A TRIBUTE TO AYUBE HAMID KHAN

Jan 25, 2009 Features / Columnists, The Arts Forum

---

By Pat Dial

Haji Ayube Hamid Khan passed away on Wednesday 21st January. To offer a tribute to a great and cultured man who had just died and who had so closely and deeply touched the lives of so many thousands of us is a sad and difficult task but also a worthwhile one since many would be reminded of his illustrious life.
Auybe’s grandparents came from India in the early 1880s as indentured immigrants and Ayube always said how lucky he was to have visited his paternal grandfather’s village, Somdat, some 80 miles north of Delhi, over a century after.
Ayube was born on the Essequibo coast and raised as an orthodox Muslim. Being an orthodox Muslim was no barrier to his being very close to his Hindu and other brethren, fully participating in their cultural life.
In the 1920s and 1930s, it was very difficult for an Indian child in the Essequibo to have proper schooling since all the better schools were in Demerara. Ayube was a particularly able child and in 1937 he won one of the coveted County Scholarships to attend Queen’s College. His parents had to make much sacrifice in sending him to Georgetown.
After completing Queen’s, he entered the world of work, serving first in the Bauxite Industry and then in the Chemistry section of the Department of Agriculture at Anna Regina. He was making his mark in the Department and was sent off to Jamaica on a scholarship to study canning. In 1952, however, he acceded to his urge to join the Radio Station and that turned out to be his genuine calling. Ayube spent the rest of his life in broadcasting.
Ayube became one of the greatest radio broadcasters Guyana has produced. He brought a new creativity to programming and was outstanding in all areas of the broadcasting profession. He did the News; voiced advertisements of various kinds; anchored talk-shows; produced special programmes, as for example various anniversaries like Christmas and Phagwah; and did both Eastern and Western musical programmes. In his later years he was particularly well known for his production of Indian and Western classical programmes.
Ayube’s was the best-known voice on Guyanese radio over the last 50 years. He never compromised with standards and he tried to pass on skills to the younger generation of broadcasters. Many young broadcasters were grateful to him for insisting on correct usage of the English language and correct pronunciation of not only English words but Hindi/Urdu words and names as well. He came to be affectionately known as “Uncle Ayube”, not only in broadcasting circles but throughout Guyana.
Full of humour and very sensitive, Ayube embraced wide cultural interests and helped in the promotion of cultural activities of every kind. This made him one of the most sought after Master-of-Ceremonies ranging from presiding at wedding celebrations to shows by world-famed international artistes such as Lata Mangeshkar and Mohamed Rafi.
One of his most memorable cultural contributions was his work for the Commemoration Committee that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians and the final Emancipation of African slaves. These celebrations in 1988 were the most massive in Guyana’s history. Ayube’s work for the Committee in the planning and building of the Indian Monument Gardens was very important and he was always Master-of-Ceremonies at the Arrival Day functions held at those Gardens.
His work for the promotion of Islamic education and other Islamic activities was equally outstanding. He would often give highly enlightening broadcasts on TV and radio and he always stood ready to give help to any Jamaat that asked. His devoted work over many years for the Queenstown Masjid in preserving, developing and extending it is well known.
Uncle Ayube’s great service to the country and to the Guyanese society was recognized publicly by his being honoured by the State with the Golden Arrow of Achievement (AA) and by other groups and organizations including the Indian Commemoration Trust which conferred on him its highest honour.
“Uncle Ayube” or “Brother Ayube” was universally loved and respected by all sections and regions of Guyana and his loss would be deeply felt. Guyanese of every race, colour or creed have embedded in their consciousness the rich resonance of his voice fused with the poignant lyricism of Mohamed Rafi’s “Sohani Ratt” which he was instrumental in popularizing both in and out of Guyana.

Pat Dial is a Director of The Arts Forum Inc and Editorial Advisor of The Arts Journal.

Ayube Hamid Khan’s last Interview with Pat Dial and Ameena Gafoor captures the effervescence of a life fully lived and appears in The Arts Journal Volume 4 Numbers 1 and 2 (March 2008).
To contact this editor: E-mail: [email protected]

---

---