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Ali Raza was the Editor of the Sindhi Section of
The Cadet magazine vol 4 (1961) and vol 5 (1962).
Three of his Sindhi articles are published in
these volumes.
After leaving Petaro in 1961, he won the
American Field Service or AFS scholarship in an
open competition, and moved to Montana, USA to
complete his high school education there. He
stayed with an American family during the course
of that year, and became very close to them. In
fact, they were virtually like his own family to
him.
In
1962, he wrote a letter to CCP from Montana about
his trip to the USA and his impressions of the
American family. this letter is quoted in Vol.6
(1963), pg. 42 of The Cadet Magazine as follows:
"Next
day at about 12:30pm, I took a plane for Billings,
Montana. I arrived to find my American Grandmum,
Mum, brothers and sisters waving at me. Believe
me, I felt as if I were returning home. My Dad
couldn't come, being a doctor, he had to attend an
emergency case. Now I must introduce my family to
you: it consists of a nice and cheerful Dad, a
really loving Mum, 4 brothers, Tony (aged 17),
Bill (aged 13), George (aged 8) and a twin brother
and sister Stuart and Rosemary (aged 6), together
with a sweet Grand Mum".
He returned to Pakistan after completing high
school, and did his BA (Hons) from Karachi
University, followed by an MBA from the Institute
of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi.
After working with Habib Bank Ltd for a short
while in the early 1970s, he moved back to the
USA, and eventually completed a masters in Hotel
and Restaurant Management from Florida
International University (FIU) at Miami.
After graduation, he moved to Canada and became a
citizen of that country, working with different
hotels in mid-management positions.
In the 1980s, he moved to Riyadh to work for a
hotel owned jointly by PIA and Novotel. In the
mid-1980s, he moved back to Canada to try his luck
at sales and marketing.
In the early 1990s, he finally moved back to
Pakistan to be close to his aging father. He tried
to get involved in some land development and waste
management projects without any great success.
On a trip back to his home town Larkana, he died
in May 1995 of a massive heart attack.
A
Tribute to My Brother
by
Sikander Ali
Memon, 417/Latif
Ali
Raza Memon (marhoom) was my elder brother. He was
the third of eight brothers and one sister born to
Abdul Fattah Memon and his wife Aisha in Shikarpur,
Sindh. Our dear father decided to move his family
to Larkana in 1950 in the wake of the creation of
Pakistan. He was a rising star of the Pakistan
Muslim League and was very active in the creation
of Pakistan movement locally in Sindh. He chose
Larkana or rather Larkana chose him because of his
close affinity to Sindh politics and Ayub Khuhro -
the president of Sindh Muslim League – who was
residing in Larkana.
Ali
Raza started his early education in Shikarpur and
when our family moved to Larkana in 1950, he
continued his education like the rest of his
brothers and sister at Govt. High School, Larkana.
He was
selected for admission to the newly established
Cadet College in Mirpurkhas in the second batch in
1958. Ali Raza, kit no 56, was the youngest Memon
ever to leave home so early at the age of 14. In
those days it was unheard of in Sindh for boys of
this young and tender age to leave home and stay
in hostels. That made him a pioneer of sorts.
A year
after he joined at Mirpurkhas, the college was
moved to its present location at Petaro. He stayed
on at Petaro for three years before moving to the
USA. He loved it at Petaro, mostly because he was
out of close scrutiny of his grandfather and
parents. He established life-long friendships and
relationships at Petaro. Some of his close friends
included Hamid Anwar, Anwar Memon (our
brother-in-law for the last 40 yrs),
Mirza Ashfaque Beg, Sami and many others. His friends
would be well known at Memon residences in Larkana
and Karachi.
Col.Coombes and other senior faculty members of
Petaro were highly impressed by him for winning a
one year exchange American Field Service or AFS
scholarship in an open competition in 1961. He was
the first Petarian and Memon to ever win this
great honor. He did himself, his college and his
country proud at Billings, Montana where he spent
a whole year with an American family. That family
would stay in touch with him till he passed away
some 30 years later. He also met young President
Kennedy with a group of American High School
students in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Though
our father gave him the option to stay behind and
complete his education in USA, he insisted on
coming back. Initially, he came back to Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia where our father was serving as
Pakistan Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.
When he
came to Jeddah, he introduced the family to
hamburgers, hot dogs and tossed green salad along
with the apple pie. The old cook Abdul Hakim spent
many hours in the kitchen with Ali Raza trying to
prepare the American foods. I always felt that
hamburgers were neither tasty nor as filling as
the good old biryanis and qormas. Every time Ali
Raza would talk our mother into preparing another
American meal, I would groan, roll my eyes and
make faces as I would have to go through the
ordeal of having more tasteless food.
Ali
Raza had returned from the States distracted and
restless. He did not want to stay in USA and
yet he had adjustment problems in Pakistan. He was
a romantic type to begin with. He had a lovely,
melodious voice and loved to sing Mohammed Rafi's
songs. When he was young he would often sing songs
for the family. After completing his BA(Hons.)
from Karachi University, he joined Institute of
Business Administration and completed his MBA. He
worked for some time with Habib Bank Ltd., in
Karachi. However, he soon lost interest and became
restless.
