06-03-2018
Muhammad Jafar hailed from a prominent Sayyid family of Shergarh in
Montgomery District. He joined the Aitchison College, Lahore
at the tender age of eight and soon developed into a promising youth with a
special aptitude for games and supports. As a student he did not give the
impression of begin intellectually outstanding in the beginning. But his mind
flowered gradually and he ultimately grew into youth of exceptional ability and
freshness of outlook. It was this all round worth which enabled him to win
Rivaz Gold Medal in sports,, studies, character, and capacities for leadership.
Although hockey was the favorite game of jafar, yet he
excelled in all games and supports. He was not only an excellent swimmer,
diver, and gymnast but he was also an athlete and tennis player of unusual
caliber, at Aitchison College, he won the Aitchison Challenge Cup for being the
best athlete and Hutchinson Challenge Cup for being the most brilliant player
of tennis. Mr. A.A. Ritchie on the staff of Aitchison College cvinced uncrring
insight by training Jafar as a left out in hockey. He acquired such a remarkable
skill and swiftness in that position that he became the topmost left extreme of
the world.
After passing his diploma from Aitchison College, he joined
the Government
College Lahore and became an exceptionally
distinguished member of its hockey team. He was the member of all India hockey
team in the Olympics games held at Los Angeles in 1932 and at Berlin in 1936.
The goal that he scored against the German team at Berlin was a unique example
of individual effort. He graduated soon after his return from America and was
nominated to the post of extra-assistant by the Government. The comment on the
Jafar in the American and German press was highly complementary and he was
applauded as the best representative of India. He never forgot his religious
and family tradition in an alien atmosphere and resisted all temptation with a
firmness of character that made him the cynosure of all eyes. He commanded
respect for his steadfast adherence to truth and a spirit of sincerity in his
friendship and devotion. The example of his faultless character was so
inspiring that it kept others from going astray. He was born and bred in a
wholesome rural atmosphere untainted by the artificialities and sophistications
of an alien system of education and
environment. His culture did not spring from a cheap veneer of mere outward
decorum but was the outcome of the bed rock principles of morality and decency.
It is pity that a life of such exceptional promise was cut short in its prime.
While duck shooting, he was drowned in an inlet of the River Ravi. Mysterious
are the ways of God and we cannot question his decrees.
Jafar
was a youth of Catholic interests. His hobbies, maintenance of a diary,
hawking, hunting and fresh experiments in agriculture also
bespeak his love of nature and healthful living.
A conspicuous and unforgettable
trait of his character was humility combined with the highest type of frankness
and independence of spirit. When he devote supported him for the captainship of
the hockey
Olympic team at Berlin, he had the grace and
sporting spirit to say. ’’I play hockey for the love of game and shall be proud
to play under the caption ship of Dyhan Chand.’’ Jafar’s ideal of life may be
summed up in the following lines of Tennyson in which sir Galahad, the purest
of all knights of the round table speak of himself: “my strength is as the
strength of ten because my heart is pure”
Grave
and Eptiaph
he inscription on the gravestone reads
"Syed Mohammad Jaffar Shah Kirmani son of Syed Nawazish Hussain Shah
Kirmani" "Date of Birth: December 1911. Date of Death: March
1937"
"(Late) Syed Mohammad Jaffar was
one of the greatest players of hockey, who was selected for 1928 for United
India (All India) Olympics Hockey team but he could not participate in that
global event due to his youthful age. In 1932 All India Hockey Team which
participated in Los Angeles (USA) Olympics, he was considered one of the best
players in the world on the position of "Left-Out", although he was
one of the youngest. He participated once again in 1936 tournament in the
global tournament as vice-captain. Out of magnanimity of his heart, he decided
not to be a candidate for the captaincy in favour of Dhyan Chand, although initially, he was
being considered as captain of this victorious team because of his
professionalism and skill level. He was not only a brilliant sportsman and a
great representative (and an asset) of the country, he was also a figure of
exemplary mannerism and conduct.
On a fateful evening in 1938, while on
a hunting expedition on river Ravi near Lakho Dehar, he accidentally gave his
life away to the river. He saddened his huge fan following and opted to respond
to the call of the God."
"Gravestone laid down by Syed
Javed Hassan son of (Late) Syed Mohammad Hassan"
An Urdu verse is also inscribed on the
tombstone.
وہی جواں ہے قبیلے کی آنکھ کا
تارا شباب ہے جسکا بے داغ ظرب ہے کاری
