I have done a lot of things in life, I love people. I loved Pakistan and I love this country. I enjoy life here. English people have been very good and very nice. I don’t think I would have lived this long in Pakistan! I am very happy’
Mir Bostan – Looking back on 99 years of life
Born in Kashmir, 1921, Mir Bostan’s life expands from the streets of Mirpur, Pakistan to the streets of Beeston in Leeds. A well-known figure and familiar face, Bostan spent time as, a soldier, a steel worker, a photographer and actor.
Growing up in a what Mr Bostan describes as a ‘very very poor time’, in 1945 he joined the army, sometime after the partition took place between India and Pakistan and Mir Bostan was an active military volunteer and driver.
It took 31 days for Mir Bostan to arrive to England via a ship in 1952.
Leeds was a natural place to settle for Mr Bostan since his brother-in-law, uncles and his wider family were already residing together on Chapman street ,near the St James Hospital. Mr Bostan upon arrival ended up working between the family fish and chip shop on Cherry Lane, helping on the family market stall and then focused his efforts to working fulltime at the Catton& CO steel factory foundry, at its site on Chadwick street and late wen it was relocated to Leeds 9.
Over the next 42 years and 6 months he would work in hot, dangerous and unclean sites, working long 12 hour shifts and becoming the first Asian Foreman at the factory by 1960.And yet Mir felt as equal and accepted by his fellow factory workers, regardless of his background and limited proficiency in the English language.
Often, after a hard days work, he would get on his motorcycle, camera in one hand, which he acquired at a pound and handle rifle in the other and off he’d go to either find a park, landfill site or the nearby countryside to enjoy the English greenery or go down to the Harehills shooting club to enjoy some target practise. His humorous and positive personality allowed him to build empathy and friendship with fellow workers who may have held culturally different views but were able to build bridges with Mir through their shared work, poor housing conditions and love for his talents with a Gun or the click of his camera.
Life in Leeds was different to Pakistan. Mir Bostan reflects on how there was ration cards and no plastics, only metal. Only certain food items could be sourced and diet heavily consisted of potatoes, bread and tea, in post war Britain, well before the emergence of the first Asian stores and spices and lentils were rare.
To heat up a fire, you had to collect coal and after work, a bath was taken in a tin bath. ‘Things were difficult in those days, but the people were very nice’ he says. Sometimes men would rap a small rug or cloth around the street lamp on their street, in order to help find their streets when they would get lost with the number of terraced streets around them.
Mir once recalled a close friend who came to live with him and his relatives a Chapman street, mistaking the outdoor privy for a water well and struggling with the idea of sharing a single bed with up to 3 other men. Whenever new migrants joined Mir Bostan, he was often reminded of how different life in his native ,hot and green village in Kashmir, differed so much to the dark, fogy terraced streets of Leeds.
Mir Bostan’s love of Cameras would result in his passion to film and photograph for weddings and family events, something which has become a standard to have the white haired, energetic near centurion at your special day; filming or photographing. A keen interest in photography and filming roots back to Pakistan for Mr Bostan where he would repeatedly go down to the film sets to get a part, even after being refused multiple times, Mr Bostan was eager. Eventually, they gave him parts. Famously, he stared in the move ‘Bhowani Junction’ in 1956. Mir has encountered wonderful people across his time in film, two being Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger. In more recent years, Mir Bostan played the role of an Imam in the movie ‘Mischievous Night’ which came out in 2006.
Aside from film, photography and being an all-rounded superstar, what else did Mir Bostan get up to now that he has retired?
Serving people, being around people is where Mr Bostan has always felt the happiest. As he describes, because he came from a very poor background himself, he has felt obliged to help those around him. In 1995, on Tempest road, Beeston, Mir Bostan had a shop on there and he along others from his family would give money to the elderly South Asian people. £5 a week from their own pockets, which was a great amount back then. They used to converse with the elders to give them company and over time, the small shop turned into what we now know it as, the successful Hamara Centre.
Now 99 year old and still full of energy and creative love for life, community and the arts, Mr Bostan regularly attends the Hamara centre’s Baytuk group and still helps out with filming and photography at many Asian weddings today; the grey haired dancing wonder……..