An evening with Dr. K.K. Muhammad

 On the 4th of january, 2019, evening, I had a  visitor Dr. K. K. Muhammad come home along with my Colleague, Dr. Rajesh and Dr. Moirathem Singh from MIT, Arunachal Pradesh along with my students Karan Palsaniya and Rizwan Ahmad. It was a great evening  and I am indebted to Dr. Muhammad that though he wad very tired and had travelled all the way from Gulburga and reached Hyderabad only around 7.30,and had to leave next morning at 4.00to catch an early flight and was literally very tired, he made time to meet me. I really respect Dr. Muhammad a  lot being familiar with his work, his excavations and his scholarship. Suresh Pande also follows him very seriously and has seen all his videos many of which I have not seen. Dr. Muhammad is a person whom I admire for he does not fall under any category but looks at the facts and interprets history. He is neither a leftist historian, nor a rightist historian but a liberal one with a keen interest in the past and attempting to interpret it based on the evidence. He informed me that when I was doing my Ph. D and had gone to Aligarh Muslim University for my Library work, he was the one who had accompanied me to meet Dr. K. A. Nizami. That meeting is so fresh in my mind though it must have been some where in 1978 or 1979. I was just an ordinary student doing my Ph. D. but I still remember Dr. Nizami gave me so much time and had a long discussion with me. He served me tea or coffee, I forget what  now but with fantastic cake and other eatables. I was a nobody then, but this meeting is always fresh in my mind as to how I was treated and I tried to follow this in my own life. I think it was Dr. Abul Kalam who had said,though I do not recollect the exact words that  after many years you will forget, what  people  said or what you  learnt  but you will never forget  how they made you feel. This is so true and that is exactly what I remember about Dr. Nizami. I had a similar experience with Ishwari Prasad, C. P. Tripathi, R. P Tripathi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Gopesh ji  and many more in Allahabad. Dr. Muhammad was the Regional Archeological Director of the Archeological Survey of India and continues to be involved with the Agha Khan Trust as its Project Archeological   Director. He has stood his ground and on the Archeological discoveries and their interpretation even in the Ayodhya temple region and is not influenced by any isms. His Malyalam autobiography is called, I  an Indian. I have not read it and forgot to ask if it is translated into English. I will soon catch up with him when I visit Calicut which is his home.