Daily Times

Words of wisdom on sporadic issues flow during interviews or dialogue with famous literary personalities, published in quarterly ‘Tasteer’ edited by Naseer Ahmad Nasir.

Editor Tanzeela Arooj had collected these interviews in different era in her book ‘Bolte Auraq’. The first part of the review was published on June 24, 2020 that covered the time period 1997 to 2003. The second part comprises the interviews and dialogues with famous literary personalities both in Pakistan and India on Urdu literature. These interviews took place from 2010 to 2019.

Arif Waqar, famous writer, journalist and media person, had a dialogue with Mustansar Hussain Tarrer about his visit to and subsequent essays in Moscow’s backdrop. First Tarrer had gone when he was studying in UK. His entry to the Kremlin was different than those of Faiz, Sajjad Zaheer, Krishen Chander, and Ferozeuddin Mansoor or alike who were declared communists and used to be official guests. Tarrer had gone there in wake of youth festival, not as a follower of any ideology but as a traveller. On return to UK, he came across Majeed Nizami who advised Tarrer to write his experiences of a Pakistani youngster visiting Moscow. ‘I was not a writer at that time but I scribbled my experiences and sent these by post which were published in the magazine ‘Qindeel’ in 1958′ Tarrer remembered his first publication fondly.

How about your novel ‘Fakhta’? asked Arif Waqar.

‘I used this experience in my novelette when I was acknowledged as a writer. Then Prime Minister’s statement appeared in the Press that those youngsters who had entered Moscow, an enemy territory illegally would be jailed in Mianwali on arrival at Karachi. My father advised me to hang on in Britain till the things were diluted, which I did’ disclosed Tarrer. At the time of this interview Tarrer had written his novel the title of which he was pondering upon that had been written in Moscow, Berlin, Budapest and Lahore’s backdrop. Tarrer read a page of this novel to Arif Waqar. It was about shattering of dreams of nation’s annihilation. The central character of this novel is a Pakistani namely Zaheer Uddin Baber who has seen better days in Moscow but now was jobless in early 1990s facing another revolution. Without any conscious effort, he climbs down to the stairs to a basement almost dark and his feet hit the statues of Lenin; narrow nose, P Caps, French Cut Beards and ugly necktie knots, all torn from the squares of Moscow streets. It simply established that the neck that was once straight with pride was on his feet now. After reading the excerpt of his novel, Mustassar thought that this theme could have been better tackled by writers of stature of Greek Sophocles rather than him.

Shams Ur Rehman Farooqui is a famous name in literature. He is an Indian poet and an Urdu critic and theorist. He has formulated fresh models of literary appreciation. He absorbed western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to Urdu literature, but only after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. A questionnaire was formed by Sabir based on Farooqi’s writings and speeches. The response was received on May 21, 2018. The first question was whether literature has any impact on any change in society; Farooqi responded that literature is not meant for any improvement or revolution in society unless written specifically for this purpose. Farooqi had once said that readers have to improve their standard of understanding to comprehend modern literature. To this comments, response was given with reference to many formats of literature. Readers are available all the time. For any storytelling, the role of listener is very important. Resonance of teller and listener has to match in their perceptions. In Drama, the viewer or reader need not agree with writer’s plots. The format of writing a novel is a mixture of personal taste and society trends. A writer not knowing his/her reader just writes and is unaware that after he/she has created his creation, would it be read or even translated? Regarding ‘Rawani’ in prose, Farooqi gave examples of poetry with Mir Taqi Mir at top followed by Iqbal, Anis, Naseh and Ghalib. One has to read a few pages aloud to feel the flow. The same principle applies in prose.

In poem writing many poets say what they desire to say in first few lines, then they expand it due to ‘Zor-e-Bayan Ka Izhaar’ like in poems ‘Barsaat Ki Baharain’, ‘Raat Aur Rail’ or Garmi Aur Dehati Bazaar’ etc. The poem ‘Khizer-e-Raah’ bring out one question after another. Each stanza is independent but still interlinked.

