A Pakistani legend

A Pakistani legend 


By Nadeem Akram 

 Maseel Khan fought his way to glory, inside and outside the ring. 

Before the advent of modern technology that would turn sports into a
money making machine and transform sportsmen and women into demi-gods,
young men and women played sports for fun.

They competed with a sportsman's spirit, sought nothing more than
recognition and praise of the fans. Playing sports was a hobby, a
passion, an individual's quest to be the best that he or she can be.
The rewards were simple, yet gratifying. Those were the days of
innocence, when everything was simple yet regal; spectators did not
have to be locked in iron cages to watch a game. The players were not
escorted in and out of sporting arenas like VIPs. Sports were played
and followed like it should be: in a sporting manner. Such is the
story of a sportive athlete who belongs to literally the dying breed
of sportsmen who sported the way it should be: a sport that is.

His name is Maseel Ahmed also known as Capt Maseel Ahmed, Doctor
Maseel Ahmed and in the late forties, "Tiger of India". Born in Jhang
on January 13th, 1924, Maseel the youngest of three children, found
himself hobnobbing with the Punjabi elite of the walled city of Lahore
at a very tender age. Although born in Jhang, Maseel's family,
presumably migrated to Punjab from UP and thus brought with them a
culture and language quite dissimilar to that of the hardcore Lahori
culture of the walled city. He was not to be overwhelmed by the macho
Lahori culture and was able to retain his own traditions and values at
the same accepting what Bhatti Gate of the old Lahore had to offer. He
never allowed his environs shape his life. Instead Maseel tried to
change the surroundings to his liking, and in case he failed he moved
on. That has been the story of his life till the time he reached a
stage when he could no longer move on and decided to call it a day.

His father, like all good fathers of the time sent Maseel to Central
Model School, one the premium learning centres of Lahore. Central
Model High School have over the years nurtured many a young men who
went on to define the shape of this nation, Maseel being one of them.
Maseel matriculated from Central Model School at a tender age of 14 in
1938. From Central Model School he went on to Forman Christian College
instead of Government College Lahore, the natural progression for
Central Model students, owing to his less than satisfactory grades.
Forman Christian College should feel proud to have a person of
Maseel's stature as one of his alumni despite the fact that Maseel did
not graduate from the college. In 1940 he flunked the intermediate
exams and was sent packing from F.C. College.

Islamia College Railway Road was to receive a rejected and dejected
Maseel from F.C. College in 1940 the year that would transform
16-year-old Maseel from a reject to a hero. Following his termination
from F.C. College, Maseel found respite in Islamia College Railway
Road, Lahore. IC College Railway Road accepted Maseel and allowed him
to be the best that he can be. Shortly after he joined the college,
Zia, as Maseel recalled, college boxing team's captain asked Maseel to
appear for trials. Zia was from his neighbourhood, Bhatti Gate, and
Captain of the Islamia College Boxing Team.

"He (Zia) invited me. I was only sixteen then", remembers Maseel,
"shorter than I am now and very skinny." Nonetheless, Maseel went to
the boxing arena. He was made to spar with a boy not of his weight and
Maseel went home with a bloodied nose and a battered ego.

"I did not let that episode dampen my spirits" recalls eighty-year-old
Maseel, "Instead I told myself that I am going to punish all those who
had made me bleed", confided Maseel as I spoke to him at his majestic
yet simple abode inside Bhatti Gate.

"No one expected me to be at the ring, adjacent to the hostel, the
following day. Yet I turned up the next day and days following that. I
had no formal coach, and for that matter no formal coaching, yet
between 1938 and 1945, I won every singular boxing tournament that was
there to win. I was diminutive and lightweight, light fly in boxing
terms, but I fought in the higher weight categories as and when
required by my team. I fought in Fly, Feather and Bantamweight,
despite the fact that I never weighed anything over 105 pounds. Zia
would ask me to stand up for the team and I would, such was the spirit
in those days," Maseel stated with a smile.

Maseel won every boxing tournament between 1938 and 1945; the biggest
break in his career came when he found himself pitched against the
best of the best of the subcontinent during the Indian Boxing
Championship held at Burt's Institute, in Lahore.

