Those who have been in the post-Partition Lahore, till the late 1980s, are likely to remember the very informal-looking but absolutely upbeat and well-informed Faqir Muhammad Shami aka Shami Baba, who would make any tour of the Badshahi Mosque an enlightened one for the visitor(s).

Also known as Shami Guide, this humble octogenarian hung up his boots a long time back -- "in 1989, to be precise!" he tells TNS. But he is still reeling from his days as a tourist guide. So much so that it takes virtually no prompting for him to launch into a recital of lines that he would famously sing in his heydays.

Interestingly, the first few of these lines are taken from ‘Under the greenwood tree,’ a popular song in the great 16th-century English dramatist Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Except that Shami playfully adds his own bit:

"Come hither, come hither,my name is Shami Jee

Drink hot coffee and hot tea Burn your rosy lipsand think of me

Because of tea servedby Shami Jee

Under the greenwood tree."

His childlike enthusiasm is worth a dekko. But more than that, it is Shami’s retentive faculties that take you by surprise. Having spent almost 60 years in and around the Badshahi Mosque and Shalimar Gardens, he can rattle off accounts from history even today.

He is ostensibly a man of simple ways. When we decide to meet for the interview, he prefers sitting on the border of the mosque made of red bricks. He has a hankie covering much of his scalp, and he is sporting a plain shalwar kameez and a pair of worn-out sandals.

Shami reveals that he studied at a school for orphans in Lahore. He dropped out in Class 7 to become a tourist guide. But he could speak English (whatever little he could) supremely confidently. It also had a unique ‘accent’ to it -- "so contrived, in order to attract the tourists," he says.

The proud son of a desi wrestler Abdullah Pehlwan, Shami says he decided to learn English language after his mother started calling him "Angraiza."

"In my childhood, Angraiza and Khatra were considered as curses. [‘Angraiza’ is an imprecise Punjabi translation of ‘British,’ and ‘Khatra’ means ‘Kshatriya,’ a trader caste of Hindus that is assumed to be very smart. Both the titles were used by the Muslims as swear words for clever people.]"

Growing up in a small, rented place in Begum Kot, in Lahore’s suburbs, Shami also worked as a trainer (for tourist guides) with the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) for six years. More recently, he held the job of a clerk at the Punjab University Law College. Retired now, he goes to the Badshahi Mosque every day. The place brings him back fond memories and also the hope that there might be tourists out there, looking for him.

One of Shami’s fondest memories is the visit of DB Arnold, the Mayor of Waltham Forest, London, to the mosque, sometime in 1985. "I accompanied him around the mosque. After he went back, the Mayor wrote me a letter of appreciation. I still have a copy of it with me," he says, gushingly.

In reply to a query, Shami says he "got the inspiration [to become a tourist guide] from Nazir alias Jeera, a tube-well operator in Shalimar Gardens. I was delighted to see how Jeera would smartly welcome the foreigners. He would go, ‘This way, saab!’ or ‘That way, saab!’ I saw that the goras happily gave him some money. That’s how the idea came to my mind."

Shami’s first appearance before the media happened on January 12, 1968, as a popular tourist guide, in the then leading newspaper of the country, Pakistan Times. "The journalist wrote that I was a ‘half-MA’ who could speak better English than most university graduates," he recalls.

He was always a bit of a political activist (his earliest activism was becoming part of the movement against the British ‘Laat Saab’), having written a number of letters to the country’s political and military elite, denouncing them for what he calls their "disservice" to the nation. Recently, he wrote a letter to the Chief of Army Staff General Raheal Sharif about the rigging in the general elections of 2013.

He strongly believes tourism is linked to peace in the country. "Tourism has decreased drastically over the past many years," he says. "Without eliminating terrorism and ensuring a safe and secure environment, it is difficult to promote tourism in our country."

He never sought any material gains. The only plot, a very small one, he purchased for his family with his hard-earned money, a few years back, was destroyed by the 1988 flash floods. Shami was forced to rent out a place. Some community members recently created a Facebook page, titled ‘Build a home for Shami, the guide of Lahore,’ exhorting people to donate money to him.

Shami believes in miracles and hastens to call his "fluency in English," despite him being "half-MA," as one of them. He also believes he shall live till the age of 130 years. He has told this to a lot of people he’s met.