Maj Gen Muhammad Tahir (R)
LIKE a breath of fresh air in the Corona-stricken environment came the news of Syed Baber Ali’s election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a rare distinction not only for Syed Baber Ali, but also for Pakistan. He became the second International Honorary Member from Pakistan in the Academy’s 240 years of history. The first was Nobel Prize winner and theoretical physicist, Dr Abdus Salam. Academy Members are world leaders in the arts and sciences, business, philanthropy and public affairs. They are based across the United States and around the world. These elected members join with other experts to explore challenges facing society, identify solutions and promote non-partisan recommendations that advance the public good. Syed Baber Ali was given this honour in the category of ‘Business, Corporate and Philanthropic leadership.’ I never imagined that certain moments of my life could take on a rare and precious quality. Meeting Syed Baber Ali was one such moment, when I walked into his office almost a decade and a half ago. Though he appeared larger than life (his office adorned with rare pictures, artefacts and books) because of the various milestones he had achieved, yet all I could see sitting in front of me a fatherly figure full of humility, simplicity, goodness and grace. He was always kind to accommodate me whenever I visited Lahore, even in his very busy schedule.
In my various meetings with him since then, I felt his presence always had a mesmerizing effect on me, a man who would hold your hand for a while, but touches your heart forever. He would always have a kind word for you and your family and as Mother Teresa says, “Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” In a short period of time that I would spend with him over a cup of coffee, I would always come out more educated, more enlightened, his conversation interspersed with so many personal and rich anecdotes from his life. Sometimes, I would also notice an undertone of anguish and pain, when he would discuss the ills prevalent in our society and where our country was heading. Still when I left his office, I would feel in me an elation, a new spirit of optimism, hope and light, as if this country had people like Syed Baber Ali, God will always protect us from all evils and steer us in the right direction. Especially agonizing for him was the fact, if he found a man in uniform was involved in wrong doing, as if he expected all men in uniform to be angels. He had the courage to speak about his conviction, even though he knew it would ruffle the feathers. Once he narrated to me the story how President Musharraf, when he came in power, summoned him to Governor House Lahore and wanted to interview him for his suitability as Federal Minister for his Cabinet. During the course of conversation Syed Baber Ali told him, “Mr. President, You are looking at the beginning of your innings, actually you should be more worried how the posterity will view you when you leave the office of the President.” Though it effectively sealed his chances for being a Federal Minister, yet history would bear witness and prove he was right. Although known for his success as a businessman, because he surveyed the infinite opportunities surrounding him and then turned these into success stories like establishing Packages and Nestle Industries, yet I felt his passion and heart was always in education.
He strongly believed it was education and education alone which could spread hope and light and would remove all pervasive darkness and dejection. I remember how he narrated me the story of the creation of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and the historic Rausing Executive Development Centre established in 1995 during our drive to Okara military farms in 2006, where I took him for a visit asking him to guide us in the development of the military farms. He was not only managing LUMS, but was also on the Boards of many universities including Kinnard and Forman Christian College, as if he was paying his debt for their services to the country in the field of education. He was also heading the Vice Chancellors Select Committee, in Punjab, a position he held for many years, ensuring transparency and giving dignity to that office. His idea to establish a School of Science and Engineering on the lines of Harvard and MIT was another milestone like the Ali Institute of Teachers Education. He would always say that we need better teachers, “As a teacher not only affects his generation but eternity, you can never tell where his influence stops.”
The practical demonstration of his deep sense of compassion was the institution of National Outreach Programme in LUMS, which would attract brilliant students from underprivileged backgrounds all over the country to have education in the best possible environment like their peers. His one visit to Fauji Foundation educational system, wherein he addressed the faculty turned the tide and next year we had seven students selected in this programme, out of the total 140 students selected from across Pakistan. He would nostalgically narrate his meetings with the students from LUMS, who would flock from all over to meet and shake his hand, whenever he visited USA, Canada or UK. He was an unconscious instrument in the attainment of goals of thousands of students, creating a difference in their lives, the results coinciding in time and assuming historical significance.
His address to the faculty and students of Fauji Foundation, was both awe-inspiring and memorable. He told us that his day starts at 7 in the morning and ends at 10 at night during which he works with a clocklike precision. He told the students, “Stay faithful to your ideals, you have a voice in your destiny, a say in your life and a voice in the path you take.” He told them, “You are like a flower and you have got to blossom wherever you are planted and your fragrance will fill the world. And a man is hopelessly impoverished, if he is devoid of vision, and the only limitation to your dreams is the flight of your own imagination. Life is a mixture of rain and sunshine, you cannot control the events of the world, but you can control your reaction to them and your reaction will either make you strong or destroy you.” He told them to read as reading cultivates your mind and frees it from prejudices, which lock your mind into narrow spaces and gives you a subtle delight in things you never thought of before.
So many wonderful things we learnt that day, but the one thing that echoes in my mind repeatedly is, “How can you curse the darkness, when you are not yourself the light, so be the light yourself.” Yes his life is a beacon of light for all his countless students, friends and colleagues inside the country and around the globe and when I got up to thank him, I ended my speech with the words, “You are like a shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a source of strength and refuge for those, who walk in darkness.” I pray that this shadow always remain in this land and continues to cast its benign influence as a beacon of hope and inspiration to thousands of his students and admirers as a living embodiment and personification of what is good and noble in this world. Being associated with him, I learnt that time is essence and once gone will be gone for forever as Benjamin Disraeli underlines our common concern, “life is too short to be little,” yet often wondered how can one man achieve so much in one life, in one brief moment of time, which will be immortalized in an era and will transcend the pages of history.
—The writer is presently Advisor COMSATS HQs Isbd & Member Executive Council Nazriya Pakistan and has authored of 5 books including ‘Books that changed my Life – life and Life lessons,’ and ‘The Philosophy of Rumi and its Relevance in the Present Times.’
