English & Urdu Text : Khalid IqbalPresentation : Shoaib Sobani

Tall built, white skin, golden frame on eyes, body language and the lingua francavouch that he belongs to a very conventional Memon family.

During Dow days he was famous as a painstaking and scholarly man. He was ourclass representative. Serving as a demonstrator in Anatomy in Dow for sometime aftergraduation, he left for England very noiselessly.

In a small span of time Idrees Aidhi returned as a qualified ophthalmologist and hasbeen serving Dow since long. Over the years his academic stature has attainedmammoth heights. Without any shadow of doubt he is one of the foremostpractitioners in Karachi

Will and way goes hand in hand. Idrees collected most modern ophthalmologydiagnostic and therapeutic equipment, new and refurbished. With relentless efforthe generated and created funds single-handedly to establish a State-of-the–ArtOphthalmology Institute at Dow.

Besides enacting the new department he is training the young doctors to availthemselves of this unique example of the transfer of technology. On the eve of Pearlcelebrations he handed over the new department to the custodians of Dow. What a wayto pay back your Alma Mater with enormous compound interest; sans praise, sans anyreward. Memon power –Paindaabad

Hi Folks,

As all of you know Idrees and I have been life long friends and like brothers. I think all of us are proud and honored to hear and see the great man's success stories. However, many of you may not know how much he has toiled in his life to achieve all this...........it is an amazing story.Idrees has had a very very difficult time all his life. He is a real self made man who has struggled very hard to

reach where he has reached. While at his peak in late 1995 he had a terrible personal health set back and this demanded a complete change in his working life style. But he was not cut out to care for any advice and heeded to no pleas from physicians, family or friends. If anything he became more determined and a man with a mission who was running against the clock. If you consider his personal endurance and the sacrfices he has made, these are unheard off and unparallel in this day and age. He still to this day works for not less than 14 - 16 hours a day. He is a 'Jin'.Poverty and blindness are two of the worse combinations to be cursed with. He has fought both of them all his

life, by treating poor blind people to give them an ability to earn a respectable living. The alternative for them would have been begging on the roads. He has single handedly fought the most corrupt, inefficient and frustrating system, and created many enemies for himself to make an oasis in a dessert. He could not careless and was never deterred by any dummy gods. To say the least his determination and will has never faltered him to this day. I could go on and on, but I just want to say that people like Idrees are rare legendary birds in our lives who we have had the honor and privilage to know and befriend. He also has wonderful family and Rukhsana has been an amazing lady and a backbone of the family. His children

who have always supported and stood by him at their personal expense - Zeeshan, Mehreen, and Fatima; all in their own rights are already very accomplished human beings in life.Idrees, I can never thank you enough for being a great brother to me in thick and thin of life. And above all for

being such an impetus and inspiration for me and many others.May you and your family be blessed always.Asad

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Thank you shoaib and arshad for cool technology for technology illeterate like us. Idress is one of the finest and the honest person i know.i am luckey to have few friends like him. we meet evry day---almost----we share our frustration,disappointments,depression and some time good things too. we agree and disagree on many things but we always look farword and hopelessly hope that things will improve one day.despite this bad situation the good thing about idrress is that he works very hard from 7am to 9----10---------11pm off and on.rukhsana gets angry and his childern protest that he is burning him self from both ends but he knows what he is doing. helping people--------medicine is about helping people. i see patients in his clininic comes from different part of pakistan after selling their BUKRI,GAIE,JHONPRI AND BELONGINGS with savings of 1100,1500,1800 ruppes and retinal detachment------costing atleast80,90 thousand ruppes for disposables only. no govt hospital of atomic govt of pakitan will provide treatment to these patients and they have no choice other than to become blind. hundreds of them are becoming blind because they all can not come to idrees .poor childern loosing their eye because the institute like dow medical university or king dward medical university are not able to provide emergency eye care on 24 hour basis,idress will show you the photographs of women burned by acid thrown on them by husbands or some one else with loss of eye and WITH NO MONEY-----NINTY NINE PERCENT OF THEM ARE EXTREEMLY POOR. this is the hopeless situation in which he has to work,organize funding,treat these poor patients,train some good junior doctors ----if there is one available------and also do some private parctice to survive ITS NOT EASY - one day a very good friend came and he was very angry that idres was not at aku at the gradution of his daughter after completion of her house job because he was busy in surgery that morning i already talked to idrees and i knew that he had a very big list at civil hospital karachi and he finished at 330 pm.he was operating on eyes of those who are on the list for emergency surgery.no body was there to operate on them.the choice was simple either go and attend the graduation or leave them to become blind, MANY MIGHT HAVE CHOSEN THE 2ND OPTION AS WHO CARES ABOUT THESE POOR PATIENT OF CHK COMING FROM THE RURAL SINDH ANY WAY. IDREES WILL NEVER DO THAT. but i also know that this all is possible because of all the support he gets from rukhsana and the family they have great childern and family THAT IS THE REASON HE IS SPECIAL he is a good friend,a person who is always ready to help, always open to listen and hasa great sens of humour he can tell you good memon jokes and enjoy –

continued ………

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one day i recieved a massage in emergency to call him as i was not picking the phone he wanted to know a bad PATHAN JOKE I ASKED HIM WHY HE TOLD ME THAT A PATHAN FRIEND SEND HIM A VERY BAD MEMON JOKE AND NOW HE HAS TO DEFEND THE COMMUNITY I TOLD HIM A REAL BAD PTHAN JOKE-----i cant share it here--but i can share it with allah dad,akhter and saifullah khan of our class AND WE HAD A BIG LAFFFFFFFFFF ------ SHoaib is a witness THANKS SHOAIB FOR LUCKY THIRTEEN IDREES AS MENTIONED BY BASHIRShershah

