“A sense of humour is the actual sixth sense that humans have. If one has got that sense, one passes through all the difficulties laughingly,” wrote Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, one of Urdu’s most celebrated humorists.
This may have been said jokingly, but it is not without a grain of truth to it. Some experts say that adverse circumstances may play a role in exciting a sense of humour. Paul E McGhee, while replying to the question ‘are humorists born or made’ in his book Humour: its origin and development, wrote that difficulties and distress may maximise “the probability of heightened development of a sense of humour.”
Whether grief and difficulties generally play a role in creation of humour or not, at least, it is particularly true of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, a poet who knew how to laugh at life’s vicissitudes. Smiles and laughs are perhaps a screen to hide the tears behind. In his letters written in Urdu, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib can be seen laughing at his miseries. So did Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Through his Urdu poetry, he made people laugh. Even when he was seriously ill and was virtually on his death bed, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan showed his sharp wit and laughed with his visitors.
Raja Mehdi Ali Khan was born in Karamabad, near Wazirabad, Punjab, on Sept 23, 1915. Hubiya Khanum, his mother and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan’s sister, was a poet. A collection of her poetry, titled Nava-i-haram was published under her penname of Hey Bey (her initials). His father died early and Mehdi Ali Khan had to struggle to get education. He had passed his FA from Lahore’s Islamia College, but had to discontinue his studies and seek some job. He had a literary bent of mind and had begun composing poetry at an early age. At the age of 20, he joined as editorial staff Phool and Tehzeeb-i-niswaan, two popular Urdu magazines brought out from Lahore.
To keep the body and soul together, Mehdi Ali Khan, according to Dr Vazeer Agha, worked for different publications at Lahore and other places. In 1942, Mehdi Ali Khan joined All India Radio, Delhi. Then Sa’adat Hasan Manto, the short story writer, invited him to come to Bombay (now Mumbai). So he went to Mumbai and started writing songs for movies, something that was to become his mainstay and give him fame. He stayed on in India after the creation of Pakistan and slowly but surely his songs became very popular. As wit and humour came to him naturally, he had written some memorable humorous poems, too. His love for children knew no bounds but he remained childless. This remained one of his regrets in life. Whenever he would see an ailing or disabled child, Mehdi Ali Khan would go to them and would try to make them laugh.
After poverty and long struggle, good times did come and his songs became hugely popular, paying him well. But then his health began to fail. Suffering from several ailments, as wrote Vazeer Agha, Khan sometimes had to go under great pain for many days at a stretch. But he retained his sense of humour and courage and kept on laughing and making people laugh. Having quit writing humorous poetry for about 10 years, Mehdi Ali Khan began composing hilarious poetry in Urdu again, on the insistence of Vazeer Agha who could see a successful humorist lurking behind the apparently happy but suffering poet. And once he began composing witty couplets again, they poured in like a stream gushing out naturally.
In his poetry, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan did not discuss politics much. Social issues and their lighter sides attracted him most. Strangely enough, he could see humour in some of the most unlikely situations and social events, such as a gathering on somebody’s death. His poem ‘Chehlum’, for instance, satirises the rite of holding a social gathering to mourn the death of a loved one on the 40th day. The poem spoofs the hypocritical ritual of eating zarda and biryaniwhile expressing condolences.
In his poems he often juxtaposes naive and starry-eyed romance before marriage and the subsequent scenes of husband and wife arguing after the wedding, as is often witnessed, to emphasise the tragically hilarious difference between expectations and realities. Many of his poems highlight the difference between romantic assumptions and the cold facts of real life. But this portrayal does not reflect bitterness. It shows a desire to enjoy the human weaknesses and laugh at them rather than becoming depressed or giving a sermon. He quickly sees the lighter side of reality and often laughs at his own weaknesses.
One of his tools to create humour is parody. He successfully parodied some of Ghalib’s ghazals and some famous Urdu masnavis.
Two collections of his poetry, Mizraab and Andaz-i-bayan aur, and some other books, have been published.
Raja Mehdi Ali Khan died in Mumbai on July 27, 1966.
Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2018
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