My Hero My Role Model and My late Father
My late father Haji Anayat Ali was born in the mid 1920’s in the village of Morah Bari in Mirpur in Kashmir. He he was educated at his local primary and middle schools. By the time he was approximately 15/16 father joined the British Indian Army and served on the Burma (now called Union of Myanmar) front in the Second World War against Japan from 1939, to 1945.
Being the only child of his parents and fighting a war against fearsome enemy Japanhundreds of miles away, one can imagine what worrying times my grandparents had gone through. My father told me that his mother (my grandmother) secretly cried for weeks and she hated her son being away and fighting a war. I asked my father why did he join the army if my grandmother was that unhappy father said he did not have a choice as there were no other employment prospects in Mirpur and only employment opportunity was the army!
Father also said he strongly believed that it was a just cause to stop the enemy Japan from invading Burma and had they succeeded, then potentially their next target would have been India.
After the end of the Second World War and the creation of a newly independent Pakistan in August 1947, unemployment and poverty was high in the district of Mirpur. Most men of working age were unemployed and found their lives were a daily struggle to survive and were in constant search for employment opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.
In Britain after the Second World War a new set of employment opportunities opened up for the migrants. Britain's economy was just setting off on what proved to be a long post-war boom economic expansion, also known as the post-war economic boom, the long boom, and the Golden Age of Capitalism.
My parents had arranged marriage in 1949, and with the marriage came additional financial responsibilities for my mother and sisters. After exhausting all local employments options father travelled hundreds of miles away to the southern Pakistani province of Sind to find employment, where he worked on building barrages for several years before deciding to migrate to Britain.
In 1958, my father was one of the earliest migrants to arrive in the UK from our village. Later, many other residents followed him to Britain.
Father financially struggled to raise sufficient funds for the flight, other travel expenses and the agent fee to come to Britain. On father’s arrival in England, he was unable to find employment in Sheffield (the only reasons he came to live in Sheffield was due to one of his childhood friend was was living in the City) later he relocated to the City of Nottingham but was still unemployed. Later he relocated to our City of Peterborough. Peterborough had good employment prospects, where he was employed by the London Brickyard as a truck driver.
According to father once he had secured employment, and then his priority was to find a suitable living accommodation. After some search he ended up renting a room with an Italian family and the letting family imposed conditions on him for example; not allowing him to cook or consume spicy food in the house and their given reasons were the strong smell of spices was off-putting! In addition no visitors were permitted into the house and told if any visitor had unexpectedly turn up at the door then, father was expected for him to take to the nearest café.
After father commenced his employment, he quickly saved enough funds to invite two of his cousins Fazal Hussain and Mohammed Walayat . Fazal Hussain joined him first in Peterborough and a few years later his second younger cousin, Mohammed also joined him in Peterborough
After every three or four years of working time in Britain, father visited his family in Pakistan and stayed with us for approximately five to six months before returning to Britain. After one of his stay in Pakistan and on his return to Britain his employer told him that there were no vacancies at the Brickyard Company.
In an active search for employment by father was offered employment in a small factory called Peterborough Die Casting as a machine operator. He worked permanently on night shift and was employed by the same firm for approximately thirty years. The factory was located about three miles and traveled daily to and from work on a bicycle.
In 1976, father bought an old three bedroom mid-terrace house in Gladstone Street in Peterborough in anticipation that his family would join him in Britain. The house required extensive modernisation to bring the property up to a decent habitable standard. Due to his limited command of English he was dependent on others to assist him because and despite the language difficulties father still had to organise the builders’ contracts and all the decoration to make sure the work was completed on time.
In 1989, with the blessing of Allah (SWT), my parents went on first Pilgrimage of Hajj, although my mother was seriously ill and I was very concerned about her well-being and unsure whether she was going to make the journey. In March 1998, my parents went for the second time on the Pilgrimage of Hajj. These were very happy times for me after years of mother’s illness, as her dearest wish was to fulfil a second journey to the Hajj.
