Book launch: SM Shahid writes about his music soul mate, his grandson

In his autobiography, author pens down his autistic grandson’s passion for classical music.

KARACHI:

SM Shahid’s love for his grandson is the central theme of his autobiography ‘Song in his Soul: Hasan - My Music Soulmate’, which was launched on Wednesday evening.

The life of his autistic grandson and his passion towards classical music are woven into a gripping narrative by the author. “When Hasan was born in our daughter’s home and was diagnosed with the neurodevelopment disorder, we found that he had the ability of divine understanding of classical music,” recalled the author.

As Shahid greeted the audience at the launch, he had one piece of advice for them: do not discard special children. “Every child has a talent but you need to find it,” he said. “Much like my grandchild Hasan, my first soul mate,” he added.



A friend of Shahid’s, former senator and advertising executive Javed Jabbar shared his thoughts on the autobiography. Jabbar knows Shahid from 40 years ago when he used to be an advertiser like him and had opened a company, named Oscar, on Abdullah Haroon Road.

“Those were the best days in Pakistan as there was a bar nearby,” Jabbar remembered with a smile. “We were quite young then so never paid the bar a visit,” he added hurriedly with a chuckle. “We were advertisers so we travelled the world together,” he said.

Jabbar admitted, however, that he came to know Shahid better after reading this book. “Now I am able to realise the truth of his life,” he said.

“In a very expressive and bold manner, he has talked about females,” he said, adding that he was sure the publisher must have censored it. He also spoke about the tough times Shahid’s family faced when they migrated from India to East Pakistan and then to Karachi. “However, this is not a comprehensive autobiography but a choice to recount some accounts,” he said.

Once he finished talking about the book, Jabbar turned to Hasan, the main inspiration behind the book. “When I see the structure of the book, it appears to be a film,” he told the young man.

The actors are the family, the director is Shahid and the hero of the film is Hasan, he added. “This film is like a thriller because of the way it is put together,” Jabbar said. “It is very compact, very conscious and short.”

Jabbar admitted that Hasan comes across as a virtual genius in the manner in which he recognises the ‘raags’. “I still cannot believe how he connects with the raag.”

Psychiatrist Dr Haroon Ahmed noted that Hasan’s passion for music shows how autistic children also have a bright future. “We decided to keep this book in my clinic and distributed copies among parents of other autistic children,” he said, adding that such disorders need as much attention as Hasan received from his grandfather.

Another friend of Shahid’s, Sirajuddin Aziz, said the book is an amazing combination of his autobiography and his love for his grandson. “It is not Shahid’s biography but an embedded biography of Hasan,” he said.

Aziz said that writing an autobiography is not easy. “You take a very bold step in your life [when you write an autobiography] as you are introducing yourself [to the world].” Aziz had the opportunity to meet Hasan a few years ago. “Divinity and music cannot be separated and I believe that Hasan is blessed with it.”

The publisher of the book, Pervez Iqbal, also spoke about how Hasan has made them proud with his understanding of the excellences of classical music.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2015.