Sabir recalls how he contacted Zubair Rizvi while sitting on the stairs of Laal Masjid in Delhi on July 29, 2011. Next day Rizvi guided the bus details that shall carry him to Dakkar Nagar from Nizamuddin. In his flat, some pictures were hung on the wall of Firaq Gorakhpuri, Munshi Premchand and Allama Iqbal etc. Books like Great Paintings of the Western … Essential, Michelangelo, Picasso, Posters etc. lay in his bookshelf. This visit pertained to interview with Zubair Rizvi for a documentary on Aurangabad as a literary center. Rizvi revealed that Aurangabad was an important center of Urdu literature in southern India. Historically, apart from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s grave being there, the literature had prominent names such as Siraj. Qazi Saleem was one of Rizvi’s friends. Bashar Nawaz is there. Shafiq Fatima stayed there for some time. Fazeel Jaffery and short story writer Joginder Paal also lived there. Zubair Rizvi stated that he had been to Aurabgabad many times especially for his interest in Ellora and Ajanta Caves. The Ajanta Caves are approximately 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state of India. Impressed Zubair Rizvi wrote ‘Sara Manzar Hei Ajanta Ki Guphaon Ki Tarah/Larkian Sheher Main Phirti Hain Ghataon Ki Tarah.

Continuing with Indian literary scene Umar Farhat reproduces his dialogue with Prof. Attique Ullah. He agrees that less quantity but of better quality of novels is a good omen as in the recent past, one novel a year has been the average. The trend is more towards short story writing. Even criticism is less in both prose and poetry, as more energy is getting lost in the theory and idealistic talk.

Discussion by Umar Farhat with Abul Kalam Qasmi was based on criticism. He is an academician, born on 20 December, 1950 at Darbhanga, India. As far as the present status of criticism is concerned, Qasmi states that despite that the activities of literary movements and trends have been immense regarding criticism and outstanding essays have been written on Progressive Writers and modern literature, the outcome lacked clarity and sense of direction. The reasons are manifold; traditional approaches do not supplement the understanding of literature, latest developments like post-modernism and structuralism are not considered to be supportive etc. Very few critics have emerged in the last century that took their work seriously, observed Qasmi.

Shamsur Rehman Farooqui is a famous name in literature. He is an Indian poet and an Urdu critic and theorist. He has formulated fresh models of literary appreciation. He absorbed western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to Urdu literature, but only after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to Arabic, Persian and Urdu

Umar Farhat’s conversation concentrated on love poetry with Qazi Afzaal Hussain who took charge as Vice Chancellor Aligarh Muslim University in India. Ghazal does not need to enhance its layers but some poets have name essence of a specific type of sentiment as ‘Ishqia Sha’ari’. None followed by Mir could express the internal and external sentiments as well as Mir did, observed Prof. Qazi Afzaal Hussain. Arabs based ‘Ghazal’ on its foundation which was love poetry. Since two thousand years history of Ghazal Saying, no change has been seen even in Munir Niazi, Ahmad Mushtaq or Irfan Siddiqui as far sticking to tradition is concerned, said Qazi Afzaal. Qazi shared his views on novel, short story writing. He felt strongly that short story writing cannot be the same after the entry of Manto as it was before. As far as writing of criticism he was skeptical in the sense that it was nosier rather than forceful.

The last leg of dialogue by Umar Farhat was with Indian poet Anwer Sen Roy. The touchy issue of whether prose-poem or prose-ghazal could be an acceptable format of poetry was discussed. Anwer’s immediate response was in negative. Rules of saying poetry have to be adhered to strictly, however if anybody desires to opt for any format of saying poetry, it is his choice. Anwer had no issue with prose-ghazal Sayers or listeners. As far as prose-Nazm is concerned he referred to Makhdoom Munawar’s book ‘Nasari Nazm Ki Tehreek’ published in 1979 from Karachi. Second book, he referred to was ‘Anis Nagi Ki Nazmain’ published from Lahore in 1981. This format, according to Anwer though are expressive of poet’s psychological outpour but has not been able to find a status in the creative order.