For those of us who are unfamiliar with Lahore and its geography,
Burt's Institute was one of the premier sporting complexes prepared by
the Raj. Lahore has been fortunate to inherit three of the prestigious
sporting arenas of the subcontinent. Besides, Burt's Institute, also
known as Naach Ghar owing to the balls held there, there were Griffin
Institute and the Carson's Institute. Burt's Institute due to its
association with the Railways Headquarters was a premium sports centre
as compared to Carson and Griffin's institutes. It was at Burt's
Institute that Maseel was to write history in Pakistani boxing. He not
only earned the title of the "Most Scientific Boxer", but also was
also nicknamed as "Tiger of India", due to a combination of his
majestic style, elegant movements and courage.

The year 1946 was the most important year in young Maseel's life; he
had just won the Indian Boxing Championship and was dubbed as "Indian
Tiger". Yet Maseel wanted more out of life. It was the same year, when
Maseel applied and got selected for 23 RAF Pilots Training Course in
Poona. He successfully completed the preliminaries and went on to join
the officer candidates flying school at Sikandarabad in Hyderabad
Deccan. RAF Pilots' school had no inhibition in throwing Maseel out of
the Academy once he wrecked a plane. Maseel was back in Bhatti Gate in
mid-1946, the year that he would treasure the most.

Upon his return, Maseel Ahmad joined Muslim League Youth Movement and
felt proud to be the part of a handful of young men who dedicated
their lives in ensuring a safe passage for Hindus and Sikhs fleeing
Lahore despite Gurdaspur tragedy. Between 1947 and 1951 Maseel
remained committed to the cause of boxing despite all odds. Maseel was
not the kind of individual who would give in to the obvious. In 1951,
just before he was to join Pakistan Army, he won the prestigious
Griffin Institute Boxing Championship.

As an officer of the Six Lancers, he remained a sore thumb for the
powers to be. It did not take him long to realize that the regimented
life was not his cup of tea. He extracted himself out of the army as a
Captain and lived the life, as he has always wanted to live: one day
at a time.

Following his release from the Army, he managed to get several jobs in
the private sector, NFC, Wapda, you name it and he had it. But his
restless nature never allowed him to stay at one place for too long.
He felt comfortable around a boxing ring, and would find every excuse
to be there. For a while he remained a permanent fixture at the Boxing
Referees and Judges Association, officiating at various national and
international events, however, this articulate, sophisticated,
champion boxer always remained at the periphery of the boxing circuit
in Pakistan. He was never allowed to become part of the oligarchy of
self-serving, mediocre sycophants who have ruled this country for the
last fifty years, sports being no exception.

An accomplished, outspoken, educated and well placed boxer, a rarity
in boxing, Maseel was destined to never hold any position in the
Pakistani Boxing Federation. The officialdom never recognized his
services. With the exception of limited fanfare, a few well-wishers,
and a handful of medals and certificates, Capt. Maseel has little to
show for in terms of official recognition.

Today Capt. Maseel resides in an old haveli in the heart of Bhatti
Gate, in serene and calm surroundings. His youngest son has converted
the ground floor into a school and the upper floors serve as the
residential quarter. Almost 80, Maseel is in fine health, and with the
exception of occasional memory lapses; he does not look anything over
sixty.

Years after reaching the age of super-annuation, Capt. Maseel
practised as a homeopath doctor; an occupation he gave up only
recently. He seems to be in peace with himself and could not have
found a better place that Mohallah Sammian in Bhatti Gate to spend his
golden years. Life is still simple, slow paced, and easy in Mohallah
Sammian, and except for the whispers of the gossiping housewives in
the balconies, there was hardly any noise in the neighbourhood. Even
the children horsing around in the alleys kept their voices low. As I
wrote these lines, I realized that these lines may not mean anything
to a number of people, but I am sure that people who knew, Capt.
Maseel, Lt. Col. Samad Mir, Richard Clement, and many others like
them, it would mean a lot to them, just like it would have mean a lot
for my father who loved the game of boxing and admired Capt. Maseel
for his contributions.