I did not know Asim

I did not know Asim for his intelligence, generosity. He introduced me to people who became my closest friends.

KARACHI: I have read many of the wonderful pieces that a variety of people have written about Asim, some by people who knew him well and others by those who acknowledge straight off the bat that they did not know Asim.  I too did not know Asim.

I did not know in 1996 or 1997 when I first met him that he would become a permanent fixture in our lives.  He was then a student at  the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) taught by one of my friends who wished to introduce me to ‘this very intelligent young man’.

From that day onwards, I did not know when Asim would show up and especially when he would leave.  He would make the long trek from Lums to our house on the other side of town for dinner, the day or the weekend.

I also did not know Asim for his intelligence and generosity.  He introduced me to people who would over time become some of my closest friends.

He shared with me his art. In fact, he painted a mural on my wardrobe —Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. Fittingly perhaps, the mural remained unfinished for seven years, as long as I lived in that house and Asim visited us regularly.  It was the hands, Asim did not know yet how to draw hands.

I did not know Asim at the Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture (IVSAA) where he later learnt how to draw hands and channel all his intellectual ideas into painting.  I never visited him at IVSAA. I never even went to his thesis show even though I was an actor in his video art presentation.

I did not know Asim for the international artist he was, even though I saw his work as a part of an exhibition in London.  I did not know Asim, the Stuckist.

I did not know Asim, the protestor, the graffiti artist, even though we had often discussed politics and art and the relevance of the artist in politics.

He had seen many of my more political and experimental plays.  I do not know if that had any impact on him or his views of the artist in society.

I did not know that the first mural, he did on the stairwell of his rented apartment while he was a student at Lums, would lead him to doing graffiti all over the country.

The landlord of the first apartment did not appreciate Asim’s art or his argument about the value of the building being enhanced by art. The landlord did not want an interpretation of the crucifixion of Christ on his walls.

I did not know Asim on his journey through life. I just knew that he was generous and caring and yet completely self obsessed, extremely intelligent yet disarmingly naive, piercingly perceptive and yet completely oblivious to his surroundings.

I did not know Asim Butt for all that he experienced in life, I just shared a few moments with him and that will just have to do now.  I do know that I could never imagine him getting old and now he never will.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2011.