 20 LOVE’S ADVENTURE II 179 21 ENGROSSED IN OUR OWN DREAM 181 22 WIPE YOUR NAME OUT 183 23 SHAH LATIF 186 24 KUTUB SHAH 187 25 RENUNCIATION 188 26 STORY OF A LIFE 190 27 WORDS 194 28 LIFE IS A SONG 196 29 ETERNAL DRAMA OF LIFE 198 30 A PILGRIM OF ETERNITY 200 31 THE VEIL 203 32 AS HE SHOWED ME THE WAY 205 33 AS I KNOW THEM 211 34 AS I SEE HIM-1 216 35 AS I SEE HIM -2 220 36 AS I SEE HIM-3 225 37 HE SHOWED ME THE WAY 231 38 THE MAN OF MIANI 236 39 LOVE POETRY OF SHAH ABDUL LATIF 240 40 THE SONGS OF MURAD 246 41 BE-LOVED BRIDE 251 42 SONGS OF ROHUL 252 43 THE THIEF 254 44 PALACE 255 45 THE “THIEF” 257 46 THE GIFT 258 47 THE NEW GUEST 261 48 PRISONER 262 49 THE ARK OF LIFE 263 50 LOST HEART 265 51 THROUGH THE ‘WINDOW’ 267 52 “LEELA”- THE “SEEKER” 269 PUBLISHER’S NOTE The protection of national heritage particularly the rare artefacts and the preservation of the historical document of immense importance and their use in the welfare of common people is the standard of the developed nations. I personally believe that the offices of the Archives Department should be set up at district level so that scattered written material of rare and historical significance be not only preserved but these become accessible to students and scholars who can take benefit according to their academic taste and aptitude. I am also of the view that the Archives Department should be equipped to make use of sophisticated technology for availability of source material to researchers and scholars. Accordingly, the following projects have been initiated: ■ Enactment of Sindh Archives ■ Preservation of pre-post partition records ■ Establishment of Oral Archives ■ Establishment of Photo Archives ■ Establishment of Central Record Rooms ■ Training initiatives in Archival Management ■ Establishment of permanent Exhibition Galleries for Show-casing precious archival record This is a matter of great pleasure for me to acknowledge that our vibrant team which include Dr. Kalimullah Lashari, Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, Dr. Muhammad Idrees Soomro and other eminent scholars par excellence under whose guidance research and development works are being successfully driven. At this juncture, I am glad to reassert that the staff members of the Archives Department specially the Director [6] Publisher’s Note Roshan Ali Kanasro is striving hard to accomplish the aforementioned tasks with maximum potentialities, hence I am thankful to all of them. lastly, I shall request all readers, scholars, authors and researchers that they must share their precious views as to how we can make the Archives Department more beneficial and a place for modern learning and research. Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shallwani Secretary Information & Archives Department Government of Sindh COMPILER’S NOTE I was lucky to have been asked by the Editorial Board of Sindh Archives to compile the articles of the late Porf. Jhamandas D. Bhatia, for a publication by the Sindh Archives, not for the reason that I belonged to the family, but because in doing this I was introduced to new avenues of inspired writing, it proved to be an exercise to understand my grandfather’s work, in field of literature and the mysticism, to which he was faithfully incline. The learned General Editor of the series Dr. Kaleemullah Lashari suggested that I must also collect and compile the list of all the publications of the late Professor so that today’s reader, if interested in the writing of the late Professor should find it easier to consult those. But it proved to be a very difficult task. I last my nerves halfway as the work seemed undo able, specially the type of the journals and newspapers which were being published in the nineteen forties, fifties and sixties were not available in most of the libraries and also in the Archives. Reason being that this material was neither old one to have being taken seriously by the able collectors of seventies, when most of the collections were being sorted out and preserved, nor it proved to be historically very important for the archivists of today to have fetched due attention. It was his persistence that I was pushed into completing this task. The results of this labour of love, selecting the articles by the late Jhamandas Bhatia for this volume, and having a fairly representative list of his published works is here for the