PARIS: A 73-year-old newspaper vendor originally from Pakistan is set to receive one of France’s most prestigious honours after more than 50 years of selling dailies on the terraces of cafes and restaurants in Paris’ fashionable Latin Quarter.
Ali Akbar began hawking newspapers after moving to France in 1973, employing a blend of humour and energy to charm locals and ward off falling sales.
In September, President Emmanuel Macron will make him a knight of the National Order of Merit, which recognizes distinguished service to France in a civilian or military capacity.
“Maybe it will finally help me get my French passport!” Akbar was quoted as saying to The New York Times.
A native of Rawalpindi in northern Pakistan, Akbar left Pakistan as a teenager in the early 1970s in search of a better life. His route took him through Afghanistan, Iran, and Greece before he arrived in France, according to Gulf News.
In the early years, he struggled taking odd jobs, facing discrimination, and even sleeping under bridges. But in time, he took over a newspaper stand and began to build a life.
“I didn’t want to wear clothes that reeked of misery,” he told The New York Times. “I always dreamed of giving my mother a house with a garden,” he was quoted as saying.
Akbar began by hawking copies of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo to students in the Sorbonne and neighbouring institutions.
Kerb-side newspaper sellers were already a dying breed in Paris in the 1970s as television steadily replaced the printed word as the main source of news – a process that only accelerated with the advent of the internet.
But Akbar, the last remaining newspaper vendor still walking the streets of the French capital, has managed to keep the tradition alive with his ready smile, cheeky sense of humour and sheer dedication.
“I just love the feel of paper,” Akbar said. “I don’t like tablets and all that kind of stuff. But I do like reading.
Whatever the type. Real books. But never on screens.“
“I have a certain way of selling newspapers. I try to make jokes. So people laugh. I try to be positive and I create an atmosphere… I try and get into people’s hearts, not their pockets,” he said.
But the job has become much harder in the era of digital publishing.
“I sell about 20 copies of Le Monde in eight hours. Everything is digital now. People just don’t buy newspapers,” he said.
Despite such challenges, Akbar intends to sell newspapers as long as his health permits.
In a district where high-end fashion boutiques and eateries have largely replaced the bookstores that once nourished some of the world’s most renowned 20th century philosophers, many locals say he’s one of the things that keeps the Latin Quarter genuine.
Over the years, Akbar has rubbed shoulders with everyone from presidents to painters, yet he remains humble. He lives modestly, supporting his family back in Pakistan and cherishing the life he built in France.
He married in 1980 and has five sons, all of whom were educated in France — something for which he remains deeply grateful, according to Gulf News.
“Ali is an institution. I buy Le Monde from him every day. In fact, we do a little more than buy Le Monde for him. We have coffee with him, sometimes we have lunch with him,” said one grateful customer, Marie-Laure Carriere.
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