Altaf Shaikh, born on November 14, 1944, is a Marine Engineer, has traveled every nook and corner of the world, and authored 113 books
By Muhammad Habib Sanai
Altaf Shaikh, known as Ibn-Battuta of Sindh, is the second most prolific writer after Mirza Qaleech Beg, who has to date authored 113 books, 102 in Sindhi, 12 in Urdu, and one in English. Majority of his books are travelogues, but few are anthologies of short stories translated from other languages, two books contain fairy tales for children and two books are collections of proverbs. Some analysts claim that Altaf Shaikh is one of those two Sindhi writers, who have contributed enormously to the increase of readership of Sindhi books with their writings after partition.
Despite his failing health, he is not only writing books, but also regularly contributing articles to various Sindhi and Urdu newspapers and periodicals. The 14th of November 2024 is his 80th birthday.
His travelogues have not been written in drawing rooms, as is alleged for some writers, but being a Marine Engineer, he had visited almost every nook and corner of this world. Further, contrary to other travelogues, his books are not statements of the writer’s sexual exploits and exaggerated accounts of visits. Critics claim that his books are treasure troves of information. His travelogues also provide precious history and geography of the particular country or region under discussion in these books.
Sindhi-speaking people are labelled as homesick persons. However, some observers claim that under the inspiration of Altaf Shaikh’s writings, a number of Sindhi-speaking people have left their villages and migrated to other countries either for jobs or education. This is in itself an immense contribution to youth development of Sindh.
Altaf Shaikh was born in Hala, which is more famous for Jhandi (Lacquer work) and Kashi (glazed tile) products. However, it is also the old literary and educational center of Sindh. He studied in Hala up to the Class Seventh, then he joined the Cadet College Petaro, Jamshoro Sindh where he studied up to Intermediate Pre-Engineering. Then he got enrolled in the Naval Academy, Chittagong, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), where he graduated in Marine Engineering. Later on, he did post-graduation in Marine Engineering from World Maritime University, Malmo, Sweden.
He joined Pakistan Shipping Corporation as Junior Engineer in the late sixties and subsequently became Chief Marine Engineer. After working for 15 years, he left this sea-faring job to become a Professor of Marine Engineering. In between, he has served at seaports of Kuwait and Japan as Chief Engineer.
Love for Literature
He developed a love for reading and writing in his early years. His father Gul Mohammad Shaikh, ex-Deputy Commissioner, was also a writer, who authored three books. His father used to subscribe to various magazines. At first, only pictures in the magazines and books attracted him, but gradually he started to read the contents of the magazines and books. He started writing in various magazines, when he was studying at Cadet College Petaro. He became editor of college magazine, when he was in tenth grade.
Further in his ancestral town Hala, some of his relatives and friends were also literary persons. Though his maternal grandfather was a businessman, he had a good library in Hyderabad, where he used to go three to four times a year.
In the Cadet College, Petaro, its first Principal was Col. Combs, who was Second World War veteran. He encouraged his students to adopt the habit of reading books. Col. Combs often said to them that those who develop the habit of reading books, can survive lonely even in a Jungle. He admits that he realized the importance of that advice during the voyaging on long routes in his Seafaring service. In the ship travels from China to Canada, 40 nights and days and from Japan to Cuba 35 days and nights were spent. No one used to be nearby for talking. Only books made one busy and were real solace, as he wrote in a self-portrait.
He writes that in Petaro’s days, he become such voracious reader that he read complete sets of books of numerous authors. In Chittagong, same was the milieu. His Bengali class fellows were also good readers and with their help, within few months, he become proficient in the Bengali language. His poet friend, Naeem Dureshani, who was studying in Medical College, introduced him to prominent Sindhi writers such as Hameed Sindhi, Tariq Ashraf, Wali Ram Vallabh. Also, during Chittagong years, he wrote a series of columns under the title “From the Land of Rivers” which was published in a Sindhi daily.
During these long journeys, he started writing long letters and columns describing his interesting experiences, and necessary information about the seaports and cities, he visited. He admits that he adopted a romantic and fictional style to attracting Sindhi youth to this field.
His first travelogue ‘Munhjo Sagar Munjo Sahil’ (My Sea, my port) received Writers Guild award, which gave a major impetus to his writing career. In the 1960s, he participated in literary gatherings held in Karachi, when his ship returned back from voyages.
In 1971, he got married and now his wife also accompanied him on these voyages. Even his children used to travel with them on the ship for a few years till they were admitted to schools.
In 1981, Malaysia established Naval Academy near Malaka city. He joined this academy despite the low pay and non-availability of educational institutes for his children nearby, because he was fascinated with Malaysia and Malaka city. He also worked in Singapore Polytechnic Institute and another polytechnic institute at Apoh. This provided him an opportunity to visit almost every city and village of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The government of Malaysia has given him an award for his writings and the help he extended in setting up the new Naval Academy in Malaysia.
As he has lived in Malaysia, Japan, Sweden, America, and China for a good time, therefore, he has written more books about these countries. However, recently he has also penned a good number of books about Africa. Last year his book titled Zanjbar Jangbar about Zanzibar and Tanzania came out. This area is in the limelight because this year’s Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in Zanzibar.
After retirement, he has become a full-time writer and since then he has penned more than forty books, besides numerous of write-ups on history, geography of each country he happened to visit.
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Muhammad Habib Sanai is based in Hala town of Sindh. He is a freelance writer and contributes his research-based articles to various newspapers and other publications.
