METU 1963-1968, B.S. in Chemical Engineering

Married a Turkish girl but it did not last. Never married again. No children.

Settled down in California and worked for the Environmental Dept.

Died 24 September 2004 at California of Cancer

Some of us may have even forgotten that this year is the tenth anniversary of Abid’s passing away to a better place. How soon time has flown in this period that it seemed it all happened only yesterday. I thought of writing down some pieces of recollection and association with him because he was a true friend. Few people have the fine art of leaving behind a good name among all people they come in contact with, as Abid did.   

Although we might have met briefly during our maiden flight from Karachi to Beirut to Ankara in 1963, my earliest recollection of Abid is on our first day of school, when he and Fareed Rabbani were seriously studying the first chapter in our Chemistry Book on Water, in the old library in Architecture building. I was impressed that at least some guys were obviously serious students and from their cold glances it was obvious they didn’t like my intrusion and didn’t like any disturbance. A few days later, I was also impressed when Abid could speak a few words in Turkish, at Mrs Inal, our English teacher’s dinner at her home, while I was still struggling with my Turkish. Even when taking the city bus to Ulus every month, to receive scholarship from CENTO, I had difficulty in asking the driver if the city bus would go there. One day when I checked with the bus driver if the bus was going to Ulus, he told me “Otur”, meaning sit, and I quickly walked out, in reaction to the Urdu word “Uturo” meaning get off the bus. But perhaps Abid’s Turkish did not improve much further than that during the next four to five years. Also among the early recollections is his taking pills to digest the heavy 6 course meal at our classmate Mansur Mete’s home in 1963. The pills were provided by the host so that we could eat more!

Abid and I took nearly all the courses of Chemical Engineering for the first three years together, and worked almost on a weekly basis on homework and tests. Although he was more liberal than I was in many ways, but inside his heart he was not less conservative than I was. When I would pray he would occasionally join me, and sometimes to the Jumu`a prayers. His decision to postpone his graduation for a year was also very dramatic. We studied for the next day’s Organic Chemistry final exam, in the second semester of the third year at his home. Line to line, as we said, we would finish the book, like man to man. We studied till almost the break of dawn, decided to pray, and then planned to take rest for an hour, discuss a few things and go to the University for the 8:30am examination. I woke up made tea for both and went to wake him. He said Owais “Neend buri cheez hai, I want to sleep.” I said “man come on wake up”, and made him aware that losing the test means losing a year as the course was offered only once a year. He said “you know Owais I have read everything but I still feel I don’t know the subject so why not I prepare it well next year”. “Are you crazy?” was my first reaction. I dragged him out of bed but he was fully resolved as if he was contented not to give the test. When it was time for the morning university bus to leave from Tunali Hilmi Caddesi, I literally ran to catch the bus.

During the exam the teacher asked me about Abid. I made a story that he was very sick and had some fever that day and would talk to him later sometimes. Perhaps Abid never went to talk to him. It is so strange that before the test, even before the semester final exams, Abid seemed to be a little bit nervous most of the time, but as he made up his mind to forgo the exam he was back to normal. Perhaps internally he was struggling through uncertainty and was not able to make a decision which was keeping his BP high.      

If one has to describe Abid in two words, it would be a “true friend” always helpful, and no showoff, always clean cut. Although he had chronic problems with his teeth, he kept them very clean and using mouth wash. Using Mennen After Shave, he would never be a botheration to others. Who knew at that time that his tooth problem would be subject of our last talk a few months before he passed away in 2004? Still when I see the green bottle of Mennen's After Shave in any store I remember Abid (and also Fareed). He had bought his bottle from American GI Store in Ankara, and we all used it during our summer job at Balıkesir Cement factory.

That summer job was also very unique in the sense that all three of us – Fareed, Abid and I – were together for two months with our pockets reasonably full of combined money of CENTO scholarship and the stipend from summer job. There were no tests, no exams and we enjoyed the company of a group of close friends – boys and girls from the same class.

Every weekend we used to travel a lot sometimes to the coastal areas of Aegean Sea and swim all day and night, and Abid and Fareed danced with the girls. Abid had a talent for natural dancing usually fast-paced dances like Sydney Poitier in “To Sir with Love” or “Who is coming to dinner tonight?”.  And indeed, his dance during his engagement ceremony to a pretty Turkish girl in Ankara was amazing. Abid was totally in love with her and she with him. And the whole crowd was just clapping around them. I had also invited another Turkish friend Erkan Deliormanli to attend this ceremony and he was also full of praise for Abid’s dances.

