Waheed Gul

I was born in 1980 in the Shah Faisal city of Karachi. My early education came from my dedicated and hard working mother, who devoted most of her time in teaching me and improving my hand writing, both in Urdu and English. My mother was a hard task master, and under her constant supervision, within a few months my hand writing improved considerably and I started to understand the finer points of Urdu script even at that young age, which also led me to develop an interest in drawing. At the tender age of 14 I could draw almost anything without help or coaching.

This informal routine continued, rather slowly, until one day at the age of 12 while I was studying in grade 8 using a flat cut pen specially made for urdu and Persian calligraphy. This was the first time I had witnessed such a specialized use of pen for beautiful writing and it captivated me. In fact it moved me so much that it presented me with a purpose in life. A purpose whose depth - as a young child – I did not fully understand. After my first encounter with the calligraphic pen, I started to search for any master who could formally teach me the secrets and intricacies of this splendid art. In 1994, I luckily came across Ustaad Abdul Majeed Watto who, although not an accomplished calligrapher himself, took me under his wings and encouraged me evermore to quench my thirst for this skill. This continued for another few years and meanwhile I also learnt sign board designing and painting, which did much to improve my understanding of colours, mediums and other related fields. In 1998 I got my first major breakthrough when I met the  Ustaad Sajid. Sensing my keen desire to learn this classical art, he stressed upon me to formally enter the studentship of another famous contemporary calligrapher Ustaad Mahfooz Ahmed. Both Ustaad Abdul Majeed and Abdul Rauf are the able students of one of the shining stars of calligraphy in the Indo-Pak subcontinent Grand Master Mr. Yousuf Dehlavi.

So it was that I started to learn Nastaleeq script under the keen eyes of Ustaad Gohar qalam, which marks my formal start of training in this field. After this auspicious beginning, I also started to learn the Arabic scripts of Naskh and Thuluth. This passion of mine intensified so much that I started to practice both the scripts on my own. Seeing my obsession, Ustaad Mahfooz Ahmed recommended me to one of his good friends Ustaad Sardar Ali who specialized in highly complex Arabic scripts of Thuluth, Naskh, Devani, Devani Jali. Under his supervision I practiced hard on the Thuluth script.

Around this time, in an international calligraphic competition was arranged in turkey. This grand competition was a triennial event, for which I hardly considered myself fit and prepared. However, both my teachers encouraged me and spurred my passion to enter the event in the Jali Thuluth branch. With Allah’s blessings and to my utter surprise, I was awarded a consolation prize. Considering the prestige and level of this event, I claim it to be the high point of my as yet extremely brief carrier. This accomplishment increased my passion further and I dedicated most of my energies in learning the Jali Thuluth script. I took as my inspiration the work of legendary Turkish grand masters such as Saami Effendi, Amin Effendi, Hamid Alamidi along with contemporary Turkish master Daud Bektash.