Meet Hyderabad's Degrees Man

Hyderabad: While entering the house of 72-year-old man, it is like entering a room filled with some kind of odd collections hanging on the walls. But unlike anyone from the city or perhaps at the national level, this septuagenarian, whose name is already registered in the Limca Book of Records, has all kinds of educational certificates numbering about three dozen, along with portraits hanging from walls just like an army man boasting his medals on his uniform.

Meet the man Dr Khaja Fareeduddin Sadiq, famously known as 'degrees man' in Hyderabad. Sadiq has a number of degrees including diploma in various fields like Medical, Engineering, Law, Environmental, Air Ticketing, BCJ and some others numbering about 36.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Thursday, Sadiq, an advocate, said that ever since he was a child his hobby remained learning and when all his friends were busy playing, he developed a habit of visiting the central library at Afzalgunj, where he used to read all kinds of books and spend most of the time. "By the early 1960s, I completed schooling and in 1968 I completed first graduation in B Sc and after this also completed B Com and later B Ed," he said.

A brief stay in KSA

Later, he paid a visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to perform Umrah, where he got an opportunity to work for the Airlines, but he refused and returned back to his home town. After he came back, he joined the course of air ticketing, while working in part time jobs and then he applied for job. Later, he got the job as Air Ticketing Officer in Saudi Arabia there he worked for six years and returned.

He regrets that during this period (1968 to 1988) he had to discontinue his studies. After his return from the Gulf, he also worked for four government departments like municipal corporation, excise department, Secretariat and revenue department.

In 1988, he took admission in Law College for pursuing Law, and later he decided to test his luck in other streams and followed his heart with a passion. Starting from late 1980s, he pursued BCJ (Bachelor of Communications and Journalism) and started working in the medical field after completing RMP (BIUMS). Amongst the other subjects in which he obtained degrees include, environmental studies, computer hardware engineer and soil mechanics.

In his masters, he completed MA in Urdu Literature, History, Archaeology and later M Phil and also did PhD in some other subjects. He last educational qualification remains PhD in year 2005 and now he is applying for the post-doctoral degree and want to pursue it from the University of Delhi.

After receiving degrees in different subjects since 1989, Sadiq remains a man related to medical field. He has been organising a free medical camp in Hyderabad and other districts as part of his social service where patients will be provided free service.

He is also writing a thesis for another PhD course. On several occasions, he was invited as a guest lecturer in colleges and universities and he also organised a legal camp for the advocates in the recent years. For his social work, he received many an accolades and awards and also gold medals.

Penned several books

Apart from this, his hobby remains indulgence in poetry and story writing. He also holds a world record in Limca book of record in 2008 for writing one Ghazal in 16,666 stanzas and for releasing 34 books in one go. In these 34 books, 13,000 stanzas of his poetry were published and remaining is to be published.

Apart from this, Sadiq started focusing on contemporary Islamic literature and penned books, which includes poetry and fiction. He wrote his first book in the year 1999 and till now a total 46 books (including 34 books of Limca Book of Records) were published. "This month, a new book is also going to be released, with the title Mahwar-e-Sadiq.

These books are also available in many libraries including the USA and for these works I received six awards. My poetry has also a unique feature, where I used one after another all the Urdu alphabets in the beginning of the different poems. All the 36 alphabets of Urdu starting from Alif to Yeh, which are unique as no one has ever attempted," he said.

He is an international poet who has performed in many states in India and other countries including USA and UK. His first poetry which he wrote during his young age was "koshishtubhikarle Sadiq, TakhqtnahitohTakhqtahota." He also wrote a poem related to his degree "rakhne ko to rakhtehaibahut degree Sadiq, par sabkodikhane ka iradanahirakhte."