Profile of Muhammad Hussain Qureshi By Ayoob Rajpar

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MUHAMMAD HUSSAIN QURESHI
 Profile By Ayoob Rajpar

There are some people who compel you to ask yourself what makes them tick; how they survive; what their dreams are; what their hopes are, and what their despairs are. Hussain Quraishi is one of those characters. You’ll always find him on the entrance stairs of Agriculture complex with his weight machine in front of him; all he does is weigh people who sometimes pay him while sometimes they don’t. Interestingly, he has performed Umrah twice with the earnings he got from weighting people.
Nobody knows where exactly Hussain Quraishi belongs; neither anyone ever bothers about it. Even if someone bothers to ask him about his mooring, he rudely says, “What the hell have you got to do with it? It’s none of your business.” If you look at his face, his snow-white beard, his deep meditative eyes, you’ll be tempted to think if he really has anywhere to come from. Upon some stubborn research you’ll come to know that he lives in the slums of Hyderabad in a dilapidated rented room.
He has not married, thus the question of his family is pointless. He says, “Only God is my relative. To hell with others.”
He is old but nobody knows how much. When asked he says he doesn’t know. If he’s in good mood, he’ll pull out his identity card from his shoddy shirt’s half-torn pocket and will show it to you. According to his ID card, you’ll come to know, he is 62 years old. His white beard announces that he may really be over sixty, but his wrinkle-free face shows he’s hardly over thirty.
From his outlook you’ll think if he cares to change his clothes. Or, rather, if he has got any except for the ones he is wearing. His only property is his weight machine and he lives off it. Does it earn him enough to eat and pay his rent? “Yes,” he says with brightness in his eyes. “It earns me not only enough but more than enough. I have performed Umrah twice through the earnings from the weight machine. What more can I ask?”
Interestingly, he has no hopes, no desires, no fears, and no despairs. “To be honest,” he says, “it’s been a long time since I last dreamed. Literally no dreams at all. I have nothing to lose, so fear is pointless. I am not slave to any desire for I am satisfied with what I am, what I do, and what I earn.”
Although Hussain Quraishi seems like a begger but he wins his bread and butter with hard work. “I did beg for some days but those were the worst days of my life. I was extremely ashamed of what I was doing. I have never undergone such ordeal before. Then, one day, I promised to myself not to ever beg.”
Hussain Quraishi’s life is a nice lesson of living one’s life with honor and happiness.

Practical work carried under supervision of Sir Sohail Sangi
Department of Media and Communication Studies, University of Sindh