I met Sid later in his life, which may
be my life long regret. I entered the anthropology graduate program at Johns
Hopkins in 1987. That is the year Sid turned sixty-five. I remember my first
meeting in the hall-way when I addressed him as Professor Mintz and he in his
characteristic manner said something about how his name was Sid and not
Professor Mintz. This was new to me, coming from a much more hierarchical
academic and social environment in Pakistan, where one could not even imagine
addressing someone your senior with his or her first name. Sid through his
small gestures, which were always pedagogical moments, made me realize that
true respect does not only reside in forms of address and in honorifics. Later
that year in November Jackie and Sid invited the entire department for a
birthday lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the city. We all felt extremely
honored. Some of us had already heard about his legendary cooking (and also
tasted it), so we decided to get him an apron and a chef’s cap which said, “Sid
the Kid” as a birthday gift. It was a lovely afternoon with the entire
department, faculty, students and staff together enjoying Jackie and Sid’s
hospitality.
This is what Sid exemplifies for me,
the person who brought us together. He remained the moral fulcrum of the
program. All of us were deeply influenced by his intellectual vision (for the
department and for anthropology in general), his political insights and his
generosity as a teacher; we were Sid’s students, his children…. and remain
proud of it.
Over the years Syema and I kept in
touch with Jackie and Sid, exchanging messages, seeing them at annual meetings
and visiting them in Baltimore. I am indebted to Sid for much that I know today
and the only way I can repay … I know he would approve…is to pass on what I
learnt from him to the next generation.
He was the leader of our small caravan
and among may other things, he taught us to trust and respect the voices of the
marginalized and to dream of a future that would guarantee social justice,
dignity and respect for all.
This is the vision that many of us hold
dear, so rather than saying goodbye… Sid, I am sure we will meet again when, as
the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz wrote;
Uthe
ga ana al-haq ka nara
Jo
mai bhi huN or tum bhi ho
Aur
raj kare gi khalq e khuda
Jo
mai bhi huN or tum bhi ho
The call of ‘I am the truth’ will rise
Truth, that we all are
And God’s people will rule the earth
God’s people, that we all are
TILL THEN, Sid….
