| Description | An interview with J.P.Sultan MAHMOOD, a married man with two sons, who is a Journalist, born in Pakistan and now living in Birmingham. J.P.Sultan MAHMOOD’s father was a Clerk, born in Pakistan and his mother a Housewife born in Pakistan. In the interview, he talks about …
'MS2255/2/072 MAHMOOD, Sultan Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
My name is Sultan Mahmood….explains meaning of name. I was born on 16th September, 1937…..
1.51 Discusses family. Father was a clerk. Mother died when he was 2 years old. Father remarried.
4.06 Stepmother was abusive.
02
Did not attend a proper school. When I was about 10 years old I was forced to learn the skill of moulding…I worked in a foundry for 2 or 3 years….
Started studying as a private student at Islamiya high School…Matriculated and later tutored other students.
03
45” In 1954 joined Faculty of Arts.
2.32 After failing Persian language exam joined the Govt. of Pakistan. I worked in the Home Office in the jail dept. Explains his role.
3.21 Continued to study in spare time.
4.00 Story about family arranging his marriage.
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Describes how the relationship developed. Married in 1960.
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In addition to studying and working, he wrote for a local newspaper in Pakistan. Story about how he came to be a part-time journalist.
3.55 Story about how he came to be in England.
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Continues story.
3.20 I came to England on the 4th September, 1960. I came on my own. I said to my wife, I will only call you when I have made some suitable arrangements….
07
Contrasts English people in Pakistan with those in UK. First impressions of England.
1.01 When I saw the white people cleaning the buildings and the floor, I was really very, very surprised….the image I had was that every person in England was a landlord….
2.14 I was hoping to be given a job by my friend, but when I arrived I saw that he had a small grocery shop….Another friend informed him about unemployment benefit.
3.57 I was staying with Mr Bashir and his wife (in Bradford)….while he was at his shop, his wife used to look after me….I worried that I was a burden on this family….
08
Story about being asked to help a friend to obtain a passport.
Had address of a friend in Birmingham and wanted to move here.
3.10 When I went to the address, to my horror I found that my friend had moved to London a couple of months before….I had nowhere to go to….I had never known that there would be so many Kashmiri and Pakistani people in England…..I asked one of them how I could go to Snow Hill Station…..Story about being invited to stay in the home of a stranger and finding a job.
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Describes first job. This firm mostly employed the labourers, from Kashmir, Pakistan…..over 200 working in that factory. None of them could speak English, and I was given the job of interpretor….
1.56 My wife had given birth to our son on 26th January, 1961, so I was forced to work as a labourer….Story about being asked to convey a sacking to a fellow employee.
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In the early 60s, if one could get a job as a bus conductor, that was a symbol of being highly educated….I was advised to work as a bus conductor, but I was told that I had to know the city well….
2.18 I was deployed at Liverpool Street bus depot. That was the biggest bus depot in Birmingham, and I worked on bus No. 8….It was hell, people used to abuse us….because it was shift work, sometimes late at night there was no bus to take me back home….I was a lodger, I had rented a room in the Nechells area…
Elaborates on some of the people and situations encountered in his job.
4.34 Somebody said, “why don’t you become a driver?”…..I became a bus driver after the proper training….
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Every day as a bus conductor and a driver was hell for me.
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I left the buses in 1965.
28” By then the first Urdu newspaper had started in London….the editor knew my journalistic background….they wanted someone to work as their West Midland correspondent….I worked from 1965-70.
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Switching to part-time writing, and thinking about becoming a postman.
1.26 I went to the GPO….to take this exam, just to see how difficult it was….I became a postman! My round was the Bordesley Green area and it was the same area that I used to run my bus…..once I became a postman, this was the best time of my life. Explains why.
3.59 Story about a young girl writing a poem about Sultan as a postman.
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Continues story.
34” Poem went along the lines of: We are very lucky to have a good postman. He is very smart and punctual.He comes early in the morning, we have no complaints, BUT he is black.
1.11 Story about Christmas rounds.
3.34 Story about a woman who sent a letter to herself in order to entice Sultan.
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I wanted to get a degree in England and then go back to Pakistan…
1.38 I bought a house in partnership with a friend of mine, who was also a postman….we were very overcrowded….
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In 1970 I had some differences with the editorial management and left the newspaper….I joined British Rail in their telegraph office….until 1990.
Describes role.
2.28 While I was working for the British Rail, I was also constantly writing for different newspapers….I was the Community Affairs Correspondent for Birmingham Evening Mail.
3.16 Details kinds of articles written.
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Story about leaving British Rail.
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I’m retired now and I write only for the Pakistan newspapers….as UK correspondent.
2.41 I was appointed a magistrate in 1977….the first magistrate of Pakistani origin…
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Dennis Howell nominated me in 1975, but it took 2 years before I was appointed a magistrate because the British Home Office was informed that I had very close links with Private Eye magazine….
2.29 Birmingham is not the place I used to know….when I first became a magistrate….hardly any Asians coming before the courts for offences….but now we deal with more Asians in these courts than perhaps the white people…
3.24 I think mostly these offences are drug- related…..
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Explains attitude to criminals.
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Relationship with children.
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Continues to discuss children.
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Each culture has some good aspects and some bad aspects…..
1.32 Religious beliefs.
3.44 I’m not a very religious minded person. I don’t go to a mosque regularly…I try to go and join what we call Friday prayer….
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Continues to discuss religion. Islam totally and utterly rejects militancy….
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Would feel misplaced if he returned to Pakistan.
1.13 Thoughts about Birmingham.
2.41 Story about holiday in Pakistan. Met up with other Brummies.
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Story about elderly woman when Sultan was a postman.
ENDS |