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He was perhaps the only doorman in the country who has a Facebook fan page. The page that goes by the name of ‘The little guy in Pizza Hut (Boat Basin) fan club’ has above 650 likes but his following, according to one of his colleagues, extends to every individual who walked in from the door of Pizza Hut that he manned for 12 years.
Ansar Ali was shot dead on Saturday evening by two motorcyclists near his home in Hijrat Colony. The police believe that the shooters intended to hit his nephew, Shahzad, who survived the attack.
For kids who grew up in the Defence and Clifton localities, Ali was a local icon, whose popularity, among adults in general and children in particular, made him a celebrity of sorts for his jovial personality.
Thirty-five-year-old Ali was a man difficult to pigeonhole. He was a doorman by profession. But when the manager of the Boat Basin branch (technically his boss) joined the outlet, he was asked by the management of Pizza Hut to stand and observe Ali, or ‘Chottu Uncle’ as he was popularly known, for a week as part of his training.
“The bosses wanted me to stand and watch his antics; the way he used to greet customers, and instantly make them comfortable and that was the best lesson I ever got in the art of dealing with customers,” said Syed Salman Saeed, the manager.
According to regulars of the restaurant, Ali had a style of his own. He was a midget, but he never let this disability affect him in any way. He was a doorman, but at the Boat Basin branch, he was the captain of the ship who practically supervised the staff.
“No matter how bad a mood you are in, the moment Ansar opened the door for you with a big smile. He’d force you to smile and change your mood.
He was small but had a lager-than-life personality,” said 20-year-old Irfan Khan, a regular at the restaurant, who grew up watching Ansar Ali.
His sixth sense was phenomenal. He had this innate quality to guess the background of a customer and greet them in the most intimate way.
“For instance, I remember, when a Hindu family entered through the doors, he would go like ‘Jai Shri Krisha’ and break into smile. He could tell just by looking at people their backgrounds and greet them in their own personal diction, instantly grabbing their attention. And it is something which made him everybody’s favorite,” said Shakoor Ahmed, a waiter in the branch who worked with Ansar for ten years.
In his memory, the employees of Pizza Hut’s Boat Basin branch plan to keep the small red stool on which Ansar used to sit untouched and unmoved and put an enlarged phalanx picture of him at the entrance of the outlet.
Ansar has a widowed mother who lives in Hijrat Colony. He never got married and used to work for 20 hours a day. “He never missed work. Even on holidays like Eid. He just took his weekly holiday on Thursdays and worked overtime, just for the love he had for his job,” said Junaid Zaman, whose eyes welled up at the mention of Ansar’s name.
“Ansar Bhai had this father-figure aura about him. We would often borrow money from him at the end of the month when our salaries run dry. He not only lent us money but would be embarrassed if we talked about it in public. He used to treat us like his sons.”
For a bachelor with a mother, Ali made more than enough. Not only from his salary, but the tips he used to receive from customers. According to his colleagues, he helped marry off a number of his extended female cousins. His uncles would often show up, asking for loans and he never demurred.
“I saw him buy a television, and a refrigerator as dowry for one of his second cousins. If somebody asked him for something he simply couldn’t say no!” remembers Zaman.
Once Ali got stuck in the elevator; and stayed there for half an hour. He came out terrified. With panting breath, he asked for water and said that he could not breathe in complete darkness. “And now he is in the grave, all alone,” says Zaman, extending his hand towards the tissue box on the table.
A man with a heart bigger than himself