Soon after the first Pilgrimage of Hajj and after years of persuasion from the rest of the family father was only a few years away from his official retirement age, he finally agreed and terminated his employment. Father worked in undesirable conditions for over three decades . His work involved melting, casting and picking up melted casting and putting it into the die to produce various car components. The working conditions were hot, noisy, dirty and full of fumes with poor air ventilation. He often had burnt skin marks on his forehead, where the melted casting had accidentally splashed from the machine. On the day of his retirement, he took me to his factory workplace and while I visited the factory I first thing I noticed was the temperature was very hot and it was noisy, lacked ventilation a truly horrendous place to have worked for approximately thirty years of his life.
1992, was another landmark year when both my parents officially reached the retirement age and started receiving state pensions. After retirement both parents went to live in Pakistan.
In consultation with the rest of the family father builds a new house on our land at Ibrahimabad in 1993/94, the town is named after my maternal grandfather. The new house cost my parents a considerable amount of money and when the construction work was completed, it was a big but nicely designed house in an ideal location.
In mid 2000, my parents made the decision to sell the newly built house at Ibrahimabad and relocate 30 km to the city of Mirpur. They quickly found a buyer and simultaneously purchased a newly built house of similar value, but much smaller in size, in Sector F1 in the Mirpur city. My parents were happy about their decision to relocate into the city. As we already had a large number of relations residing in the Mirpur city and my parents were welcomed by my city dweller relations and by their new neighbours. My parents resided happily in the new house for approximately six months before returning to Britain.
In 2008, my father fulfilled his last wish by accompanying and the meeting the expenses for both my sisters to the pilgrimage of Umra in Saudi Arabia. Sisters greatly appreciated the father’s efforts and financial contributions, which he did despite being frail and feeling unwell at the time of travel. I remember father mentioning it to me that taking both of his daughters to Umra gave him a great deal of satisfactions, joy and happy.
Please remember my late father fought to protect our freedom so we could live our lives the way we wanted to without any fears of living a control lives. He could have paid with live by fighting on the front line! We owe his for his courage and bravery for being Mujahid!
My late father Haji Anayat Ali was born in the mid 1920’s in the village of Morah Bari in Mirpur in Kashmir. He he was educated at his local primary and middle schools. By the time he was approximately 15/16 father joined the British Indian Army and served on the Burma (now called Union of Myanmar) front in the Second World War against Japan from 1939, to 1945.
Being the only child of his parents and fighting a war against fearsome enemy Japanhundreds of miles away, one can imagine what worrying times my grandparents had gone through. My father told me that his mother (my grandmother) secretly cried for weeks and she hated her son being away and fighting a war. I asked my father why did he join the army if my grandmother was that unhappy father said he did not have a choice as there were no other employment prospects in Mirpur and only employment opportunity was the army!
Father also said he strongly believed that it was a just cause to stop the enemy Japan from invading Burma and had they succeeded, then potentially their next target would have been India.
After the end of the Second World War and the creation of a newly independent Pakistan in August 1947, unemployment and poverty was high in the district of Mirpur. Most men of working age were unemployed and found their lives were a daily struggle to survive and were in constant search for employment opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.
In Britain after the Second World War a new set of employment opportunities opened up for the migrants. Britain's economy was just setting off on what proved to be a long post-war boom economic expansion, also known as the post-war economic boom, the long boom, and the Golden Age of Capitalism.
My parents had arranged marriage in 1949, and with the marriage came additional financial responsibilities for my mother and sisters. After exhausting all local employments options father travelled hundreds of miles away to the southern Pakistani province of Sind to find employment, where he worked on building barrages for several years before deciding to migrate to Britain.
In 1958, my father was one of the earliest migrants to arrive in the UK from our village. Later, many other residents followed him to Britain.
Father financially struggled to raise sufficient funds for the flight, other travel expenses and the agent fee to come to Britain. On father’s arrival in England, he was unable to find employment in Sheffield (the only reasons he came to live in Sheffield was due to one of his childhood friend was was living in the City) later he relocated to the City of Nottingham but was still unemployed. Later he relocated to our City of Peterborough. Peterborough had good employment prospects, where he was employed by the London Brickyard as a truck driver.
