Page 42 - Bulletin, Vol.78 No.2, June 2019

remain functional after his ailments made it increasingly difficult for him to participate,
and that it continue beyond his life-time, Aamir ceased trying to chair each session, and
a system was developed whereby each member of the group chaired the sessions in
turn. Thus autonomy and continuance of the group without him was ensured.

The other post-retirement activity that touched a far greater number of former officials
was a six-monthly Newsletter that Aamir started and edited, where former ILO
colleagues wrote in to give views and relate their experiences. In all, in the thirty years
between 1986 and 2016, 60 issues came out, full of vim and vigour – they constitute an
informal history of the ILO, its officials, their work and their lives. To this day, many ILO
officials – both former and serving – regret the demise of this grand ship conceived,
launched and navigated by Aamir Ali.

His professor at college asked Aamir what he wanted to do in life. Aamir’s response
without hesitation was: “A writer”. He remained true to this vocation until the very end,
as he proved yet again with a book published in 2018 - There comes a time (Natraj
Publishers, Dehra Dun) pp.117 ISBN 978-81-8158-303-1, Rupees 339. This little gem is
full of the positive hope and good cheer that epitomises its author. The first picture in
the book shows Aamir delighted in his mother’s lap, and the final picture shows him in
his retirement home in Lonay (where he was happily known as “Le Monsieur qui
enseigne Shakespeare”). In both photos, he wears the same bright smile from ear to
ear, with plenty of mischief mixed with joy and a natural bienveillance towards all and
sundry.

Aamir ends the book in this vein, always hopeful and positive – returning to his beloved
Himalayas, and the tragic quarrel between India and Pakistan over the Siachen Glacier.
A lover of nature and an environmentalist well before his time, Aamir is heart-broken at
the damage to nature from this feud, and argues for transforming Siachen into a cross-
border trans-boundary natural park. Starting with citations from Hamlet and Falstaff
regarding the futility of fighting over issues of perceived honour, he asks if there will
ever be a peaceful settlement of the Siachen problem; and he answers: “Yes, there will.
… In our lifetime, or in that of our descendants, it will come. The roses will bloom again.”

*******

Aamir – the international civil servant

By Jack Martin

As Zafar has pointed out, there are many aspects of Aamir’s rich and eventful life in
which he really distinguished himself – as a teacher, a mountaineer, an
environmentalist, a writer, a public speaker.... For me he was above all a role model for
an international civil servant.

I had the very good fortune to have Aamir as my first boss when I first joined the ILO in
August 1960. Nobody could ever have had a better boss. He spent a great deal of time

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