LAHORE: Banker Zafar Masud, one of the two survivors of the crash of the PIA plane in Karachi in 2020, shared his memories of the crash which also culminated in writing of his book, Seat 1C: A Survivor`s Tale of Hope, Resilience of Renewal, written in collaboration with Syeda Amna Hasan.

The book was launched in a session, moderated by Tooba Masood, on the second day of the Lahore Literary Festival at Alhamra on Saturday.

Zafar said the people believed that his survival was due to his seat location in the plane at the time of the crash but he did not buy that argument as he believed that it was God`s will and He wanted it to happen that way. He added that the publisher thought that it (the seat number) was something that would attract the sale; hence, they gave it the title of Seat 1C.

When asked by Tooba what led Zafar to write the book and whether he wanted a catharsis and what could people take from it, he said that in the late 2021, he was invited to write an article for a newspaper where he was required to detail his postcrash experiences and he thought they were unique musings, which needed to be shared. `I just hope and pray that nobody goes through the experiences that I went through but since I had gone through it I owed it to the people to share those with them in whatever way that would help them improve their life.

Speaking further on the subject,Zafar Masud said some of the experiences were a part of his childhood development and some of them were new learning. He added that he thought it was important to write something about it and he realized that in this transitory world, something of permanent nature had to be left behind and this book was a kind of contribution to that part.

`I have tried to avoid drama and made an attempt to make it more matter-of-fact but the fact is that the whole crash was so emotional and so sad that there are certain parts of it which could trigger some emotions in the victims` families for which I apologise (to them).

He said Syed Amna Hasan must beacknowledged for her contribution to the book ashe thoughtthatthe account in the book should be something literary that he himself would like to read and relate to. He said the book needed some research and he also wanted it to be an interesting read with language etc and the credit went to Amna for making it happen. He added that it was her language that`s used in the book.

Amna said though her words were there in some parts of the book but it was very much his voice, telling the narrative.

Replying to a question, Zafar said the most difficult part for him was to talk about his loved ones and how they pulled him out of the trauma which would havebeen impossible without his amazing family besides his friends and colleagues.

When asked about the process of writing the book and any challenges in the way, Amna said they started the project with general conversations about the memories of Zafar about the crash. She would fill in the gaps, for example, before the plane crash, he lost consciousness at one point and then there was a gap that needed to be filled with the details like what happened after the plane crashed in Model Colony. She said she spoke to Zubair, the only other survivor of the crash, who had vivid memories of that day and his input was very important.

She said she had got accounts of the eyewitnesses and residents of Model Colony and those who had pulled Zafar out of the wreckage and took him to the ambulance. Besides, there were accounts of paramedics too and all these details made the story more real.

Amna told the audience that they had got the cockpit recordings and details of the Civil Aviation Authority that investigated the crash. She said the difficult part was writing about the rescue scenes because there was only chaos and that chaotic memories and trauma had a complicated relationship. She said people were visiting the crash site weeks after the incident and people in the Model Colony as well as rescuers were annoyed by it and her and Zafar`s struggle was to be careful not to look like being a part of whole voyeurism and being respectful to the people who had suffered due to the crash.

Zafar Masud read out passages from his book.