A retired civil servant, he came to the music scene by way of the movies. As a young lad he would see every movie that came to Peshawar and then try to obtain 78 rpm records of the movie songs. He also started adding movie song books and later movie videos to his collection. His youthful pastime matured with age and in the span of 55 years he has collected more than 14000 records. And what a marvelous collection it is.
Music has no geographic boundaries.
My friend who refuses to listen to Indian music and Allah Dad Khan, the collector and preserver of such music, are on the opposite ends of an interesting paradox. What the likes of my friend rejects, Allah Dad preserves. In the end a heritage is preserved not by the politically correct nationalist or emotionally charged religious zealots but by the eccentric visionaries who are able to transcend racial, political and religious barriers to achieve something that others are incapable or unwilling to achieve. His fourth book 'Aalam Mein Intikhab-Peshawar' on the history and cultural legacy of Peshawar was published recently. The writer is a clinical professor of surgery at the Medical College of Ohio and an op-ed page columnist for the daily Toledo Blade.