Jawed

No matter what, eventually all our work arrived at Jawed’s NLE and he had the considerable (and unenviable) task of single-handedly putting together 40 or 50+ hours of TV per production season. That’s why he was placed at the very center of the office, so that all our producers could quickly come to him with questions, suggestions and edit notes. Jawed was the sun around which our office revolved and he did his job masterfully.

Through the work day, there were times when I and the rest of my staff could sometimes slink away and steal an hour or two elsewhere, if need be – not Jawed. He was the glue that held everything together and he understood the importance of his responsibility. Jawad would come in before 8 AM, work till 12 PM, take a one hour break, come back to work at 1 PM and steadily piece together episodes of Baghch-e-Simsim until the close of the business day at 5 PM.

I respected how hard Jawed would work for the program and tried to avoid as much as possible asking him to do over time on top of the relentless work pace he had set for himself. There were a few times when I did need him to work after 5 PM and despite not being over the moon about it he always put in the extra time to get our job done.

It became something of an inside joke within the office, me or Wajiha asking Jawad to stay overtime. 5 PM would roll around and Jawad would start getting ready to leave and to his amusement she and I’d always plead for him to stay awhile extra in the office. Thank God he forgave my terrible sense of humor.

I honestly don’t know how we would have managed without him, he brought a great deal of experience and knowledge about what was required to get the program on-air and a great attention to detail. Towards the end of the season, when we had gotten through the bulk of the heavy lifting at the NLE, he asked for a short vacation and I gladly approved it. Jawad had gone months without a break and he more than deserved it.

He was the show’s unsung star and was one of the handful of employees at the office that earned top marks and comments on the peer review documents I had to prepare and send to HR. As a person, Jawed was a man of few words but he wasn’t unfriendly. He had a great understated sense of humor and – more so than anyone else in the office, including myself, commanded respect not through his own personal power but simply through the character of his person.

We all may have had our differing opinions but on Jawed we were united; myself, my staff and the dubbing team loved him.

Despite the rush and exhaustion of work and the language barrier between us, over the course of my many months working with Jawed I got a chance to get to know him better. We spent many days seated side by side reviewing episodes for delivery to Sesame Workshop or for on-air broadcast at Tolo.

He was an athlete and whenever he had time to spare he’d make his way to the kickboxing gym to keep in shape, to keep himself lean he also kept a bottle of apple cider vinegar on his desk; he was an artist too and eventually shared with me an animated short he’d produced and directed decrying extremism in Afghan society – and most sadly of all, Jawad had very big dreams.

High up among his bucket list of goals was to deepen his understanding of filmmaking and explore a little more of the world by attending a prestigious film academy. He applied for the 2015 Asian Film Academy in Busan. Korea and I tried my best to assist him with his application.

In the end, he was not admitted but I encouraged him to keep trying and he, himself was unphased. What would have devastated me was only a temporary setback for him, he knew if he simply kept trying – it would one day happen for him.

The last time I heard Jawed’s voice was almost a month back. From here in Manila I got on a Skype call with Wajiha while she was at the office. It was the end of the work day and Jawed was getting ready to leave. I couldn’t pass up another great chance to badger him again, both Wajiha and I began singing our old song, pleading him to stay just a few extra minutes. I could almost picture his trademark crooked smile at my antics.

Since the attacks I have not been able to get on a Skype call with my former team yet but a few days ago I was messaging with Wajiha over Facebook. She had returned back to the office and that day it was empty save for her and Khadija. She wrote that for some reason she still had this strange, sad hope that it all would have turned out to be a lie and eventually Jawad would open the door to the office and stride on in as he always used to, ready for another day’s work…

… I wish I had been there in the office that day to order him to stay overtime, I wish he had been accepted into the Asian Film Academy. I wish I didn’t have to read about his death in article by Mujib Mashal in the New York Times. I wish would have another chance to take him out for lunch around town. Above all, I wish he still was with his family.

Jawed jan was a great man, loved by many, loved by his family and had he lived I am certain he would have gone on to do great things. I will miss him and do my best to remember him in my life.