My memories my passions

ہمارے بعد سُنّا دوسروں سے

کہانی یہ ابھی پوری نہیں ہے

(Wait till my death, to listen from someone else - This story of mine is not complete yet!)

Miles to go before I sleep.............

Child is father of man!

I suppose there are people who grew from a child into a man or a woman. I did not. I am still the child I was. I will always be the child that I am. I never want to grow into anything which is not that child.

My earliest memories take me back to cozy sweet dreams of Kolkata, in my bed at the side of Nani Amma my maternal granny, she reading out stories of fairies and princes, good and gallant people who ventured into unknown territories and always helped those who were helpless. I am that prince who is so helpful for every one I thought. My granny was one of the daughters of the famous Urdu scholar of Hyderabad - Allama Ali Haider Nazm Tabatabai who was the first to tranaslate the famous English poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray into his famous Urdu poem "Gor-e-ghariban", and the first to write explanation of the Urdu Diwan of Mirza Ghalib.

My maternal grandfather Hakim Sadiq became so famous in his practice of Unani Medicine that King George VI bestowed upon him the prestigious title of Shifa-ul-mulk (Cure for the Nation). He had died much before the marriage of my parents and was survived there at Kolkata by his sons one of them a Hakim and the other an Allopath. Both having their clinics on the ground floor of the same house in which they lived.

I remember sneaking down into their clinic watching intently seeing them the patients. The pained faces of their patients, and the hope of relief that was on their faces. I would go into the dispensary and watch the bengali compounder babu prepare mixtures for them so efficiently. I was aware how much my uncles were of use and importance to those humans who came to them for mitigation of their maladies. I will be a doctor like my uncles, how noble it was, I decided.

My father Syed Shabbir Hasan Rezvi was lecturer in the department of Urdu and Persian at RDS College Muzaffarpur. I was his only son, the fruit of a very late marriage. He was a Gold Medalist and record setter at Patna University in his postgraduate examination. I have to be a goldmedalist like my father, I used to think.

My parents wanted me to learn living at my own. They did not want me to become like those children who were very much dependent on their parents for every thing, but they could not afford to send me to a good boarding school somewhere. Ultimately I was taken by my sister (My only sister) to Darbhanga. Her husband was a lecturer of phillosophy (Ultimately he Became Professor of Phillososphy) at Darbhanga. He was a very lively jolly and strong man. And was rather crazy about helping people. I rememember him sitting many nights at a stretch at the bedside of ailing distant relations, putting his own comfort at jeopardy. He was a titan in his subject and I remember how deeply he was admired by those who were around him. In many aspects he became my role model. He always advocated a scientific way of thinking... I will be a researcher my dream took a further refinement. Two more of his passions I imbibed - he was a voracious reader and he was a keen photographer. I also love reading almost any thing from any school of thought without any prejudice and I love shooting just any scene that catches my eyes and love sharing the excitement of that beauty with the world (Some of my imagery can be seen simply by searching masoodrezvi on google).

My father retired from his job the year I completed my High School and that brought a drastic reduction in the family financial resources. After completing my Intermediate I appeared for competetive examination for admission to Medical College as also competetive examination for admission to B.Sc. Agriculture at Rajendra Agricultural University Pusa, Samastiur Bihar.

I could not make through the test for Medical Studies but was selected for admission into the B.Sc. Agriculture course. In my class there were many who took second and third attempts for admission into Medical College and many of them got through. I remember lying awake awake one night and thinking the entire implication. My parents had grown old. I did not have an elder brother to take care of them. I did not therefore had time to waste. I had done quite good in the first trimester and my seniors were getting jobs quickly on completing the graduation program. I decided to remain in the stream I was. Slowly I inculcated the pride of studying a subject which was a weapon of technology in the human fight against hunger. I started enjoying Plant Breeding and Genetics specially. Took the examination for the Junior Research Fellowship of Indian Council of Agricultural Research in Plant Breeding and was selected. That was a great day for me. I was no more dependent financially on any one for my studies. I took admission into M.Sc.Agriculture in Plant Breeding.

I must mention that I had the honor of having Dr. B.N. Singh who finally retired as Director, Central Rice Research Institute Cuttack as my Research Guide and of being one of his pet students. He is another role model for me. Under Dr. Singh, I worked on Genotype Environment Interaction in semi dwarf varities of rice for my M.Sc. thesis. Dr. Singh was also the prfessor incharge for seminars. Post graduate students were required to give a seminar which was rated for one course credit. I chose a subject which in those days was quite new (Transposable Genetic Elements - Transposons - or the Jumping Genes. In fact Barbara McClintock had won Nobel prize for this discovery in that year ie,1983only). Never, in life can I forget the shining in Dr. Singh's eyes when that seminar proved to be a great success.

