By: Khalid Hashmani

All those who knew Anwar Memon are truly saddened by his untimely departure from among us. May God rest his soul in peace and give us all enough strength to bear the loss of this great friend of Sindhi community!

I have personally known Anwar Memon for more than 55 years. Being a friend and admirer, I always looked Anwar with respect since our days at the Government High School in Hyderabad. Anwar’s impersonation of SaeeN Bashir Qureshi (who was a great teacher with the high hopes that his lethargic students who would one day become scholars of Persian) was legendary in our school. No matter how much down one felt, hearing Anwar impersonate SaeeN Bashir Qureshi made us forget all your sorrows and filled us with laughter and smiles. As the fate would have it, I followed him to Cadet College Petaro in 1960. There, apart from sharing common bond as having our homes in the same city (Hyderabad), we also became roommates in his final year at Petaro (1963) and came to know a lot of good and some not-so-good things about each other. In Petaro, Anwar belonged to the Jinnah House for first few years and then joined the newly created Shah Abdul Latif House. He was considered by most cadets as a leader without stripes. Although he was not an appointed section/House leader, he commanded more respect of all the cadets than most of other cadets who had formal stripes. After passing the Intermediate Examination from Cadet College Petaro, Anwar joined Sindh University Engineering College [now called Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET)] in Jamshoro. I after passing the same examination from Petaro joined another Engineering college in Karachi, Sindh. But as we were meant to meet again, I transferred to Sindh University Engineering College in late 1965, where Anwar had been elected as the President of Student Union. He was very influential and highly respected by both students and faculty. He was instrumental in helping me in couple of troublesome situations. After receiving Bachelor’s degree, Anwar landed a very prestigious job with one of the leading Petroleum Company and was envy of many of his colleagues and friends.

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