Page 40 - Bulletin, Vol.78 No.2, June 2019

Aamir Ali – a man for all seasons

By Zafar Shaheed

Le Salève, one of the favourite Aamir’s escapade

Aamir Ali somehow always made the remarkable appear normal, throughout his 95
years on this earth. Whether he was dashing off to peaks in the Himalayas and the Alps
- clambering up the Salève at 0530 in the morning to be back at the office just after
0900 - or walking for a day here, and leaving mountain-huts at 0200 there; burning the
midnight oil writing the reports for and of the first ILO Asian Regional meetings (while
witnessing Jawaharlal Nehru vigourously calming rowdies at one meeting); facing
rebellious hordes of armed villagers in the revolutionary days of 1942 during the “Quit
India” movement; bridging the gulf between childhood in Kobe, Japan and boarding
school in Dehra Dun, British India, adulthood between Bombay, Montreal, Bangkok and
Geneva ... Over such terrain and more, Aamir skipped lightly, taking it all in his stride.

This Indian whose secondary and university studies were all in India ended up teaching
English to highly educated Brits and other nationalities in Geneva, be it oral delivery, or
written prose (“officialese”), or Shakespeare’s literature. Aamir came from a family that
loved English, and whose ancestors had been to study in Britain as far back as the
latter part of the nineteenth century. Aamir’s mother – quite remarkable that an Indian
lady from a business community had reached university studies at the time – brought
the English language and English songs into the daily life of her children. He recalled
her singing all the time: old English music-hall and folk songs, American civil war songs,
Negro spirituals, hymns and Christmas carols. On his shelves in Lonay, Aamir proudly
pointed to the book of Tennyson’s verse that his mother won as a school prize in 1910.
And he still remembered a nursery poem that he learned in 1927 or so!

After his early schooling in Kobe (Aamir’s father moved the family to Japan when he set
up his business there), Aamir was sent to boarding school in British India – the famous
Doon school, where he thrived on the camaraderie and scholastics of that institution.
He began to teach at that school after completing his University studies. However, he
was attracted by journalism and applied to the weekly magazine Forum. After
interviewing Aamir for the job, the editor said “There’s a play tonight I would like you to

38 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 78 No. 2, 2019-06