benefit of the readers. One can be convinced of the importance of this collection just by glancing over it to understand the trend of writings in those days and type of the Journals in circulation. [8] Compiler’s Note I am highly indebted to Dr. Lashari for the guidance afforded to me in this case specially and his help in every activity this work required me to undertake. It was his singular devotion to the whole series that he never depended on the routine proof reading process, normally done at the printer’s part; he himself checked final proofs, which so often seemed as if those were being checked for the first time, as we noticed that there were many corrections required. He helped in designing the layout and advised the printer in many of his undertakings. My thanks are also due to the other members of the editorial board, and also to Roshan Ali Kanasro, Director Sindh Archives of the kind support. I acknowledge Miss Anita Tabassum for the support by typing this bibliographic list and Mr. Afaq Ahmed Bhattee for assistance in collection of material. Ravinder L. Jha WORKS BY PROF. JHAMANDAS D. BHATTIA Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhattia, January 1930, “Pebbles on the Seashore” “The Sindh Herald”, Annual No, page no: 47, the manager, The “Sind Herald” Office, McLeod Road, Karachi. Language: English Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhattia, Jan 1930 “The Man of Miani” (A Sind Mystic) “The Sindh Herald”, Page No. 45-46. The manager, The “Sind Herald” Office, McLeod Road, Karachi. Language: English. Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhattia, Feb, 1930 “The Painter (Paints)” “The Young Builder” Vol: 3\No:2, Page No. 19, Editor “Jamshed Mehta and C.Kumar” Printed and Published by Kewalram Dayaram at the Kohinoor Printing Works, Karachi. Language: English Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhattia, April, 1930 “Prisoner” “The Young Builder” Vol: 3\No:4, Page No. 17, Editor “Jamshed Mehta and C. Kumar” Printed and Published by Kewalram Dayaram at the Kohinoor Printing Works, Karachi. Language: English Prof. Jhamandas D.Bhatia, January 1932, “Sindhu”, “Sindhu” (Magazine), Edited by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal, Page No. 61- 62, Vol. 1 No 1, Published by: Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal B.Sc. Shikarpur & Printed by Sachanand N. Talraja at the Shyam Sunder Press Lakhi Gate Shikarpur, Language: Sindhi. Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhatia, February 1932, “Aatam Kahani”, “Sindhu” (Magazine), Edited by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal, , Page No. 49-53, Vol. 1 No 2, Published by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal B.Sc. Shikarpur & Printed by Sachanand N. Talraja at the Shyam Sunder Press Lakhi Gate Shikarpur, Language: Sindhi. Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhatia, March 1932, “Aatam Kahani”, “Sindhu” (Magazine), Edited by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal, Page No. 51-54, Vol. 1 No 3, Published by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal B.Sc. Shikarpur & Printed by Sachanand N. Talraja at the Shyam [10] Works by Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhattia Sunder Press Lakhi Gate Shikarpur, Language: Sindhi. Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhatia, April 1932, “Aatam Kahani”, “Sindhu” (Magazine), Edited by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal, Page No. 55-58, Vol. 1 No 4, Published by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal B.Sc. Shikarpur & Printed by Sachanand N. Talraja at the Shyam Sunder Press Lakhi Gate Shikarpur, Language: Sindhi. Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhatia, May 1932, “Aatam Kahani”, “Sindhu” (Magazine), Edited by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal, Page No. 37- 40, Vol. 1 No 5, Published by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal B.Sc. Shikarpur & Printed by Sachanand N. Talraja at the Shyam Sunder Press Lakhi Gate Shikarpur, Language: Sindhi. Prof. Jhamandas D. Bhatia, May 1932 “Toofan”, “Sindhu” (Magazine), Edited by Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal, Page No. 60, Vol. 1 No 5, Published by: Bolchand Vasomal Rajpal B.Sc. Shikarpur & Printed by Sachanand N. Talraja at the Shyam Sunder Press Lakhi Gate Shikarpur, Language: Sindhi.