CULTURE: MOHENJO DARO OF TYPEWRITERS.

The clickety-clack of the keys of a typewriter doesn't stop. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, beige, grey, white, brown and black... You can find a typewriter of every colour and a typewriter of every size and shape in Hizbullah Qureshi's collection.

He doesn't remember the exact number of typewriters he owns but says the last time he checked, a few years ago, their number had grown to 120. 'Then I added a few more so you can safely say that there are at least 120 typewriters in my museum,' he tells me on the phone.

The clickety-clack sound reverberates on the phone. When asked if he was typing something while talking to me, he says: 'Oh that! It's my students in their typing class.'

Qureshi owns and runs a typing and computer institute on Old Power House Road in Qila Qafila in Shikarpur, better known for its historic buildings and pickles. He says he opened this institute, which also happens to be registered with the Sindh Board of Technical Education, some 40 years ago after spending 10 years 'finding himself.'

In this age of computers, when no one has any use for typewriters, a gentleman in Shikarpur boasts of owning at least 120 typewriters and shares how he developed his love for them

A restless soul, it has been 50 years since Qureshi first ventured out of his hometown of Shikarpur to seek his luck. He studied law at Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur and also earned a Master's in Economics there before proceeding to Sukkur for a Diploma in Homeopathic Medical System (DHMS). From there he travelled to Karachi in 1977 as he thought of also enrolling in a typing course. And then something happened: he fell in love with typewriters.

Next came a diploma in typewriter repairs because he wanted to keep his own machine in pristine condition. And then came the collection.

'My intention at first was just to get a few good typewriters because I wanted to come back to Shikarpur and start teaching typing but then it became an obsession,' says Qureshi.

He wanted every typewriter he set his eyes on. His love of typewriters also sent him into a consumption spree as he acquired them from all over the country. 'I started with junkyards where I often came across old and broken typewriters in pretty bad shape. But thanks to my diploma in typewriter repairs, I could fix them and also restore them to almost new, which may not be as simple and easy as it sounds.'

Teaching his class how to place paper into a typewriter

He also mentions how families...