When we were in the 3^rd year, I lived with some Turkish friends in an apartment on Ataturk Boulevard for a year. When these Turkish friends were moving from the dorm to the apartment, they brought with them brand new blankets from the dorm (without permission) for all of us. I did not want to use the blanket as these were taken without permission, and the cold weather was fast approaching. The price of a good new blanket was very high and I could not afford it from CENTO scholarship. Realizing the fact that the thin sheets were not keeping me warm, Abid was touched and out of compassion he went out quietly one day while we were studying at my home and brought a big blanket for me from his home.  Then he also mentioned to Mohammad Hassan Sadr (a senior student) about me and he also sent me a Kashmiri wool blanket. These lasted the whole year (thick new blankets in Ankara would cost half of my monthly scholarship).  

I also recall one summer, while living with some Pakistani friends, I lost all my money somewhere at the home where I was staying. I had no money left, not even to eat. Again it was Abid who bailed me out.   He took me to his Lokanta on Kuçuk Esat where he had a running credit account, and included my name with his guarantee, so that I could also take my meals there and pay later when I would receive the scholarship. What I mean to say here is that Abid had the natural gift for helping friends in whichever way he could.

The days and nights at Balıkesir Çimento Sanayi with Fareed Rabbani, Ali Esin, Ates Akyurtlu, Aynur Gözöbüyük, Shadan Harmance, İnci Baştuğ, Afet Bölükbaşi, and most of all Prof. Fahrettin Can were the most memorable days we had. Not only do I remember his Mennen’s green after shave which was used extensively during those 60 days of summer job, but his mouth wash, and his dance training, and Harry Belafonte songs, “Down the way where the night’s so gay….” And many others. Abid had a natural talent to dance. 

Years went passing by and then we met in Pakistan, when we both were looking for job. We had gone together to Atomic Energy Commission on Drigh Road, Karachi and had a strange conversation with the Personnel Manager. Several years later Abid reminded me that our interviewer had asked us where were we born, where were our parents born, and where our grandparents were born?????? And we laughed for hours recalling sadly that stupid guy who was responsible to hire engineers for senior positions at PAEC was more interested in our parents birth place than in our qualification.   

Several years later, in the fall of 1972, when Kishwar and I (just married) were taking a walk at Meydan Vali-Ahed (ValiAhed Square) in Tehran, and suddenly we heard someone calling us “Mian Owais Bayunus sahib yeh dunya bohat chhoti hai”. I turned my face swiftly. I could recognize his voice in a million, and there he was standing with his typical full smile. He had come on vacation from south of Iran where he was working at the time. We invited him to Isfahan where I was working, which he gladly accepted. Only a few times in my life I had laughed so much, to the point of breaking down, as we did in Isfahan. We remembered our days in METU. The six days he spent with us passed by in almost no time. Perhaps we did not sleep or even wink during that time. After we left him at the Isfahan airport, Kishwar and I could feel the void and missed him a lot.  

Several years later again, we met in America when he was working with Catalytic Inc. in Philadelphia. I went to visit him with my small family. We went to Atlantic City together, on the board walk, and to the Great Adventure, where I had my last ride ever on a roller coaster with him. He had pointed out to me that while going up the coaster there was a sign which said, “Nothing is perfect in the world. (Now you are on your own)!”  On our way back from there, I slept in the car while Kishwar and Abid kept debating about politics and religion, the subjects which keep Pakistanis alive. I asked him who won the debate and he said that it was yet to be concluded.

We then dragged Abid and his brother Qaid, to Cortland (NY), where my brother lived, and also showed him the beautiful Cornell Campus, where I had spent a few years in graduate school. Everyone in my family still remembers Abid from that trip. My sisters and their children were also visiting my brother at that time. They all remember him so well. In the beautiful summer weather, we drove through almost every inch in upstate New York, from Albany to the Finger Lake area. I still have my photograph taken with him at Renaissance Center in Albany (NY).

During the summers of 2002 and 2003 when I was visiting my daughter in Santa Monica California, I spent much of my time with Abid on the beaches, the Santa Monica Pier, UCLA and the Band Street, the Iranian and Turkish Restaurants and the miles and miles that we had walked. He took me to Muzammil Siddiqui’s mosque in Orange County, where we offered Zuhr prayers together, and then he took us to his home where his mother had made such delicious Nihari Paye. She remembered me from the school days when I used to visit him in Jacob Lines. Abid was greatly excited when I mentioned to him that I might still have his photograph which I had snapped when he was receiving his degree from METU in 1968, and I had thought that Ismet Inonu (Ex-Turkish President) who was also present during the ceremony had distributed degrees at that convocation ceremony. He was very eager to get that photograph. Kishwar was able to dig it out from a huge pile of old photos which was mailed from Pakistan. Although Ismet Inonu was present in the ceremony, but the photo shows that he had received the degree from Mustafa Kemal Kurdaş instead. As I promised, I will now send the photo to Abid’s mom Insha Allah in his absence.