According to father once he had secured employment, and then his priority was to find a suitable living accommodation. After some search he ended up renting a room with an Italian family and the letting family imposed conditions on him for example; not allowing him to cook or consume spicy food in the house and their given reasons were the strong smell of spices was off-putting! In addition no visitors were permitted into the house and told if any visitor had unexpectedly turn up at the door then, father was expected for him to take to the nearest café.
After father commenced his employment, he quickly saved enough funds to invite two of his cousins Fazal Hussain and Mohammed Walayat . Fazal Hussain joined him first in Peterborough and a few years later his second younger cousin, Mohammed also joined him in Peterborough
After every three or four years of working time in Britain, father visited his family in Pakistan and stayed with us for approximately five to six months before returning to Britain. After one of his stay in Pakistan and on his return to Britain his employer told him that there were no vacancies at the Brickyard Company.
In an active search for employment by father was offered employment in a small factory called Peterborough Die Casting as a machine operator. He worked permanently on night shift and was employed by the same firm for approximately thirty years. The factory was located about three miles and traveled daily to and from work on a bicycle.
In 1976, father bought an old three bedroom mid-terrace house in Gladstone Street in Peterborough in anticipation that his family would join him in Britain. The house required extensive modernisation to bring the property up to a decent habitable standard. Due to his limited command of English he was dependent on others to assist him because and despite the language difficulties father still had to organise the builders’ contracts and all the decoration to make sure the work was completed on time.
In 1989, with the blessing of Allah (SWT), my parents went on first Pilgrimage of Hajj, although my mother was seriously ill and I was very concerned about her well-being and unsure whether she was going to make the journey. In March 1998, my parents went for the second time on the Pilgrimage of Hajj. These were very happy times for me after years of mother’s illness, as her dearest wish was to fulfil a second journey to the Hajj.
Soon after the first Pilgrimage of Hajj and after years of persuasion from the rest of the family father was only a few years away from his official retirement age, he finally agreed and terminated his employment. Father worked in undesirable conditions for over three decades . His work involved melting, casting and picking up melted casting and putting it into the die to produce various car components. The working conditions were hot, noisy, dirty and full of fumes with poor air ventilation. He often had burnt skin marks on his forehead, where the melted casting had accidentally splashed from the machine. On the day of his retirement, he took me to his factory workplace and while I visited the factory I first thing I noticed was the temperature was very hot and it was noisy, lacked ventilation a truly horrendous place to have worked for approximately thirty years of his life.
1992, was another landmark year when both my parents officially reached the retirement age and started receiving state pensions. After retirement both parents went to live in Pakistan.
In consultation with the rest of the family father builds a new house on our land at Ibrahimabad in 1993/94, the town is named after my maternal grandfather. The new house cost my parents a considerable amount of money and when the construction work was completed, it was a big but nicely designed house in an ideal location.
In mid 2000, my parents made the decision to sell the newly built house at Ibrahimabad and relocate 30 km to the city of Mirpur. They quickly found a buyer and simultaneously purchased a newly built house of similar value, but much smaller in size, in Sector F1 in the Mirpur city. My parents were happy about their decision to relocate into the city. As we already had a large number of relations residing in the Mirpur city and my parents were welcomed by my city dweller relations and by their new neighbours. My parents resided happily in the new house for approximately six months before returning to Britain.
In 2008, my father fulfilled his last wish by accompanying and the meeting the expenses for both my sisters to the pilgrimage of Umra in Saudi Arabia. Sisters greatly appreciated the father’s efforts and financial contributions, which he did despite being frail and feeling unwell at the time of travel. I remember father mentioning it to me that taking both of his daughters to Umra gave him a great deal of satisfactions, joy and happy.
Please remember my late father fought to protect our freedom so we could live our lives the way we wanted to without any fears of living a control lives. He could have paid with live by fighting on the front line! We owe his for his courage and bravery for being Mujahid!
