When you read or hear about death it is usually news, a piece of information that seems to leave no impact on you. You read the news of the death ofhundreds, even of thousands as if it`s something abstract that doesn`t disrupt your routine.

What is the reason? It lies in the nature of relationships with the dead. Death of even a single individual you care for is a concrete experience that brings you face to face with the natural process of destruction. It makes you experience the ephemerality of life by showing you the most significant and lasting as inconsequential and uncertain.

Poet/mystic Shah Husain calls the world and the sprawl of life a dewdrop of irresistible beauty that would disappear in a flash.

One of the men who reflected the life and sprawl of our generation died on March 30 in the USA. He was one of the toughest men physically as well as intellectually. He suffered from polio as a child and had to walk on clutches but he never allowed his disability to get in the way of him living life fully.

He would climb up to the second floor without gasping for breath.

Likewise he would never leave a dialogue inconclusive.

Poet Abid Ameeg told me once that one fine morning he had a knock at his door and found Manzur standing there out of nowhere wearing the shirt that Abid had burnt a hole into inadvertently with his cigarette butt while having an intense dialogue with him. `I have come to conclude the dialogue that remained inconclusive due to our disagreement,` he said.Imagine Manzur had travelled for six hours from Lahore to Multan to settle an intellectual disagreement. We were graein (from the same area) but we never met in Sahiwal he was a year or two senior in the college where as a student he along with poet Mazhar Tirmizi would intimidate their competitors with their Urdu poetry and win trophies at college Mushairas (poetry recitals). Like most young poets of Sahiwal both were inspired by the late Majid Amjad, the finest Urdu poet and a saintly figure. They would love to hover over him.

I met him in 1973 when after leaving the New Hostel of Government College Lahore I took refuge in a teachers` hostel at the new Campus of University of Punjab, courtesy Izzat Majid.

Manzur was employed as a lecturer of philosophy. Compared with the Government College Lahore a `babu producing machine` Punjab varsity was a dynamic and happening place in those days as the simmering political and ideological conflict between right and left wings had erupted into a conflagration.

Right wingers led by Islami Jamiat-i-Tulba would display their political strength in their frequently organised rallies shouting `sabz hai sabz hai, Asia sabz hai (Green green, Asia is green)`. Leftists would retaliate by taking out processions shouting`surkh hai surkh hai, Asia surkh hai (Red red, Asia is red).

Interestingly, there was another small group derisively called `mummy daddy students` who occasionally would march boisterously shouting ` surkh hai na sabz hai, Asia ko gabz hai ( Asia is neither red nor green, it is constipated).` They rightly issued aprescient warning.

In those days Manzur used to write poetry in Urdu with his nome de plume `Yaas`. He would hold a weekly literary meeting at the New Campus where Urdu writings were presented for evaluation. I was already writing in Punjabi. Some of us got together and hatched a little conspiracy; we decided to disrupt his weekly meeting to dissuade him from writing in Urdu. The main members of the gang were Akram Varriach, Pervaiz Para, Shaukat Lamma and myself. When Manzur presented his Urdu Ghazal I tore it apart with my scathing attack. Other members as planned started shouting, became quite rowdy and kicked the chairs around disrupting the meeting. We declared his activity a treason against Punjab`s culture. Manzur was angry but he did not lose his composure completely. Later he said that what we stressed, the use of mother language, was valid but he didn`t deserve that kind of ugly treatment. Soon we all became friends because of our shared worldview.

I was already close to Najm Hosain Syed, our leading writer and intellectual, as I frequently visited him. One of Syed`s friends was Mian Aslam Ranjha, a landlord from Sargodha, who was a music maven and had a wonderfulcollection ofclassicalandfolk music. He introduced him to a vocalist who later became a doyen of soul singers. This mystically inclined singer was Pathne Khan who had Yaseen as his disciple. When introduced we all instantly fell in love with both. At times both would stay at Manzur`s. Pathane Khan wouldn`t live without what he euphemistically called `Booti(Bhang)` a drink made of hemp leaves. We too would join him. He would sing and we would sob silently. Such was his singing of mystical verses. By that time I had joined Pakistan Television Corporation as a programme producer. So I had the honour of introducing him on television as a vocalist. He soon became a revered singer.

Manzur, Raja Arif, Raja Anwar, Pervaiz Rasheed, Fayyaz Baqir, Javed Ali Khan and Hussamul Haq were among the left wing prominent leaders of student politics associated with the `National Students Organisation (NSO)` led by prof Azizuddin and Azizul Haq. The two used to work together but eventually fell out with each other. Most of these young men later joined another vibrant group the `National Students Federation (NSF).` When Azizul Haq established a new group the `Young People`s Front (YPF) that ostensibly struggled to bring a revolution, Manzur, Arif Raja, Pervaiz Rasheed, Javed Ali Khan and Shujaul Haq joined YPF.

Azizul Haq inspired many young people with his fiery speeches and emotionally charged analyses which projected the USA and India as foes and China a friend.

It was an effort to toe the state narrative. Its activists used the microphone to make revolutionary speeches on politics at public places like vendors and hence were ridiculed by their opponents as `Bhonpu Tola (the horn gang).

Prof Azizuddin, on the other hand, liked to work quietly from behind the scene. Those were the days when the young dreamed dreams of transforming the inherited unjust society. soofi01@hotmail.com