literary notes: Lutfullah Khan's treasured tapes transcribed, though partially.

ARABIC word naql has many connotations. For example, it may invoke the ideas of copying, imitating, mimicking, telling (a story etc.), duplicating and even cheating on assignments or exams, as many students do.

But the literal and primary meaning of the word naql is carrying from one place to another, transporting. It also means transcribing. It is used in the same sense in Urdu, too. So transcription, too, is naql in Urdu. In transcription, one carries matter from one place to another, for instance, from an audio tape to paper. When some scholars transcribe a text, that is to say 'put in written form', from another source, say, voice, they call the process sauti tarseem in Urdu. But it sounds a bit pompous, and naql may work quite well instead.

But apparently the transcriber of Lutfullah Khan's treasure of audio tapes does not know the literal meaning of the word naql, though there are other words derived from the same Arabic root (n-q-l) and with synonymous meanings, which are used in Urdu, too, for example, inteqaal and muntaqil. The transcriber, perhaps, does not even know that the Persian word roodaad means 'an account of events, report, or statement of a case' etc, hence, transcription is NOT roodaad. But she insists on being a roodaad navees to say that she has transcribed the interviews that are preserved at Lutfullah Khan's great library of audio tapes. But let us talk about the book.

Awaaz Khazana is a collection of interviews of some bigwigs. Taken by well-known figures, such as Mushfiq Khwaja, Rafiq Khawar, Abu Salman Shahjahanpuri, Ehsaan Rasheed and Lutfullah Khan, these interviews were recorded and preserved at Lutfullah Khan's famous treasure trove of voices. Recording the voices was Lutfullah Khan's hobby, nay, passion, rather a question of life and death. Lutfullah Khan began recording voices on his tape recorder in 1951, with recording his mother's voice first. He began recording radio programmes and then the voices of well-known personalities.

As the times changed, he switched from older taping devices to modern gadgets. With passage of time his treasure of voices began to swell and celebrities would feel privileged to have their voices recorded at his house that had become a kind of studio and a huge audio library, not to mention his mammoth collection of books. At the same time, Khan Sahib kept a meticulous record of all his recordings, making sure that they are properly catalogued and easily accessible. Lutfullah Khan...