The
family decided to send him to USA to do another
MBA from States. He initially went to North
Western University in Chicago but gave it up
quickly. I was doing my Masters at the University
of Miami in Florida at that time. He came and
joined me in Florida and we ended up staying
together for about two years. After considering
many options he finally joined FIU (Florida
International University) to do Masters in Hotel
and Restaurant Management.
He also
worked at a small hotel near the airport. I
remember how excited he was when he bought his
first car, a used Ford Mustang. I basically taught
him how to drive a car in Miami. We both hated
that experience. He hated it for my shouting at
him and being rough with him. I was impatient and
wanted him to learn quickly and focus on driving
and the road. I hated his stubbornness and for his
speeding while learning (driving at speeds up to
100 miles per hour) as he would get carried away.
I was almost certain that on his first day of
driving without me by his side, he would have a
terrible accident. But he proved me wrong and
became a very good driver. He never had an
accident as far as I know.
While
studying at FIU, he met and fell in love with a
Peruvian girl called Norma. For the next two years
they were inseparable. They wanted to get married
and live in the States. But as luck would have it,
they could not get married and went their separate
ways. He moved to Canada after completing his
Masters and eventually became a citizen of that
country. He worked there in hotel business but
never got the top job.
In the
early 1980s he got a job offer for a
managerial position in a hotel owned by PIA and Novotel
Hospitality Company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He
moved to Riyadh and soon got married to a second
cousin in Pakistan through an arranged marriage.
That marriage didn’t last unfortunately. Age
differences and different cultural and social
backgrounds led to a divorce two years later.
In the
mid 1980s he left his job in Riyadh and returned
to Canada. He tried his luck at various jobs
including Sales and Marketing. He even attempted
to start a business of his own. His problem was
that he could not hold on to money. Whatever money
he had earned in Riyadh, he spent it luxuriously.
Some of the money went to his close friends in
Pakistan who were in need of financial help.
In the
early 1990s, he finally returned to Pakistan to
look after his aging father. He had been looking
for an excuse to go back home. While in Pakistan
he did not try to obtain any sort of employment.
Instead, he had great dreams like starting a mega
project to collect garbage in Karachi and recycle
it. Such projects are always handled by
governments or large corporations. An individual
or a bunch of individuals cannot make much a
difference.
He had
another great idea to buy land outside Karachi and
build communities there. This was another project
which involved multi millions if not billions of
rupees in investment. He was a great dreamer and
couldn’t get these projects off the ground. Thus,
the inability to mobilize people and money
frustrated him. He wanted to achieve something big
in life. He had a passion to help the poor people
of his native Sindh and alleviate the poverty and
backwardness in rural Sindh which are phenomenal.
Whatever income he had, he shared it with his
friends in Karachi and Larkana, some of whom were
very poor, while others exploited his goodness.
Out of
frustration he went to Larkana on an extended trip
to our ancestral home. He wanted to cultivate
several hundred acres of land owned by our father
and family. Only a small portion of that land was
under cultivation at that time. He soon realized
that he would need large sums of money in
investment in the land and there were no
volunteers.
He made
many friends in Larkana during his last trip. He
would help out poor families with whatever little
he had in his pocket. There is lot of poverty in
Larkana even now.
On 25th
May 1995 morning when he did not show up for
breakfast until late, our aunt got worried and
sent Jamal our youngest brother, also a doctor, to
his room. Jamal found him dead in his bed most
likely as a result of a massive heart attack
sometime during the night.
I was
in Cairo and got the phone call from Karachi
within a couple of hours of his passing away. The
very next morning, I was on a plane to Karachi. I
met our elder brother Ali Nawaz on the flight from
Karachi to Larkana. He had just arrived from
Washington DC. By the time we arrived in Larkana,
he had already been buried next to our mother in
Larkana.
We went
to the graveyard to offer our Fateha. Standing at
his grave, Ali Nawaz cursed his younger brother
silently for abandoning our family so early. Many
years later, Ali Nawaz had following to say for
his younger brother: “I miss Ali Raza. One thing,
which makes it bearable that, we were rarely
together. More often than not, we were in
different parts of the world. It feels like even
today he is alive and well in some other part of
the world. It breaks my heart to think that we
will never meet again in this world. I guess it is
just another extended trip. We shall surely meet
in the Hereafter. I hope that we shall meet in
Heaven and he will be my brother and friend
again!”
He was
barely 52 yrs old when he died. He did not leave a
widow or any children behind. It was such a shock
to know that he was no more with us. It was
Allah’s Will that a person like Ali Raza would be
taken to a place better, something which we
mortals cannot comprehend.
Ali
Raza was a dreamer and a romantic. He was the good
conscience of the Memon family and mankind. Though
he could not fulfil his mission in life, he left
hundreds and thousands of people mourning for him.
I was told that thousands of people took part in
his funeral at Larkana. Our huge house in Larkana
was full to capacity with mourners for three days
of traditional condolences.
Ali
Raza I miss you very much to this very day. You
were a great friend, a confidante, and showcase of
goodness. Ali Raza may Allah bless your soul and
may you be resting in the Heavens. All your family
and your friends miss you very much. We hope your
new life is better than the one you had here on
Earth.
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