A double Master’s Degree holder, a professor, Jalil Aali is a migrant from Amritsar to Pakistan at the time of creation of Pakistan. He retired as Head of Urdu Department, FG Sir Syed College, Rawalpindi in 2002. Muhammad Naeem ur Rehman interviewed him in Lahore on July 17, 2018 when he came to Iqbal Academy. The first question was a ritual of asking as to what is a creative masterpiece, to which Jalil responded that an everlasting creative masterpiece should have those characteristics in it that a link is maintained between the intelligent readers with the literary traditions. Nest query was if the literary theories emerging from the West in the past few decades were of any help in the interpretation of our literature, Jalil stated that since Western theories pertained to its own culture, they fell short of having influence on literature emanating at our end. To a linking question whether such theories our attention from the real literature, Jalil’s reaction was that creative masterpiece is outcome of an individual’s effort due to self-commitment. One is not writing for a foreign element. Whatever haunts one is immersed in the layers of one’s personality. One’s ideals our naturally reflected in our poetry but to write for an ideal as a conscious effort is harmful for the literature itself concluded Jalil. Allama Iqbal’s last days were the initial days of Progressive Writers Movement, Iqbal had made plight of labour and peasant as a part of his self. That is why he wrote ‘Jis Khait Sei Dehqaan Ko Muyassar Na Ho Rozi/Us Khali Kei Har Khosha-e-Gandam Ko Jalla Do’.

Dr. Saadat Saeed is a very respectable name in Government College University, Lahore and Halq Arbab-e-Zauq for his teaching capabilities, criticism and poetry. He has been holding professorial portfolio in Ankara University for five years. He is author of 32 books. He is a true representative of Urdu prose-Nazm. Muhammad Naeem ur Rehman had a very wholesome conversation with him on December 17, 2017. Whether a creative writer need to be a creative critic as well, was the first query posed to Dr. Saadat. He agreed that a poet can be a good critic also as he is aware of the rhymes of a couplet. Even a poem has a rhyme. T. S. Elliot had both of these traits in him. Regarding linguistic experimentation in poetry, Dr. Saadat Saeed stated that initially the languages did not have many verbs which became more in number with the passage of time. Improvement in expression made language more dynamic in saying poetry. We must use the vocabulary and terminology as given to us by technology. Poets must bring variety in linguistic variation in our poetry. Majeed Amjad and Iftikhar Jalib did that.

Very interesting conversation about their childhood memories formulates a large section of the book under review. Interviews of Bano Qudsia, Munnu Bhai, Kishwer Naheed, Khursheed Hassan Rizvi, Masood Asha’ar, Fateh Muhammad Malik, Anwar Masood, Raza Ali Abdi, Bushra Rehman, Salma Awan, Absar Abdulali, Nazeer Qaiser, Yasmeen Hameed, Basir Sultan Kazmi and Muhammad Hameed Shahid, all respectable names were taken by Dr. Uzma Saleem. Many revelations were made that helped in assessing how these personalities excelled in their adulthood due to atmosphere and happenings of their childhood period.

An interesting and novel experience of Mustassar Hussain Tarrer’s post-demise conversation with late Abdullah Hussain formulates the content of section ‘Lams e Rafta’. One cannot just call him with all the superlatives. In order to judge his personality he used to craft his own frame in which one could sneak. One needs to read this section in detail to enjoy Mustanssar’s analysis of Abdullah Hussain. The latter was shy of giving interviews. Naseer Ahmad Nasir’s conversation is very interesting with Aksi Mufti regarding Pakistani culture. So is an innovative WhatsApp interview with Dr. Ghaffer Shahzad by Asia Tanvir.

Overall there is lot to be said about this book that has gathered words of wisdom of intellectuals in their respective domains of interest, at one forum, thanks to Naseer Ahmad Nasir and Dr Tanzeela Arooj.

The writer is the recipient of the prestigious Pride of Performance award. He can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com