I completed my M.Sc. and got a job as Agriculture Officer at the Area Office of New Bank of India at Agra almost simultaneously. I was also able to fulfil one more of my desires at this stage - Like my father I won the University Gold Medal.

At Agra I enjoyed coordinating lending to Agriculture and other Priority Sectors by our branches in Agra, Etah, Etawah, Mainpuri, Aligarh and Firozabad districts etc, and at many times deputations to rural branches for processing of the loan applications of the farm folk.

I mingled with them extensively and always loved their honest and simple ways. I had a missionary euphoria. I was also given the responsibility of coordinating with the District Authorities and I attended all meetings from Block Level Bankers Committee Meeting to District Level Review Committee Meetings. The farm credit and credit to weaker sectors increased phenomenally and a later study by the Project Monitoring and Evaluation Cell of the bank praised the good utilization of loan for actual upliftment of the benificiaries in those accounts.

A few years later I was taken to the Regional Office Lucknow by my Dy.General Manager, specially to help clear a big backlog of returns and statements that had become pending from that office. I achieved that goal within three months. It was actually only a problem of identifying the reason for the default. Which was so simple that branches were not getting the necessary proforma every time when they were required to submit the information. I started the practice of sending the compete set of formats every month to each branch. In addition to this the Dy. General Manager used to take me with him to the Meetings of State Level Bankers Committee to assist him with all the ready information etc., and I was also required to coordinate with agencies like NABARD. During my stay at Lucknow I did System Development Skills Course in Computers from NIIT and was again the highest scorer in my batch.

After merger of New Bank of India with Punjab National Bank I was transferred to Partawal Branch at Maharajganj District in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. I was required to look after all branches in Maharajganj District. I was transferred after a while to the Gorakhpur regional office and was posted as Officer in Planning and Development Cell. The duties were Monitoring Deposit and Advances Growth, Monitoring Profitability, Maintaining Idle Cash Balance at Lowest possible level in the region, arranging cash diversion orders from the RBI and ensuring timely flow of information to the Zonal Head quarters. The first PC was provided to the Gorakhpur Regional Office. No specific package was till then available and the software that was provided with the PC was d-base, lotus and wordstar. Seeing my computer training the systen was given in my charge and very quickly I not only converted all analysis of my section in d-base programs written by my self but also helped other sections do the same. The ZO recognised my achievements and I was often deputed to other ROs to motivate and train them in using the machine.

Another challange that came in was the desire of the management to get ISO 9002 certification for the ROs. I was assigned the task. I prepared all the documents, trained the staff and Gorakhpur was the first RO in the Zone to get that certification. I was promoted and posted at the Zonal Office Lucknow. I was given the duty of Managing Non Performing Assets and in addition was required to associate deeply with the ISO certification process of other ROs and ZO itself. I was required to train staff in the staff training college as guest faculty in the field of use of computers, quality system, NPA management, compromise policy etc. I must proudly mention that I was brought to ZO by, and worked under Mr. U.S. Bhargava the then Dy.GM who is always remembered, as the man who gave new vision to banking in PNB in UP and who won the title of Uttar Pradesh Ratna from the All India Conference of Intellectuals. The title was dleivered by the Hon'ble Governor of U.P. In 1998.

I rever Mr. Bhargava as my teacher in many areas of Management.

In the year 2000 the Management came with a Voluntary Retirement Scheme. It flashed to me, though I was doing well in my job, I needed more freedom to make my own experimentations, more space to let the child that I was play freely. I opted for it. I was the youngest officer in the Zone to go for VRS.

Since them I am freelancing in many areas in Lucknow and now I just want to spread my wings and fulfil the remaining dreams of the child I am.

I am looking forward for opportunity to work for the downtrodden. Opportunity to do things for them. I know them I have seen them so closely...The glass industry workers of Firozabad, the Leather and Cardboard workers of Agra, The Carpet Workers of Bhadohi, the small marginal farmers the agricultural labour, the dalits typically living in the SOUTH area of every village. Women - always traeted as Second Sex in all our societies, and lately when I started roaming around in the city with my camera I realised that this is not one city it is actually two cities living in the same space... One which consists of us, and at its lowest stratum perhaps has the urban domesic workers and manual massonary labourers, and the second and quite different the dwellers of cardboard and plastic sheet huts those who live on picking our grabage! I wonder, does our society thinks of them as humans? Of members of the same species? Have we ever thought of them?

I must thank the Government of Uttar Pradesh for nominating me as a member of the State Level Committee for Implementation of the Prime Minister's New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorites since Octobe27, 2007.

These lines therefore are for any one who shares my passions.

Dont you ???

All photographs on this site have been taken by me and I am the principal copyright holder. These photographs can be had from masoodrezvi directly.
At different places I have provided links to different websites in order to enhance your experience on that subject. I am not necessarily associated with the author(s) and do not neceearily endorse the views expressed on the linked page(s).