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KARACHI: Listening to architect Mukhtar Husain chat with architect Khadija Jamal on Monday at the Karachi Club Annex about his memoir Grounds and Forms, it felt like the author was greeting you from the window of his home and then opening a door to invite You go in and get up close and personal with the architect, teacher, writer, critic and family man.
Originally written for his grandchildren, who all lived abroad and experienced different cultures and experiences from which their own country, Pakistan, was excluded, he wanted to tell them by writing about his life and experiences This land, this is his base. here.
When talking about his career as an architect, he said that he decided to become an architect when he was 10 years old. “But after completing my studies, I realized that there was no school of architecture in Karachi. It was then that one of my teachers at grammar school suggested that I study architecture in Turkey,” he said.
When he was 17, he traveled to Turkey to be exposed to the world there. Today, he calls it his second home. After graduating in December 1971, almost at the same time as Dhaka fell, his father asked him not to return home because the situation here was not optimistic. “He asked me to study further in order to stay in Turkey, so I thought I would do a master’s degree in industrial design,” he added.
The course was supposed to take him two years to complete, but instead he completed it in six months to keep up with his departing teacher. As the job market situation in Pakistan had not improved by June 1972, Mukhtar was again asked by his father not to return. So this time he went to Europe, to Munich and then to Frankfurt, where he worked as a worker in a food factory.
After working there for three months and earning a little money, he returned to Turkey in February 1973, but soon his parents asked him to return to Pakistan, where he started working in a private construction company. In 1997, after working with other companies, he also decided to open his own company. He was also involved in the Karachi airport project.
“Karachi has always been my anchor. I was born here, I studied here, but Karachi has changed as it has grown from a city of 1 million people to a city of 25 million people. Despite this, I still Belong here. I have been to more than 40 countries, but I always long to come back here,” he said.
According to the host’s observation, there are two main characters in the entire book who had a huge impact on his life: his father Inayat Husain and his wife Rumana Malik Rumana Malik Husain. “Few people know me and know my father, but everyone who knows me knows Rumana because she is interested in my work and is always there for me,” he said.
Speaking about his father, he said he looked up to him. “I corresponded with him regularly from Turkey, Germany, Switzerland etc. I had guidance from him throughout. Then when I came back to Pakistan, he gave me all the letters I had written to him. When I re-read them I discovered a lot of data when I was there. Also, I myself had been keeping a travel diary. So when I was writing my memoirs, I had so much data and records thanks to these two sources,” he said.
On the occasion, Mukhtar’s life partner Rumana Husain revealed that her rukhsati happened to be 47 years ago. She said that if she wrote a book about Mukhtar, she would focus on her 47 years with him. “He was the most loving, loving husband,” she said, adding that he was also a very honest man. “I’ve also seen him reject projects. We may not make money, but our conscience is clear,” she said.
The couple’s son Adil Hussain also spoke at the event. He said that 27 years ago, he left home and went abroad. “There were moments in my life when I needed his advice and he was always there for me no matter the distance between us.”
The guest of honour, Turkish Consul General Jamal Sangu, also talked about some of the great architectural designs in the world, which are all creations of great human architects.
Published at dawn on March 5, 2024
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