Abid your voice still rings in our ears, specially before exams your saying “Allah Bara Badshah hai”. Abid we will always remember you. I could not get over the feeling that you have gone forever, and I did get the urge once years after you left us to call you as if you were in Southern California. Few people leave behind a print on the memory lane as you have done. We feel you are still around. May Allah (SWT) give you best of everything in Hereafter. Ameen.

OWAIS BAYUNUS

BS (1967) – MS (1969) in Chemical Engineering (METU)

MS -Industrial and Operations Management (Operations Research) 1975 (CORNELL U.)

oynus@aol.com

Dear Owais; 

Your write-up brought tears to my eyes. I also have so many fond memories of Abid. We travelled by train to Iran in 1970 in search of job. It was agreed who ever got a job first would support the other till he finds one.  He got it first in Abadan and without my ask he sent a check from his very first salary. I found a job after two months and stayed 10 years in the same company. Abid stayed in Iran for 3 more years and then migrated to USA.

I miss him. May ALLAH SWT reward him with the best place in Jannah. Ameen. 

Wahaj

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I will never forget the Summer Abid and I spent on Marmara Island. We had pitched a tent on a cliff and there we lived till the storms arrived.

He always used to talk of the goodness of life and people. Never heard him complain. And when the full moon was out, we used to sit in our tent and watch it while he would sing out aloud. He did love life.

One day we went on a trip to a neighboring island famous for its grapes. On the way back the sea turned rough. While the rest of us on the boat started turning green, Abid climbed up the mast and sat there cheering the waves on. When we reached Marmara, the entire village was waiting on the docks for us to arrive - that's how bad the storm was. Later, the same evening, he and I sat by the sea on a pier lost in our thoughts when he suddenly remembered that he had promised someone that he would take them hiking the next day. So full of life...

May he rest in peace!

Shuaib Yazdani

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It was back in 1976 when I had just moved to New Jersey. Suddenly out of the blue came a telephone call. It was Abid. He had come to Philadelphia, and he was going to buy a used car. He wanted me to take a look at it before he bought it.

I do not know how did he track people but he was extremely good in keeping track and staying in touch with his friends. Needless to say he came to New Jersey to show me the car. Ever since then, we stayed in touch. He would drop in frequently.

When he was going to buy a house here in Southern California, he asked me to look at it and tell him what I thought of the place and price.

I and my wife used to go his house quite often too. I got to know all his family. Very nice people. For some reason only one of the four brothers ever married. Abid never married.

I will always have the regret that when his younger brother Quid called me from Hope Hospital, where he had gone to get his cancer treated, and told me that Abid wanted to see me because he did not believe he would live, I was in Las Vegas manning our stall at a equipment show to answer questions on a new refuse truck system I had invented and used. Before I could get back, he was dead.

Abid was a very good friend and I will always have fond memories for him. May Allah grant him jannat, Amen.

Farooq A. Khan

Owais Yaar Allah Bara Badshah Hay!!

Indeed it was Marhoom Abid Latif's cry along with Aye-Wallah.. I remember him nearly every day for we all shared lovely moments in Ankara. Our Summer vacation in Balıkesir was a blast. I envy how you remember all the details (though censored !!)

Abid also had a great memory and we talked hours at Hope Cancer Hospital which I visited 2 days before his passing away. His last words as I left his room "Allah Bara Badshah"

A Very Tearful Fareed

I have marked this e-mail to Ali/Mete/Humayun and Sadar

Fareed G Rabbani

8/6/2014

Dear Brothers,

Last time we met and had diner at my home with Pakistani friends and beloved Abid was year 1998, the 30th year anniversary of our graduation I think. After that couple of years passed and we were told that our friend passed away at its best and fruitful age. I remember the days we were going to the mosque for Friday prayer to a small place near the University, walking over the hill. Now those places are all covered with apartments and called as “100 Yıl Mahallesi”. You were all my best friend and still so in spite we meet very rare. I learned from you “to curl up” the trouser leg not to foul the carpets of the mosque. I still apply it when I am entering the mosque and also trying to teach / train the people the reason of curling the trousers and tell them that I learned it from my Pakistani friends at the University.

Abid was a very special person with his thin shape, his narrow-legged pants, his sharp shaped shoes and smiling face of course. His style is voguish nowadays!!!!!

I wish and beg from Allah that his place be at Cennet/Jannat, and he will be in peace as waiting for the Day of Judgment. (What is the meaning of “Allah Bara Badshah Hay” ? )

Please note that my new mail address is mete@....

Let peace, health, wealth and love will be with you all.

Mansur Mete Goknel
Ch.E ‘68/70