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Idress you really make us all so proud and we all wish you every success and happiness in life.Afzal

I cannot see the write up on Idress. But that will not stop me from what I have to say about this great friend. No 'firewall' can stop this 'talatum' of humanity. Thanks Asad for your Urdu translation.'Daraz Qdamat' 'Shaffaf chaira' may be just a 'yad-e-mazi' ( Idress I can not stop being myself!), but this man's single handed effort is priceless. I had the honour of visiting Idress' achievement recently in Karachi. It is not what he has created, but the vision for the future that is so admirable. He has the vision of vertical transmission of skill and capacity. Creating systems that out last our own temporal life requires a moral courage in a 'self obsessed' society. Hats off to you bud!Idress you are a friend and inspiration. Rukhsana has been your support pillar. Your children (I met them with you in London) will make any parent proud. And no you are not escaping that easily. As a student, your graphic descriptions of happenings in hostel 4, your taking on some powerful characters, your tense anxious face awaiting results of 'CR' elections are some of my great memories.Happiness, health and adventure always surround you.Munir

I fully endorse Munir'comments. The great thing about this star from our group is the modesty about his achievements. He is not only an Eye Specialist who helps others to see better but has the vision for distant future. He is a candle of light who is trying to spread better vision inspite of pathetic surrounding heaps of garbage. I hope he will provide the appropriate glasses and wisdom to the MS of civil hospital.Shamim

Ae Idrees Bhaa, maja aawi ho. He movo Soaibro badhe ke nisreen te charae to. Sambhaline khiri na pojao ho.Any way I would like to say.....MEMON POWER,SUPPER POWER.Hashmani

Dear Idrees,Great achievement..you have made a real difference in ophthalmology dept. In Civil Hospital. Keep it up.Akhtar (Durban)

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Thanks Shoaib, For the lucky 13th personality. Many many thanks for posting the photograph which shows you, Idrees, Raja and Piddy for a special reason. Just follow the eyes of Piddy who got caught doing what I am accused of. You may have to zoom to see clearly. Idrees Bha, Haven't met you you since you became "bada Doctor"....back in college days we used to say, "Chandu is the only Jamaati we loved". During CR elections a lot of NSF guys/ gals voted their heart costing poor Qazi his election. I remember Qazi lamenting "another surkha vote to Jamaati"...easy to tell because of the party line vote to NSF ending with CR vote to Idrees. Got to know him a little better after the Sukker flood relief effort. Realized he is so brainy because he has a big head. Always smiling, helpful, down to earth, yaaronka yaar. I have written about you many a times and don't wish to sound like a broken record, you have made all of us proud with your achievements. Keep up the good work.Bashir

I think we all have our own anecdotes about Idrees and things he has done publicly and things done discreetly. So instead of all that I will just reiterate: 'Memon power zindabad'orMore power to you' as they say here in Ireland.Hasan

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Idrees “chandu”...what can you say.....thanks to him, my father still has eyesight ......great achiever...God bless you! I am sitting here and trying to do the horse thingy with my mouth and remembering chandu....he will know what I meanIqbal Malaysia

Jeo Idrees Bha,Aay memon main aik hi badmas peda hua nay kiya Apna Idrees Bha, Great work Idrees we all are proud of you. Shoaib can u add in the end:Sujooki (suzuki) for sale

RegardsAijaz

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Dear Shoaib,Thanks for picking me to be the "personality" of the week. As correctly pointed out by Arshad, many moons ago a poor man got crucified on the Good Friday because he got himself noticed. In keeping with the tradition, I will humbly try to "rise" to your expectations this Easter Sunday( no disrespect meant ). As I wrote earlier, I include myself amongst the children of a lesser god. We have not accomplished much to speak of. It also spared me the tragedy of fame, which at times becomes difficult for the people to deal with. I am happy because I never expect anything and, therefore, I am never disappointed. I am blessed to have many friends. They say, one loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives, that gives me a big clan to be proud of. But guys get your facts first before you start distorting them. You of all people should know that I am nothing what most of you wrote. Thanks for the kind words. It felt good to read them even though I know they have been embellished, to put it mildly. The further you go down the memory lane, the better things appear, whether they happened or not. From my perspective, it is an honor to be accused of "roving eyes" by the people who deserved most to be accused. Let's face it..we all did it, only with purest of intentions, "Kyun na dein daad dekhkar haseenon ko Khayal e sanaat e saani hai pak beenon ko“ I may have done it a little more trying to live up to your expectations or trying to get acceptance, whatever the case may be.I, hereby, apologize unconditionally to all the girls I have ogled at ( and made them feel better!....I am only kidding)

knowing or unknowingly. I can assure you, it was not done with malice. It must have been our repressive society or the hormones, you be the judge. A while back I went to Pakistan and noticed that men do ogle rather glaringly at women, a few who dare to come out. I smiled to myself !...I wasn't the only one, and also felt bad at the obnoxious behavior of men. Now I avoid appreciating them knowingly to prevent any further hurt feelings from getting noticed by an old geezer like me. I am sure they doll up to be noticed by some stud muffin like Iqbal Hashmani of yester years. "Were it offered to my choice, I would have no objections to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct faults in the first.“ Choudhry you are right about my source of strength, I am married to the most wonderful woman, Salma, she is truly my soul mate and I love her very much. I have two wonderful children, Sarah is a 22 years old beauty with brains and graduating this spring. Adam is 16 and cute. ( like his father! I am incorrigible) I will spare you the details till we meet again, God willing.Idrees